How to Cheat in Photoshop

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Posted on 23/09/11 5:58:08 PM

Martti
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Posts: 53

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Stubble

Hello,

How is existing stubble on a face made darker and more
pronounced?
I´ve found techniques which make a stubble (beard) from
scratch but none about the one above.

Thanks,
Martti

Posted on 23/09/11 7:00:29 PM

Steve Caplin
Administrator
Posts: 7025

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Re: Stubble

Are you talking about the beard and stubble technique in How to Cheat in Photoshop? If so, just use Curves or the Burn tool to darken up the Hard Light layer. You could also use a higher amount of Noise, and perhaps a slightly larger Radial Blur radius.

Posted on 24/09/11 2:20:59 PM

Martti
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Posts: 53

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Re: Stubble

Hi Steve,

No, I mean just an ordinary photo of a guy with a stubble
i.e. no artificial retrofit stubble.
My aim is to make the natural stubble stand out more.
For instance how do I select only the thin growth of hairs
to make them darker?

/Martti

Posted on 26/09/11 5:49:23 PM

Steve Caplin
Administrator
Posts: 7025

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Re: Stubble

That's going to be difficult. The problem is that the stubble is just the same shade as the highlights in the skin.

Can you post a larger image so we can have a go?

Posted on 26/09/11 8:26:51 PM

Luis
Six-String Synthesist
Posts: 236

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Re: Stubble

Is this what you are trying to do? I'm sure there are better ways of doing this. Please note that i'm using an earlier version of photoshop.

The way I did this is to use the channels. What I did is duplicate the blue channel and use the levels to make the white hairs stand out. This will also make the highlights of the skin stand out to, but that can be fixed. Then I use the Burn tool to make the areas that don't need to be changed like the skin highlights and make that area black. So what I have now is only the thin white hairs. Still in the channels palette, hold down the CTRL key and click the Blue copy channel layer. this will create a selection. DO NOT DESELECT.

Now go back to the layers palette and make sure you have the layer with stubble pic and press CTRL J to make a copy of the hairs. This will create a new layer of only the hairs. You can now change the color of the hairs to make them darker.

What I did is create a Color Adjustment layer and group this layer with hairs layer. I also added a layer mask for the hairs layer in case any of the color is added to the skin.

Posted on 26/09/11 8:37:56 PM

Nick Curtain
Model Master
Posts: 1768

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Re: Stubble

I'll be interested to see if anyone has a solution to this. I tried channels, colour range etc, but as Steve has said, the lighter stubble is the same shade to the highlighted skin. I also tried painting the lighter hairs, but the result just looked false.

One option, which was the most successful I tried, was to take a selection including some of the darker hairs, placed it on a new layer and changed the blend to darken. I moved the new layer and then clipped a Levels adjustment to it. By changing the gamma, the difference in skin tones was removed and only the dark hairs remained. I merged the levels down and then continued to copy the layer, transforming (rotating) each to match the direction of the hairs. having said this, the lighter hairs remained and the overall result was not really worth posting.

Probably easier to photograph or google a new chin!

Nick

Posted on 26/09/11 8:42:49 PM

Nick Curtain
Model Master
Posts: 1768

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Re: Stubble

Ah thanks Luis. That's kind of the result I ended up with using the blue channel too.
Nick

Posted on 27/09/11 6:28:19 PM

Martti
*
Posts: 53

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Re: Stubble

Steve, Luis & Nick,

Thank you for all the replies, perhaps too much
of rocket science at least for me.
Anyways I'm thrilled to have come by something that
does not easily lend itself to PS manipulation.

/Martti

Posted on 27/09/11 8:04:50 PM

LonnieK
Diorama Dreamer
Posts: 238

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Re: Stubble

Another method you may wish to try for selecting the hairs, Martti, is:

1. Duplicate the layer
2. Use Dust & Scratches to remove just the stubble.
3. Change the mode to difference.
4. Copy one of the resulting channels and use levels to enhance the selection.
5. Hide (or delete) the duplicate layer as it is no longer needed.
6. Use the selection to do what you will with the hairs.

HTH