Photoshop Makeovers

Welcome to Photoshop Makeovers. Have you ever wondered how magazines manage to get the perfect image of models? The answer is they don’t! Almost every image in glamour/fashion magazines have been digitally enhanced to gain flawless perfection. This can be spotted in some magazines where the image has been worked on so much that it gives a china doll effect, leaving almost no natural beauty of the original subject.

It’s said that digital editors spend there time trolling through each others digital work, trying to spot the enhancements.

But remember, if done correctly can retain original features and give an excellent result. Some of the techniques used involve removal of blemishes, moles, scares, wrinkles, change of hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, proportions and much more.



Please do remember this is a guide to Photoshop makeovers, using different tools and effects to gain magazine quality images. Photoshopmakeovers.blogspot.com is not trying to define what true beauty should look like in any sense. True beauty can not be gained through graphically enhanced images.

Below you will find an image of the original model alongside the exact same image but with digitally enhanced features. Although you can digitally makeover amateur photos by removing blemishes, and making small changes to eyes, lips, skin tones, you won’t be able to achieve the same standard as magazine images. This is because work has gone into the image before being digitally retouched, using chroma screens, professional cameras and many other tricks.

BEFORE: AFTER:

Photoshop Makeovers: Sourcing the right image

When sourcing a digital image from the internet it’s important that you consider the following points.

Firstly you need to ensure that you have the legal right to use and manipulate the digital image; otherwise you could infringing on someone’s intellectual property rights and consequently face civil action. If you have personally taken the image yourself using a digital camera then you can safely use and edit that image freely, however if you intend to source images from the internet you must do so carefully and preferably with the owners permission as you could encroach on their rights of ownership. Alternatively you could always search and use photos of your friends using Facebook (assuming you have their permission).

Secondly remember when working on digital makeovers you need to be able to zoom into certain features, such as the eyes or a nose so that you can manipulate small sections of the image to gain a better finish. I would suggest working with images that are high resolution at 300dpi or greater although the makeover can still be done with low resolution image (usually the images from a digital camera are already high resolution).

Lastly make sure the lighting on the image is good and all features of the face are clear. Magazines use lots of different techniques such as chroma screens and special cameras to gain good lighting, which in turn makes the image easier to work with and gives a better finish.

Your Photoshop Makeovers

Your Photoshop Makeovers

My Photoshop Makeovers

Welcome to my Photoshop makeovers. This section will show all the different makeovers I myself have done, with a brief list of techniques used for each one.

You will also find a section on this blog for submitting your very own Photoshop makeovers Submit a Photoshop Makeover, which if excepted will be placed on the blog in the Your Photoshop Makeovers page (please check the specification on the submissions page for best chance of getting your makeover listed).

BEFORE: AFTER:BEFORE:AFTER:

Photoshop Makeovers: Blemishes

After sourcing the image, open it in Photoshop ready for the Digital Makeover. The first thing to do is remove any blemishes from the subject such as unwanted moles, scares, wrinkles, acne etc.

The reason why we remove such features is because in the next tutorial when we smooth the skin we don’t want the acne showing through when the blur is applied. We want the skin as clean as possible to gain the perfection we require.

So the first step will be to select the Healing Brush Tool

Below you will find a selection of bad skin. For the purpose of this tutorial we will work on this image and try to remove as many of the blemishes as possible.

With the healing brush selected I’m going to hover over the image and right click.

I’m now presented with a properties box for the healing brush; here I will change the diameter to a size that will best work with the image (24px in this case).

Next I will need to select an area from the image that I can clone and paste over the blemishes. To do this hold the alt key down and select the clear area.

Now all thats left do is click on the areas that have blemishes. Remember try and get a selection as close to the blemish as possible to keep the same skin tone.

Below you will find the finished result.