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You may remember I mentioned attending a program by Jeffrey McIntyre the other day (non-destructive retouching). Well, I talked with Jeffrey a little more about his actions, and I got to test them out!
So, the first thing I did was run “opening action” — this creates a history point for you to go back to in case of a mistake. pretty cool time saver. I hadn’t thought to make it an action with a history point and layer.
Next, I just went down the list and used a number of the retouch actions on a SOOC self-portrait (if you’re impatient: edited portrait).
- Skin Warming Brush – adds a bit of warmth to the skin tones where you need it — very easy, I must say! (see message box)
- Smooth Skin - this action minimized some wrinkles etc on the skin
- Sparkling Eyes – this is a brilliant action. I had made something that accomplished a similar task, but not in so few steps! (see retouched eyes)
- Magic Eraser - very cool action that is an easier way than the patch tool to edit acne and blemishes
- Magic Eraser (Stray Hair) - this action worked nicely on a random stray hair, and better than the patch tool on a large area of messy hair (not perfect, but makes it easier to “finish up.” [Note: I did run into an issue where I tried to switch away from the hair eraser and examine a different history point... then went back to erase some more hair. Had to replay the action in order to finish editing my hair. But switching between, say history brush and patch tool worked fine. My conclusion is for typical editing, this shouldn't cause a problem
] - SkinPerfect (Standard) - this is a nice alternative to Portraiture if you’re in a hurry. I actually dialed down the opacity of this when smoothing the skin, because it came on a little too smooth for my tastes.
- Chapstick – I love the name of this one! It’s for adding a little light and color to the lips.
- Low-Key Vignette - very cool auto vignette. I’d been trying to figure out a way to make a vignette without requiring a selection for a long time.
- Background Blur - this worked pretty well for hiding a few of those wrinkles in my backdrop. I can also imagine using the action for emphasizing a narrow depth of field.
The nice thing, is that at the end, or during any point the the process, you always have that original retouch layer to refer to. So, if I use too much chapstick on my subject, I can always use the history point to tone it down.
I really can see this being a valid workflow. During my test run for this blog post, I found myself thinking (multiple times) — “hey, this is basically what I was doing before but more efficient.” If you want to take a peek at some before/after comparisons, click on the thumbnails at the bottom of this post (click to enlarge and compare before/after).
Make sure to check out Jeffrey’s website, Digital Expressions, for the latest actions and templates. There might even be an action set on sale if you hurry over!
