DAY 297

FASHION & BEAUTY

Retouching

TOOLS FOR ACHIEVING PERFECTION

Adobe^® Photoshop empowers today’s photographer with a stunning arsenal of photo enhancing and manipulation tools. Retouching a model’s face and body in a convincing manner can be achieved with a reasonable amount of ease with patience and practice.

Avoid using the one-click softening and blurring filters to treat the entire face or body. These effects come off as amateur and cheapen an image. The clone stamp and healing brush are very effective tools for removing blemishes, lines, and improving skin quality. Focus on small areas of the face, and try to retain the pores in the skin.

For those who plan on spending a lot of time editing images and want to obtain professional results, invest in a pen and tablet set. These tablets have a stylus that is used in place of a mouse much like a traditional pen or brush and respond to the amount of pressure the user applies. The pen has assignable functions that allow left and right clicking, and some artists have done away with the mouse altogether. A medium-size pad that is the same ratio as the screen that is used for retouching is recommended. —MR