# Portrait Color Techniques in Photoshop



## lovephotos (Dec 4, 2010)

What are some commonly used Photoshop post-processing techniques for portraits?

There's a lot of the same things I see that I feel really make images pop, but I am not sure how to get those effects. (Generally speaking, color effects). For example:

Wedding photography in Brisbane by Normy B | commercial portrait and wedding photographer based in brisbane the goldcoast and sunshinecoast 

Unfortunately, now I cannot seem to find examples of what I am specifically talking about, so hopefully someone can read my mind. ;-)


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## Peano (Dec 4, 2010)

A suggestion: Post one or two images of your own that you aren't happy with, and see what 
others can offer to improve them. There are no reliable formulas to make all images pop. 
You have to start with a specific image.


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## reddau (Dec 5, 2010)

Miss Soto | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

For this photo I duplicated the background layer, then experimented with multiple blending modes to change the color. I recomend focusing on the background color then adding a layer mask to the subject to preserve some natural color.

Color effects are often very overdone in my opinion. I would recommend ALWAYS white balancing every photo, then go through your process for skin and sharpening. After everything I apply color correction.

Hoped this helps, if you see any images on my flickr you enjoy feel free to contact me and discuss my process.

"The craving for colour is a natural necessity just as for water and fire. Colour is a raw material indispensable to life. At every era of his existence and his history, the human being has associated colour with his joys, his actions and his pleasures."
-- Frenand Leger, "On Monumentality and Color", 1943.


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## Peano (Dec 5, 2010)

reddau said:


> Miss Soto | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
> 
> For this photo I duplicated the background layer, then experimented with multiple blending modes to change the color.



Can you post the image as it came out of the camera? No edits?


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## reddau (Dec 5, 2010)

Peano said:


> reddau said:
> 
> 
> > Miss Soto | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
> ...



Image straight out of camera:






Retouch:


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## Peano (Dec 5, 2010)

There's a limit to how much pop you can get out of a bad photo. Some of the limitations of this one: 
- The brightest area in the picture is the sky at top right.
- The light from the side doesn't reach her eyes. They are sunk in shadow.
- The dark background at left merges with her hair.

What this needed most was fill light from the front. You've done a nice job of brightening the face, smoothing skin, and softening shadows beneath the eyes. 

Just for fun I tried brightening the face and opening the shadow details around the eyes. In addition to curves, I also used Topaz Detail and Imagenomic Portraiture. When a face isn't well-lighted, as this one isn't, it sometimes helps to add a fairly heavy vignette to make the face stand out more from the background.


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