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This is a picture of my distinguised great-grandfather, not a bad photo but it
could use a little spiffing up. So, the first thing is to make sure that we're
in 16 million colors. Next we need to decide what to do, in this case we'll
take a conservative approach but this method would be useful for a more
radical re-touch as well. Make several copies to work with and close down the original.
I can't stress this enough, you will mess up, it's a given. So... make several copies to
work with and close down the original!
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In one of the copies,
using the "Paint Brush", "Type" = "Pen", "Size" = 1,"Shape" = "Round" and "Paper Texture"
= "None", with a "Foreground Color" = Red draw a line around your subject. The easiest
way to do this is to click where you want to start drawing, hold the Shift key down
and click where you want the line segment to end. Continue holding down the Shift
key and clicking around the subject. You only have one level of "Undo" so if you make a
mistake fix it immediately and save often! After the subject is outlined use the "Magic Wand", "Match Mode"
= "RGB Value", "Tolerance" = "40" (This number will vary) and "Feather" = "1", to "Select"
the background. When the background is selected goto "Selections">"Save", and save it as
a .sel file.
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Continue to outline and save "Selections" until you have all the important
parts seperated out. Delete this working copy. This method, outlining an area with a
contrasting color and selecting with a high tolerance, is a LOT easier than
using masks or hand selecting the individual parts. That's the real point of this tutorial.
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Open a fresh copy and goto "Selections">"Load" and load the outline selection.
Now just the background is selected and you can do what you want to it.
Using the "Clone Brush", "Clone Mode" = "Aligned", "Size" = "1", "Shape" = "Round",
"Opacity" = "64", and "Paper Texture" = "None", right click near a spot or
blemish and left click to replace the offending area with the colors under the
cross-hairs.
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Load each .sel in turn and fix any blemishes. You can also "Colorize", "Sharpen",
whatever you like. As an example, I loaded the coat.sel eased up to "Colors">"Colorize">
"Hue" = "150" and "Saturation" = "10". Note: for a decent flesh tone try "Colors">"Colorize">
"Hue" = "3" and "Saturation" = "80", then "Colors">"Adjust">"Brightness" = "-5" and
"Contrast" = "0". Play with these numbers to adjust for ethnicity and solar exposure.
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The final product! I think Great-grandpa'd be pleased.
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