How to Retouch a Dramatic Male Headshot in Photoshop

In today's episode, learn How to Retouch a Dramatic Male Headshot in Photoshop! Fix blemishes and redness, and add classic color styling to your photographs!

Blemishes & Imperfections

To begin, use the healing brush tool to clean up small imperfections on the skin. Sample points that have a desirable texture and then paint over the unwanted spots. We recommend keeping permanent aspects of the face in the image, such as moles and scars in some cases.

Redness

Color variation is very common is people’s skin, and it’s usually just a slight red tone that needs to be fixed. To target that skin tone, create a new hue/saturation layer and change the menu from Master to Reds. Crank the hue and saturation up to a crazy bright color (we go for green). You should see the red blotchiness of the skin showing through as a different color. Now, slide the bottom slider so that it fills in those areas with green. Then, change the hue and saturation to zero and slowly drag the hue slider to counteract the red.

Style

Time to add some subtle glow! Create a new Levels Layer. For a nice stylized look, select different channels and slide the black levels slider to the left. It will brighten and color the blacks in the image.



Next, put an inverse mask over the layer so that it’s invisible. Select the gradient tool and paint white from the center of the image. A glow will show up from your levels layer. You can mask out the glow over the subject as well.


If you'd like to follow along with Aaron's edit, visit this episode on Phlearn.com to download the image: http://phlearn.com/how-to-retouch-a-d...

To see this episode's prequel which includes our DIY lighting kit and on-set instruction, click here:http://phlearn.com/light-amazing-port...


Text, images and video via Phlearn Photoshop & Photography Tutorials