Remove hair from face and eyes

Seajay

Seajay

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Cathy
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Well it is raining! I have time to play and i need some practice with processing.:)

I decided to use a face to work with today and know it needs a lot more to bring it up but thought I would start with stray hair.



original by cooriedoon, on Flickr



My question today is what tool in photoshop would do you use to remove hair around the face and eyes.

I have tried with this one using the healing brush and clone tool but feel it could be better.

Sorry to ask so many questions and i know there are many you tube videos but that is my problem there are too many to choose from.
The first is the original.






head edits by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
My final one.
I am up for any other way to do this.I am using my spare time to learn a few ways to fix or enhance.Just followed a few different beginner you tube links but mostly done with the healing brush and layers and masks.



headedit3 by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
If i hadn't seen the 'before' photo i don't think i would have noticed anyway, so that tells me you did a good job.
 
Giovanni and Christian thank you for your very kind comments :)

I have a very long way to go but I am trying every chance I get so your comments are very welcome.
Cathy
 
Yup, you've done a great job removing the hair. I've just been doing a ton of this myself the last couple days (personal shots of family and my niece had a terrible hair cut, lol!) I use a combination of heal and clone (though mostly clone) with varying levels of opacity and hardness depending on area and, of course, work on a duplicate layer so I can mask etc.

As you're doing this to practice and learn, would you like feedback on the general processing of the image?

Miko
 
Miko hi!,

Hope you were happy with all your own edits, it is not as easy as it looks I now know that :)

I can take any advice on everything so feel free to give any help you can.
I have been taking photos of family most of my life but always on auto :(
Now that I am retired and have time i want to learn to use my camera properly and also get better at edits.
I love photography especially portraits and landscapes although I never ever took any landscapes or even tried until now.

Thank you for looking and for taking time to leave me a comment.
I am always trying to capture Anna when I get the chance and on this day she was just running in and out of the Rowan tree.
Cathy
 
Hi Cathy,

I think it’s great that now that you have time you’re learning more about how to use your camera and how to post process. Retirement is supposed to be about getting to do the things you want to do so it’s sounds like you’re living the dream :)

If you like landscapes and are just getting into taking them and live in Scotland, you have many hours of happiness ahead of you! Scotland is the best country I’ve ever been to for landscapes. If you end up enjoying taking landscapes, before we know it you’ll be a master of tripods and filters as well as your camera and processing! :)

When I was looking at your final image above, apart from the awesome job you did at removing the hair, I noticed a couple small things I thought I could mention. Obviously just my opinions so feel free to ignore!

1) It looks to me like the focus point was on the hair on her shoulder so it’s just a little sharper than the eyes – your sharpening and contrast shift has helped this, but because (it looks like) they’re global adjustments, the hair is still looking shaper than the eyes to me. If I were editing it, instead of sharpening the whole photo I’d concentrate only on the facial features (duplicate layer, sharpen, then mask to only apply to facial features or duplicate layer and use the sharpen tool on about 15% and carefully apply). Similarly, you could also make an adjustment layer to bring out contrast (contrast, levels, or curves), mask it and zoom right in to only apply it right around the rim of the eye and the iris. By sharpening the facial features and not the rest, you’d balance out the sharpness between the face and hair taking away from the fact that the face was slightly soft.

2) A small thing and totally subjective (like everything, lol): to me the background fights a bit with your subject because it’s quite vibrant. To help keep the attention on Anna, you could use a levels adjustment layer to darken the exposure of the background just a little.

3) And last, another small mention, her eyes are gorgeous (!) and although the increase in sat makes them pop, I think it’s a little too much here. It feels to me that between the second-to-last and the last image the irises lost a little depth. I’d be tempted go to around 50% opacity on what you’ve done. (As a small aside: I find it can be difficult to tell if you have the amounts right while you’re editing – the longer a session, the more you somehow get desensitised and that makes it easy to become more heavy-handed. So, when I’m finished editing, I find it useful to get away from the computer and come back for a final pass once my head has cleared (and my eyes have rested ;))

Hopefully this hasn’t been too boring and maybe helps a little, if not with this image than just with stuff to think about. Like I said, it’s all subjective and the points I mention are really just fine-tuning – you’ve already done a fabulous job :)

Miko
 
You are a gem! Thank you for taking the time to reply and give me all this super information

I am going to have anther go and try to follow your advice as all of this will help guide me in the right direction.
It is still so tempting to go back to auto but I am just not doing it! :)

Anna is hard to capture sometimes as she has a smile that only ever shows her gums Argh!,,,,
when you ask her to smile and show her teeth you can see it is very forced so I usually just ignore it.
Well off for another go and truly thank you for your time and help.
Cathy
 
You're very welcome! I hope it does help :) And I totally hear you about photographing kids - that forced look you get if you ask them to smile! Like you, I find it better to just photograph them in the wild ;)

Happy editing!

Miko
 
Miko

A long way to go i know as skin tones are not quite right.
However using the way you suggest to darken the background and to keep the face sharp but not the hair and shoulder has made a huge difference already.
I will be trying this out on a few others until i get it right.

I had better get in lots of practice as all my pics the last few days are all requiring a lot of work lol!
Re Landscape don't think I will ever get that right :)
I am going to go back to Turnberry to try again I don't think I was focusing on the right places but Hey! this is how you learn practice and practice more.

I was focusing a third of the way in lol! well guess that would have been the sea.:) x



edit 4 by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
Good work, Cathy! :) Think this edit looks great and as for the skin tone here, it looks alright, but maybe just a little cool - a simple light touch of a warming filter layer would probably work really well.

Landscapes can be tricky work but really rewarding - I bet you'll get the hang on it. Try focusing on what you want to be the centre of attention and if you want a lot of the image to be in focus make sure you use a narrow aperture (higher f/#) to get more depth of field. All this learning is totally worth it as long as you're enjoying yourself :)

Miko
 
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