Comments on: Spot Fixing Images in Photoshop

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:19:39 +0000

@David Paul:

You’ve broken my primary rule! I personally wouldn’t remove anything natural about a person’s body. This includes freckles, moles, or scars. In my personal view these are specifically part of a person’s character and i remind all my clients that I will not remove anything unless specifically asked to do so (and nearly all of them agree with me this produces a better effect). I’ve only been asked a few times to remove some things (unwanted tattoos or scars) by the clients, but otherwise I would leave my photos untouched in this regard.

In touching up skintones however i find the patch tool takes less time to get the proper satisfactory result, because you can keep to the proper borders of the defect.

By: David Paul

David Paul — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:16:30 +0000

I use that method a little, but I take care to choose clone from an area that has the same dimensions and the same color, so that there would be no obvious edges. I recently did some “extreme makeover” for a friend for his wedding photo (removed some freckles from a studio photo), and nobody noticed (or didn’t say anything).

By: dana

dana — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:18:30 +0000

It´s is the same as with women`s maquillage – the less you see it the better the result

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:00:34 +0000

Helen,
I want to thank you for your presentation. As a newbie to Photoshop, I appreciate the demonstration of these techniques.
Obviously, as each of us uses these tools, we need to hone our skills and decide for ourselves how and to what extent we will use them. I really think the grumbling and criticisms here are out of line, and I appreciate that you took the time to share your knowledge.

By: shannon

shannon — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:12:25 +0000

I would almost have preferred the water to be left because it does blur the bases to the pots of plants. The other further out doesn’t bother me as much.

But as a tutorial very helpful. I’m still learning photoshop and every tip and tutorial is helpful.

Much like Jennifer, if my scene isn’t perfect I don’t think about how I can photoshop it I move on to another scene.

By: Jennifer Moore

Jennifer Moore — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:13:15 +0000

I appreciate the article, and I’d remind the other readers that the “after” photo is just for demonstration (I hope–it DOES look too altered, IMO.)

As for me, I prefer to do minimal editing to my photos, aside from things like color adjustments, fixing red eye, and (if desired) adding some minor effects. I think it’s very easy to over-do photo editing, now that I’ve been taking and editing photos for a short time.

If I find that a setting I’ve chosen is unsuitable, for whatever reason, I simply grumble a lot and choose a different subject. I don’t think it’s worth it, if one has to edit the you-know-what (life) out of a photo. It just looks too fake at that point.

That said, as someone who is new to GIMP/Photoshop, I found the steps laid out very helpful.

Thank you!
Jennifer Moore
JenniferLynn Producitons, LLC

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:11:33 +0000

I can’t believe she would go to all that trouble to “fix” an image & leave the image crooked – what’s that about ?. The bluring of the pavement is pretty bad & no understanding of the tonality in perspective. If you are going to remove items in a photo it must be done as though you are spotting a photo, not by using broad strokes. Too saturated – it’s usually best to adjust color, then back up a bit. That’s why adjustment layers are so good – do your work, wait a day, then take a second look & reduce the amount of initial adjustments….

BTW, I usually add lots of cigarette butts to my European photos to give it that certain Left Bank high-brow je ne sais quoi.

By: Hochzeitsfotograf

Hochzeitsfotograf — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:23:43 +0000

The camera position should have been a little bit more to the left side. The picture would work better if there are some people in it.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:27:01 +0000

Great tips, but IMHO the edited image looks a bit underexposed due to the saturation and curves adjustments. I wouldn’t have cropped the foreground but that’s just me.

cesc – agreed.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:09:20 +0000

For everyone complaining about the posters observation about European smokers and cigarette butt littered streets – you do see the picture, right? Also, I don’t think she is attacking smokers, just observing that Europeans smoke more than Americans. She does seem to be attacking litterers so if you want to take up for them, there’s always that…