Photographing people can be a risky business – make them look less glamorous than a Hollywood star and you will see how aggressive some vain people can be. While there are people who simply are not photogenic and no matter what mastery you apply while taking their photo, the end result is almost a nightmare, there are many cases when a portrait photo can be improved by removing unwanted details from it.
Unwanted details is a very broad area and it can very from objects or people in the photo to such defects as red eyes, shiny skin or color discrepancies. Unwanted details are almost always present in portrait photos and even professional photographers experience them. It is true that the best way to deal with unwanted details is to prevent them but since this is not always possible, you need to know how to deal with them. Here are some tips how to deal with some of the most common types of unwanted details:
- Unwanted objects or persons. The easiest way to remove unwanted objects or persons from your portrait photos is by cutting them out but unfortunately it is not always possible to cut an object and leave the photo that way – you may need to apply more advanced techniques (like blurring, adding textures, etc.) in order to make the photo look nice.
- Red eyes. Red eyes is one of the most common problems with digital photography. Sometimes red eyes are actually white, green, or yellow (especially in animals) but still they are spoiling the picture. Fixing of red eyes is usually done with special software but sometimes you can even fix them with the eraser and paintbrush tools alone.
- Wrinkles, freckles, shining skin, scratches, folds, creases, etc.. All these defects are relatively easy to fix by blurring. Most of these defects can’t be fixed with the eraser and the paintbrush alone but still minor wrinkles, folds, and scratches can be corrected by erasing and painting. But it is much easier to deal with these unwanted details with the help of special software because this way you can quickly blur the images to hide unwanted details.
Author: Ada Ivanova