GIMP Tutorial – Glamour Portrait Makeover

Glamour Portrait Makeover

Step 1
Glamour portraiture is really all about flattery. In a glamour image, we alter
the reality of someone’s likeness slightly (or not so slightly) to show them
off. How far we take the alteration process is often the point of contention.

As you will discover in this tutorial, it is really quite simple to alter

someone’s physical appearance to the point where they become almost
unrecognisable.

Certainly, the presence of wrinkles and skin blemishes are the things most
people would like toned down or eliminated. But a glamour treatment can
also add a certain softness, energy and even mystery to a portrait image.

I shot the candid image on the right of my tired and jet-lagged mum during
one of her flying visits. And with only a couple of minutes worth of post-
processing, I can probably remove close to 20 years from her looks, and
add a new sense youth and vitality to her photo.

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Step 2
Select Dialogs>Layers (Ctrl+L) from the Image menu to open the Layers dialog.

From the Layers dialog toolbar, click on the Duplicate Layer button to duplicate the
background layer.

Change the blend Mode of the Background Copy layer to Screen.

TIP: Try the Overlay or Soft Light blend modes as alternatives to Screen blending.

Blend mode to Screen

The result so far has only served to flatten the contrast, blow out some of the highlights
and key up the mid tones. Don't worry, we'll adjust the final levels towards the end of the
tutorial and restore some colour balance back to the image.

Duplicate Layer button

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Step 3
With the Background Copy layer still selected, choose Filters>Blur>Gaussian
Blur from the Image menu to open the Gaussian Blur dialog.

Adjust the Blur Radius to a fairly aggressive value. I chose 70.0 px in this
example.

Use IIR as the Blur Method (RLE – Run Length Encoding, is generally
reserved for computer generated graphics, not photographic tones).

Click the OK button when you are done.

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Step 4
Note how the image has now taken on that soft, dreamy look you
often associate with glamour portraits. However, the effect has also
caused the eyes to go a bit hazy, and hazy eyes are not very desirable
in a portrait.

Choose Layer>Mask>Add Layer Mask from the Image menu to

open the Add Layer Mask dialog. Initialise the mask to White (full
opacity) as shown below.

Set mask to White

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Step 5
Click on the Foreground colour swatch (large black rectangle in the lower left of the dialog) from
The GIMP toolbox to open the Change Foreground Color dialog below.

Set the V (value) slider to

about 80 for a pale grey
colour. Then click on the OK
button to set the new
foreground colour.

Set Value to 80

Foreground Colour

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GIMP Tutorial – Glamour Portrait Makeover

Step 6
Select the Paintbrush tool from the GIMP Toolbox. In the Tool Options for the Paintbrush, set
the Brush to Circle (19) and leave the Scale to 1.00 as shown below.

Choose a hard-edged brush

Brush Scale

Paintbrush tool

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Step 7
Zoom in on the image to at least 200% and centre the eyes in the
Image window. Then using the Paintbrush tool, carefully paint over
the eye and lashes to partially reveal the underlying image.

Be careful not to stray too far outside the eye when painting, as it is
only the eyeball that we want to reveal.

Repeat the process for the other eye.

Paint over the eyeball and on

the inner part of eyelid only

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Step 8
Choose Filters>Re-show “Gaussian Blur” from the Image menu to re-open
the Gaussian Blur dialog.

Change the Blur Radius to 20 pixels as shown on the right. Then click the
OK button to blur the Layer Mask and give the eyes better clarity.

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Step 9
Our next task will be to remove the wrinkles in order to reclaim some of her youth. Select
the Background layer in the Layers dialog (because that’s where the wrinkles are).

Then choose the Healing Brush tool from The GIMP toolbox. And set the Tool Options
as shown below centre.

Healing brush

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Step 10
Zoom in to 100% to register the detail at full size. Then
Ctrl+click on a smooth area of skin to set the source point,
and begin painting the smooth texture over the wrinkles.

You should be able to easily achieve the result shown below.

Source

Destination

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Step 11
Once you are finished with the wrinkle removal, choose
Colors>Curves… from the Image menu to open the Curves dialog.

Drop the mid-tone levels down by about one grid spacing to bring back
some colour density in the image. Click the OK button to apply the
curves adjustment.

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Step 12
Finally, choose Image>Flatten Image from the Image
menu to reduce the picture to one layer for saving as a JPEG.

Copyright © 2008, Greg Perry

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