I was thinking of this article for a long time. Not only because it would show you how some of stylizations originates but it will also help you to understand retouching better. Actually it won´t be the only article but couple of them, each related to one topic. The first thing I do on every set of images is analysis. It goes from general set analysis where I pick the best images that works for me individually and in a set too and then I analyze every single image that should be retouched.
Read more "Analyze this" articles here:
Analyze this II.
Analyze this III.
When it comes to portrait there are some rules to follow. Once you know them well, feel free to break them if it helps to improove your idea. There are no better guidelines than a good taste.
Mechanics and anatomy
Imagine a skull or skeleton under the surface and simplfy it! Almost always you have this chance to see a kinetic system of an object. It can be a great guide when retouching, manipulating, painting, drawing or sculpturing. It´s something you can rely on.
If this image reminds you of Joker or lately very popular muerte makeup, you are right, these characters are based on a same principle
Unless it´s a purpose and you are skilled in stylization, respect anatomy. There are many books about it and I guess drawing by a real life model works the best to learn to see things bellow surface. This is one of the reasons why graphic designers usually becomes better retouchers and photographers than others. They were teached to see anatomy. Doesn´t really matter what object it is, if real person or a still life. Once you respect a mechanical regularity, it should work. For example skull itself is a very complicated object, not really easy to draw in a correct proportions but with some of the practice you can draw simplified model by memory.
There is also secondary system, same important as a skeleton - muscles. When smoothing a surface of face we should remember them as well. I would spend hours on trying to sketch a face muscles here and I have a good faith others did it way better than I ever could. Just try to google them a bit. But back to topic, why do we smooth a skin surface? In general to pretend being more healthy, younger, living better lifestyle and showing all the others the world has not affected us in any way. True lie, indeed. In a fact, retouching should improove images so I won´t discuss if this kind of lie is ethical or not. Judging why do we retouch images is not for me. I am interested in a result as close as possible to a perfect image I have in mind. So it´s not always about pretending perfection.
As long as you follow the skull, skeleton and muscles, you can do whatever you want and result will look natural.
What causes deep shadows under eyes? It´s a eye "hole" in a skull. If you lighten it suddenly you see the appearance of younger look because deep shadow under the eye is sign of aging. Caring about anatomy allows you bring light into deep shadows on images that are underexposed in problematic areas. You cannot just add the light but also respect a natural face shape to reach good looking results.
This is unretouched image with simple sketching of lights that should improve the image. I don´t use healing brush for smoothing skin surface since I am texture obscessed. I prefer paiting with light.
This image should end as a high contrast portrait. The smooth effect is reached via fat on ND filter as I wrote in a previous article Stardust. I wouldn´t really choose this exact image for final retouching but there is a light bouncing from bellow and contours a skull well. Give me a couple days to fix this image and come up with another Analyze this! article. We will look closely what improoved this image and share a bit magic of symetry and geometry.
Lucie Kout
