Coffee With Morgan: Beauty Facial Retouching

Another boring sickness update. Kids sick, check. Husband sick, check. Rita sick, two checks. :-) The kids are getting better every day and have pretty good energy and appetite. My dear husband feels like an old man (his words). And I doing about the same as yesterday.

My horrible 3 day unending headache finally ended yesterday. What a relief! However, now that my head doesn't hurt so much I really notice my throat. And I peeked at it with a flashlight today and it has swollen red bumps on it... No wonder I can't eat; I have lost 5 pounds the last few days. This is not a diet I would suggest to anyone...

But even worse is the bronchitis. I go into these coughing fits where I can't breathe! Pretty annoying. And yes, having severe coughing fits after having a few babies is not always pretty.

So I am still miserable. But I feel so much better than I did a few days ago, so I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank goodness that I have a great mother, mother-in-law, and husband who are helping me out so much right now.

I know you are completely sick about me complaining (my husband sure is!). After all, no one dies from mono. However, you want to die. ;-) And many of you have commented that it took months for you to feel normal after having mono. But I am ok with that. July, August, and early September are brutally hot here in Texas, so hopefully I will be feeling great by the end of September (around my birthday). I couldn't have picked a better time to be sick, stuck inside. :-)

Morgan, bless her, is back with another wonderful tutorial. Make sure you check out her links at the bottom of this post. She always has great tips/tutorials on her blog. Morgan, you can't imagine how much I appreciate you sending me this tutorial today so I can sit in front of the TV eating chicken noodle soup instead of working at the computer. :-)

Beauty facial retouching.

Here we have a beautiful woman and we want to take her to a fully edit version of a beauty shot.

First in ACR

 increase the blacks to 10 and the vibrance to 10

Next in Photoshop

Crop for the rule of thirds

Next I adjust the levels.

I have digital grey card that I use for my shoots

I adjust the opacity of that layer to 75%

Next I use my patch tool (PS), or use your clone stamp (PSE) to get rid of wrinkles.

For the patch tool, you want to select your area you want to get rid of then select an area with similar texture (color not important)

I use the patch tool on forehead wrinkles, and under eye wrinkles.

The great thing about the patch tool is that you can fade it!

I adjusted mine to 68%

Finished with the patch tool

Next I run CoffeeShop Baby PowderRoom

I brush on the smooth skin layer.

I adjust the opacity to about 40%

Next I invert the lighten skin layer

I use my black brush to mask the eyes and mouth.

Then adjust the opacity down to about 40% or lower

Next I utilize the eye define layer painting on the eyes, nose, mouth and necklace.

Flatten

Next use CoffeeShop's Color Pop 2

I selected OK to all pop ups

I put the color pop layer ar 48%

Then flatten

I duplicate and set the layer to multiply at 28%

Finally I run TRA's Boutwell's Magic Glass (free action)

Before & After

Feel free to share your beauty edits!

Meet Morgan! I am from a small town in southern Texas, but now live in central Texas, Fort Hood/Killeen area to be more specific. I am a stay-at-home mom and do photography in my spare time. I am married to a wonderful man that I was lucky enough to meet and be able to spend my life with. We have two beautiful children, Payton 4 years old & Amelia 1 year old. The thing I love the most about photography is that you can take an intangible moment in time and make it last forever. I don't have any formal training, I just learn from experimentation and research.
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