Guess Mailer

This past Spring I was called by photographer Emilie Harris who asked me to handle the retouching for a Guess ad campaign she had just shot.



The job involved working on 9 images that were to be part of their Spring Mailer. In addition to the usual retouching, color correction and cleanup this project involved an added twist. All of the images were shot using a cool idea, projecting an image onto the background over the models. In the end we wound up using a combination of 'Old School' and 'New School' techniques to create the finished images.

When the background images were projected over the models it created a very cool muted, slightly distorted image that spilled over the models tying them nicely into the scene. By combining the approved shots with the images that were projected onto the backgrounds I was able to bring a level of control to the project that could not be achieved 'in camera'.

Of course this meant laying the background images over the approved shot, matching the distortion and color then carefully masking out the models. For the image above this meant painstakingly masking out the spokes on the wheels as well. Now that's true masking fun!

Here are the Before and After shots:

A Really Cool Script

Naming your Layers has always been one of my pet peeves when it comes to retouching. When working on a multi-layered image there is nothing quite so confusing as trying to figure out what "Layer 39" is for.

And "Naming your Layers" starts with the Background Layer. A great deal of the images I work on involve compositing several images together. Whether it's adding a new cherry to the top of a tasty milk shake, or it's replacing someone's head it always helps to know where each part came from. By putting the original file name in the Layer Name of each Layer I can easily keep track of where that cherry or head came from.

This way when my client asks "What shot did that head come from?" I can just look in my Layer's Palette and see right away giving me an easy way to confirm I used the right shot.

In the workshops I teach I make a point of this and I've written about an easy way to put the name of the source image in the Layer's name in a previous blog post, Workflow Tip #1. In short that post described a method for copying the original file's name and then turning the background into a Layer and pasting the name into the Layer Properties dialogue for that Layer.

It sounds a little complicated but once you get used to it it's possible to do this in 3 or 4 mouse clicks so it's actually pretty easy.

At least I thought it was pretty easy until a reader, Jim Koch, turned me on to something really cool that automatically does this for you by using a little script you can load into Photoshop. Very Cool!

This script was created by one of the propeller heads from Adobe's Photoshop engineering team, Thomas Ruark. If you're a big user of Photoshop as I am these guys are among your heros. And Thomas just rocketed to the top of the list in my book!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the use of Java Scripts in Photoshop rest assured these can be very cool little items. A script is basically a set of commands that can automate various actions within Photoshop. They are similar to the more familiar Actions that so many people use constantly, (I have one friend that regularly uses something like 150 Actions in his daily work.)

But unlike Actions which require you to click on something, or invoke some key commands scripts can be set up to run automatically. I've not experimented too extensively with scripts before (though I plan to play with them more in near future), but I understand scripts can even do things not possible with Actions. All in they're promising to be pretty handy tools for any busy retoucher.

The script Thomas wrote is called "OpenAsLayer.jsx" and once loaded into Photoshop it completely automates the process of adding the file's name to the Background Layer when you open the file. After installing this and working with it for a few days I've come to really love this cool little script.

You can find the script here on Julieanne Kost's blog, This link will take you to the blog post where she explains how to download, install and use the script.

Now after waxing so enthusiastically about this cool script I do want to mention one thing, once you've installed the script it will automatically name any Background Layer with the file's name so if you regularly use any Actions etc that look for a Layer named "Background" you'll need to remember to re-convert that Layer back into a Background Layer before using the Action.

To restore your Background Layer all you have to do is go to the PS menu bar and click on Layer>New>Background from Layer. Come to think of it you could even create an Action to do this, or modify the Actions that need a Background Layer to make this even easier.

For now my thanks go out to Jim Koch and Thomas Ruark for making my work just a little bit easier.

Beauty by Layers

This Saturday I'll be teaching a workshop on retouching for the APA Chapter in Denver, Colorado.

Beauty Retouching with Dennis Dunbar

May 14, 2011
Beauty by Layers with Dennis Dunbar

Join us on Saturday, May 14th when Dennis Dunbar will be teaching a workshop on High End Beauty Retouching. In this workshop Dennis will cover his Beauty Retouching Workflow, and will go into detail describing his techniques for getting perfect skin, as well as Color Correcting, and Sharpening. He’ll also discuss working on hair, enhancing makeup, adding a “Healthy Skin Glow” and using Adjustment Layers to augment the lighting.

Users of all levels are welcome as this workshop promises to be an informative and interesting event where Dennis will share tips and tricks that will help both the beginner as well as the advanced user.

APA Member $25

Non members $50

9:30 Doors Open

10am-2pm Presentation

lunch included

at Denver Pro Photo

235 S Cherokee St
Denver CO 80223

Door Prizes and Sponsored by:

Beauty Retouching with Dennis Dunbar

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Los Angeles American Photographic Artists March 26th: Beauty Retouching APA LA Upcoming Event Schedule

Photo by Jeremy Cowart March 26th High End Beauty Retouching with Dennis Dunbar Join us on Saturday, March 26th when Dennis Dunbar will be teaching a workshop on High End Beauty Retouching. In this workshop Dennis will cover his Beauty Retouching Workflow, and will go into detail describing his techniques for getting perfect skin, Color Correcting, and Sharpening. He’ll also discuss working on hair, enhancing makeup, adding a “Healthy Skin Glow” and using Adjustment Layers to enhance the lighting. Users of all levels are welcome as this workshop promises to be an informative and interesting event where Dennis will share tips and tricks that will help both the beginner as well as the advanced user. For more information or to register click here Dennis Dunbar is a Digital Artist with extensive experience in digital issues. He began compositing images in the darkroom under the tutelage of William Warren, a noted Stock Shooter. After seeing the advantages of working digitally Dennis jumped in with both feet, setting up his own studio in 1991 and soon was working extensively creating finished artwork for movie posters as well as commercial ads. Dennis’ drive to stay on top of the various issues involved in the digital imaging world led him to also focus on Color Management and to offer consulting services to his clients in this area as well. In the summer of 2002 Dennis was named to the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Chapter of the Advertising Photographers of America where he serves as head of the Digital Committee. His work with the APA led him to concentrate on working with groups that are focused in the area of creating standards for the Digital Imaging.

Jeremy Cowart and Taylor Swift

As a digital artist/retoucher I love collaborating with photographers producing beautiful images like this one of Taylor Swift, shot by Jeremy Cowart. This image called for careful retouching and subtle techniques to enhance her natural beauty.



In working on Beauty shots like this one my standard workflow is to first go through the image cleaning up any out of place bits, then I carefully worked on her skin using a combination of the Heal Brush, the Clone Tool and a little paint here and there balancing just the right amount of texture with an overall smoothness to make sure her skin looked perfect. Then I removed the stray hairs that always seem to show up in closely cropped shots like this.

After the basic cleanup was done I then focused on bringing just the right sense of light to her eye with a gentle Curves adjustment. Keeping in mind that the viewer's eye tends to go to the sharpest part of the image I always like add just a little more sharpness in the eyes. For this part I usually make use of the HiPass sharpening technique combined with a layer mask to limit the effect to just the eyes.

After applying the sharpening to her eyes I then added a subtle Glow to her skin by manipulating a copy of the Blue Channel to create a selection I could add the Glow through. The next step was to add a couple of "Bling" highlights on her earrings. And finally the lighting was enhanced with a Curves Adjustment Layer that added just the right sense of drama.

Here's a closer look:

After Effects Animations

Over the last year I've been working on adding some After Effects skills to my capabilities. It's been a pretty natural transition as the basic concepts are very similar to what I've been doing in Photoshop for the last 20 years.

Recently I was called on by the talented team of Tom and Miriam Gundred at Soular Creative to help create some graphics animations for a project they were working on. This particular project involved creating two graphics animations that were to be part of a presentation highlighting some innovative technology one of their clients provided for their trade show clients.

In working on this they provided me with the Illustrator files and some directions indicating what they were looking for. After breaking out the various parts of the files that needed to move I then worked on creating the animations. This one in particular was designed to highlight how the client's technology allowed a presenter to control who could view the presentation.

Double-Click on the image below to see the final animated piece.

Recreating the Hipstamatic Look in 6 Steps

Last summer I finally broke down and got an iPhone. Beyond all the cool phone stuff it does my favorite part has been playing with it's camera. Somehow the simplicity of the camera and the fact that it's always with me makes photography much more spontaneous and fun for me.

And of course I had to check out various photo apps as a way of making it easier to get cool looks from the photos. Pretty quickly the Hipstamatic app became one of my favorite photo apps for the iPhone. I really like the way it re-creates the plastic lens look that has become so popular these days. Here are a couple of shots I took while playing with this app when I was on a beach walk with my family over this past Christmas Holiday.



Of course it didn't take me long before the retoucher side of me wanted to figure out how to replicate this look with "Normal" shots. I love the spontaneity of these Hipstamatic iPhone shots, but also really like being able to use my Photoshop abilities to create just the look I want.

With that in mind I opened up a shot taken on one of these beach walks with my Canon DSLR and started to experiment until I felt I had successfully matched the look I was getting with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app.

Here are the Before/After shots showing where the image started and where it wound up:




Now while it's fun showing you all some of my photos, the real fun lies in sharing just how I created this look and in seeing how it inspires others to play and create new images on their own. With that in mind here's a short tutorial on how to achieve this cool effect.

First let's take a moment to talk about what characterizes the look we're after. Looking at the beach shots above of my wife and daughter you can see there is some blurring, some color shifts and some vignetting all working together to create the look. With this in mind we can start to see what what steps will be necessary to re-create the look in Photoshop.

Step 1: open your "straight" image



Step 2: Copy the Background Layer so you have 2 copies of this layer, one on top of the other like below:




This layer will get a small amount of Gaussian Blur that we'll use to recreate the soft focus part of our look. The specific amount depends on the resolution of the image you're working with. For this image let's use an amount of 2 pixels.




Since we don't want the Blur over all of our image we'll use a Layer Mask to control where the blurred layer shows. To do this add a Layer Mask and then using a large Brush paint Black in the Layer Mask to hide the effect where you don't want it to show. (Hint: using the Scatter Settings in the Brush Controls can help give this a more organic transition.)

Here is a shot of the Layer Mask I used with my Blur Layer:



This should give you something that looks a bit like this:




Step 3: Add a Vignette effect to darken the edges of the image. To do this create a new Layer and name it "Vignette". When you create this layer set the Blending Mode to "Multiply". Then again using a Brush with the Scatter Settings turned on paint Black around the edges of the image taking care to allow for a soft transition where the Vignette effects the image.

Here's what the Vignette Layer I painted looks like:



And here's what the image looks like with the Vignette Layer added:




Step 4: Now comes the fun part, adjusting the color. Studying the look of the Hipstamatic images we're trying to replicate we can see that typically the color shifts more towards Cyan and Blue while the Blacks of the image get pushed darkening the shadows and the Whites get pushed just a little bit providing some punch to the image along with the Color shift.

To do this we're going to use a variation on my preferred Color Correction Technique. This technique involves using 2 Curves Adjustment Layers, one set to Luminosity Blending and one set to Color Blending. By separating the Luminosity adjustments from the Color adjustments we can more easily control the contrast and tonality of the image independently of the color. And using the Color Curves you'll find you can not only affect the overall color balance of the image but you can easily control the saturation of the image as well. It's a very powerful technique that let's you control so much so easily.

If you're interested in learning more about this technique please feel free to send me an email by going to the Contact Dennis page of this site. I'll be happy to send you an article I've written on this technique that explains it in more depth.

For now create 2 Adjustment Layers and set one to Luminosity Blending and the other to Color Blending. (It doesn't matter which one comes first.) To help you keep them straight name the one set to Luminosity Blending "Luminosity Curves" and the other "Color Curves". Now click on the Color Curves layer and bring up the Adjustments panel, then adjust the Curves in the dialogue so they look something like the adjustments shown below:



Looking at the panels above you can see the RGB, or Master Curve has been pulled up at a point just about 3/4 of the way where the highlights are. This tends to increase the saturation in the highlights just a touch.

Moving on you can see the Red Curve has been pulled down in more or less a straight line, the Green Curve has been left alone while the Blue Curve shows we've pulled a little more Blue out of the shadows than the highlights. (Of course you can adjust these settings to your own taste as needed.)

Here's our test image with these Color Curves:



Now this is starting to look pretty interesting but there are still a few more tweaks yet to do.

Step 5: As mentioned above part of achieving the look we're after calls for pushing the Black and White points of the image a bit to deepen the shadows and add some "pop" to the highlights. To do this click on the Luminosity Curves Adjustment layer to bring up the curves dialogue. Then pull the Black point over to the right and the White point over to the left as shown in the screen grab below:



And here is what the image looks like with both the Color Curves and the Luminosity Curves:




Step 6: This is looking very close now, but it still looks just a little too clean. The plastic lens look that characterizes the Hipstamatic photos has some out of focus scratches and textures that old lenses might impart to the images. To re-create that we'll use a texture placed on top of our image and use a Blending Mode that gives us a cool look, then use a Layer Mask to control just where we want this effect to show up.

Over the years I've built up quite a collection of textures I've shot and found on stock image sites that come in very handy for times like this. Here's one such texture I found on one of the sites where artists share various textures and brushes they've created for use in Photoshop:



To use this texture in our image we'll just drag a copy of it over our beach scene and make sure it's at the top of the layer stack in the Layers Palette. Then set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and slide the opacity down to around 50%. Finally create a Layer Mask for this layer and again using a Brush with the Scatter Settings turned on (to help give it an 'organic' look) paint Black in the Layer Mask to hide the texture where ever you don't want it to show. Here's what the Layer Mask I painted looks like:



With the Texture in place and the Layer Mask finished the image looks like this:



With all the flexibility Digital Photography provides we're freed up to play more with various color treatments and styles in an effort to express our artistic vision. Photoshop fits in very neatly into this equation as the more we play with shifting colors and adding textures etc the more control we have over the final appearance of our images.