Last night I had a get together with a number of photographer friends, and we got talking about retouching shine on skin.<\/p>\n
I came across this method somewhere on the internet and created an action. I apologize for not remembering the person who told me…<\/p>\n
The download below contains a couple of useful actions, but the colour-detail split is most useful for removing glare on detailed surfaces like skin or wood.<\/p>\n
The action flattens the image, then creates a number of new layers:<\/p>\n
How to Use:<\/strong><\/p>\n First do any cloning or healing that needs to be done, such as birthmarks, cold sores, etc. While these can be removed after splitting, it is generally easier beforehand. Of course judgement and experience will teach you what items are better removed with the clone tool, \u00a0which need the colour (or detail) layers, and which like the retouch layer.<\/p>\n run the action<\/p>\n To retouch a shine area, for example, choose the colour<\/em> layer. You can also use the eyedropper tool to select a colour close to the shine area, but it is probably faster to choose the brush tool (b) and “alt+click”{{2}} on the area you want to choose. Use a low opacity (between 10% and 50%) and slowly paint in colour. Remember, you are just adjusting colour, so you don’t have to exactly stay inside the lines…\u00a0Turning the colour layer visibility on or off will give you an idea of before and after{{3}}<\/p>\n You can do burning and dodging without affecting colour by painting with black or white on the retouch<\/em> layer{{4}} Again, using a low opacity and building up the effect is a bit more controllable and is less obvious. for example, you can paint out individual freckles, or even varicose veins by painting with white on this retouch<\/em> layer.<\/p>\n give it a try and let me know what you think…<\/p>\n