Adding Details In Photoshop

I don't know why, but a lot of posts sort of start out with "I was talking to a friend..." lately.  Guess I must have more friends than I thought.  Well, I was talking to a friend the other day and showed him the deconstructed restoration of the baseball umpire from the 1880's (?).  At first he was suitably impressed by the work, but then said "wait a minute, there's detail in the "fixed" image that isn't available in the "original".  You can't add detail if it's not there to start with".  I sort of cocked my head, dropped my chin to look over the rim of my glasses and came back with "of course you can".  Where's nothing added to today's image that wasn't there to start, but you can see the detail a lot better by emphasizing it.  Today's image actually has two very separate techniques applied.  Since she was portraying an Anime character she was wearing very little makeup.  Since I was giving my spin to the image, I did her makeup for her.  I didn't want to turn her into something from Ringling Brothers, but thought some nice subtle makeup might be nice.  The other technique was something I saw Scott Kelby do.  Kind of a Dodging and Burning using Curves Adjustment Layers.  The interesting thing about this method of Dodging and Burning is that you use the color information already in the image.  This would be unlike using the technique of using a 50% gray Layer, changing the Layer Blend Mode to Overlay and painting White or Black to get highlights and shadows.  To find out a little about both techniques used on today's image, hit the "Read More".

The makeup has been discussed on the blog in the past.  Get a big (relative), soft Brush (B), pick a color, daub the color on the apple of her cheek, change the Blend Mode of the Layer to Color and adjust the Opacity.  No problem.  With the upper (and lower if needed) eyelids the only difference would be to smear rather than daub.  One tip would be to put everything on its own Layer.  The Opacity of the rouge on the cheeks will undoubtedly be different than the Opacity of the eye shadow on the eyelids.  Use as many Layers as you need to keep maximum flexibility.  When you get to the lips a harder (not 100%) Brush (B) is needed to keep from smearing lipstick onto the face.  As you work, enlarge the image until you can easily work on the area at hand.  Picking an interesting color palette.  You wouldn't want to use red, red, red.  That would be somewhat weird.  The apple of the cheek, some sort of red to pink.  Today, the eyelids and lips could be almost anything, depending on the model and what you're going for.

The Dodging and Burning is pretty interesting.  Make two Curves Adjustment Layers.  About a quarter of the way in right side (in the highlights range), grab the curve and pull it up rather severely.  The image will be blown out.  Hit CTRL I (eye) to invert the Mask to Black.  (That'll hide the blown out look.)  I recommend titling this Adjustment Layer "highlights".  Take your other Curves Adjustment Layer and grab the curve about a quarter of the way in from the left side (in the Shadows range).  Pull that one down.  You'll see that the image goes pretty dark.  Title this one "shadows".  Invert the Mask to Black.  With a thin (10 to 13 point), hard (about 95%) white Brush (B) (white for both highlights and shadows) draw lines following the shading on the image.  Every place you put a dark, put a light next to it.  You'll see that the darker areas produce darker lines.  The lighter shadows produce lighter lines.  Same goes for the highlights.  The brighter areas make lighter lines and the not so bright areas make not as bright a line.  Now, in the Adjustment Panel Information flyout, bring up the Feather Slider.  At 10% you won't see anything happen.  Same for 20%.  Starting at about 30% the lines will dissolve.  Flip on and off the visibility (the eyeball icon) on the Adjustment Layer.  You should see the image brighten or darken depending on which Adjustment Layer you are turning on and off.  If nothing is happening, bring the Feather Slider back down a little.  (If too much is happening, bring it up a little more.)

When it look good to you, you're done.