make it fabulous! *removing a chapped lip ring*

When you have a lot to work with, it’s easy to make a picture look fabulous! Look at this sweet little angelic face!  Gorgeous complexion, sparkling blue eyes and sweet ruby red lips.   

OH! WAIT!  Look at that chapped area under his lip!  AHHH!  How do we get rid of that? 

Select the Patch Tool (located in the drop down of the spot healing brush tool menu) it’s the one that looks like a little patch.

Then I drew around part of his chapped skin under his lip, then dragged the selection down to a clear patch of skin.  The Patch Tool will magically turn that chapped area into nice, smooth clear skin – just like the area I dragged it to!

I continued doing this until I cleaned up the entire red, chapped area.  I also used the patch tool to eliminate the food crusties in the corner of his lip and the little white spots on his chin.

Next, I used the Spot Healing brush to eliminate that tiny little scab by the corner of his eye.

Now that his small blemishes have been removed, I want to soften his skin just a little bit, so I use TRA’s ProRetouch on his cheeks and a little bit on his chin at about 45% opacity.

Then I use the Eye Bump (part of ProRetouch) and with a really small brush size, at 100% opacity, I highlight the catch lights in his eyes.  Then I reduce the opacity to 25% and lighten the whites of his eyes, and then reduce it to 10% opacity and lighten the irises of his eyes.

Next I run a Curves action (Curves Midtone Lighter at 60% from the Phaunt Fun Pack) to give it a bit more dimension and pop.

At this point I think the right side (my right) of his face is still just a tad dark, so I use TRA’s Yin/Yang tool, and first I use Yin (lighter) at 10% and with a larger brush, I brush over his eye and side of his face, just to lighten it a bit.

Then I use Yang at 20% with a large brush to darken the right side of the image, just brush back and forth around the corners and edges to darken it a bit.

Now, I think I need to tweak the color just a bit, it seems too red to me.  So, I go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance.  Keep Midtones selected and slide the top bar over to the Cyan side to -5.  Then slide the bottom bar over to the Yellow side at -5.  Then select Highlights and slide the bottom bar over to the Yellow side at -2.  I usually uncheck and check the “preview” box a few times to make sure I like the result.

Even after adjusting the colors, I still feel like it needs to be a bit softer…so I use an action called “Seventies” from Pioneer Woman, at 15% -- This gives it a slightly yellowish tint and adds the softness I’m looking for. 

Then, I use TRA’s Boutwell’s Magic Glasses at 50% and save my final image.

Voila!  We have a FABULOUS image! Compare the before and after!

Have a fabulous weekend!