Need help retouching hair

[ashley12]

I have to fix this photo:

clean up messy hair on top/side where sun is hitting it
make any curves/levels adjustments necessary
Brighten/smooth any issues on face

Just wondering best way to go about it. What do you think about the shadows and highlights on the face? Should I adjust the curves?

The hair is really tricky. Any advice?

 

[$1r_M4x1mu$]

Hi ashley12 Welcome to PSG

Have to agree whit you, hair i very tricky to work whit, try our well known old companion the clone soft stamp whit a low opacity, whit some time to spend and patience it will work.

Overall try sharpening her face a little, it looks too blurry and out of focus, also try increasing the contrast on her face, work a bit on her eyes, her skin, the background is not that bad, maybe tune up a little the green curves channel. for the most time consuming part, i will say the hair will be the trickiest.

 

[ibclare]

Clone some of the foliage over the stray hairs at the top. Open the photo in Bridge and follow the steps. That will give you a head start on the adjustments you need to make. Then like Sir Max said ... work, work, work. But we love it so!

 

[Hoogle]

step 0 spend a lot more time on this than I did
step 1 image > adjustment > level and bring back the blacks a small amount
step 2 clone stamp tool 80% opacity and clone ount the hair at top
step 3 create a new layer choose a soft brush and paint in black over the hair at 50% opacity 100% where the hair is blown out at the side and reduce the opacity of the layer so it all blends in you may have to use eraser tool at different opacitys to hide where you have painted in some areas
step 4 clone in some more hair around hairline
step 5 use the spot healing brush to remove obvious face blemishes on original layer
step 6 use the clone stamp tool at 10 -25% opacity and brush in circular directions around the face to smooth it out
step 6 create a new layer and paint over face with a skinish colour and set that layer mode to colour reduce opacity down for a natural look
step 7 create a new layer and paint red over lips set layer to colour and bring opacity down to look natural
step 8 sit back and admire your work for 5 mins and check for faults (I did not do this)
step 9 flatten image
step 10 create a new layer and use paint bucket tool and fill it with black at 100% opacity and apply a layer mask
step 11 select a soft brush and size it so both edges of the horizontal circle are touching the sides of photo making sure you have selected the layer mask and your foreground colour is black click once or twice to get the desired vignette
hope this helps I only uploaded the image because I was working through it to make sure my way would work with your pic so thought I would show you the results

 

[ashley12]

View attachment 5338
step 0 spend a lot more time on this than I did
step 1 image > adjustment > level and bring back the blacks a small amount
step 2 clone stamp tool 80% opacity and clone ount the hair at top
step 3 create a new layer choose a soft brush and paint in black over the hair at 50% opacity 100% where the hair is blown out at the side and reduce the opacity of the layer so it all blends in you may have to use eraser tool at different opacitys to hide where you have painted in some areas
step 4 clone in some more hair around hairline
step 5 use the spot healing brush to remove obvious face blemishes on original layer
step 6 use the clone stamp tool at 10 -25% opacity and brush in circular directions around the face to smooth it out
step 6 create a new layer and paint over face with a skinish colour and set that layer mode to colour reduce opacity down for a natural look
step 7 create a new layer and paint red over lips set layer to colour and bring opacity down to look natural
step 8 sit back and admire your work for 5 mins and check for faults (I did not do this)
step 9 flatten image
step 10 create a new layer and use paint bucket tool and fill it with black at 100% opacity and apply a layer mask
step 11 select a soft brush and size it so both edges of the horizontal circle are touching the sides of photo making sure you have selected the layer mask and your foreground colour is black click once or twice to get the desired vignette
hope this helps I only uploaded the image because I was working through it to make sure my way would work with your pic so thought I would show you the results

Wow thank you so much for taking the time to do that!!!

 

[ibclare]

He's a kick, ain't he? Beautiful job Hoogle.

 

[Hoogle]

aaar thanks clare that was only a quick retouch job though if you spent time on it you would get better results but I would like like to say this work is what I started using photoshop for I am not artistic minded like a lot of people but beauty and photo retouch up etc is my main area of interest