Suntan Lines Fix

Suntan Lines Fix

As you may recall, a couple of weeks back I took a nice portrait of my friend Jennifer during August Break…

She was wanting to use it on her spa website, but the tan lines were kind of bugging her, so I offered to try and “fix” them in PSE9. After doing a bit of research, I ended up taking a two-step approach. First, I made a duplicate copy as a background layer – which I deleted and replaced many times as I was figuring things out. I used the clone stamp tool with a very large and fuzzy brush to fill in the “white” strap marks, sampling skin from adjacent areas and just “moving them over” really. The tan lines were magically gone, but her neck area was still pretty red in comparison, and stamping over it just made things… bad. So, step two – I added a new blank layer and then sampled some of her shoulder for a pale skintone which I (again with a large and fuzzy brush) essentially spray painted over the red with. A few opacity adjustments, flattening the image, and this is what it looks like now.

Not perfect, I’m sure, but so much better than it was. Woohoo PSE9, and go me! =)

2 Replies to “Suntan Lines Fix”

  1. Just my opinion, but I think it IS quite perfect.
    You must have done an amazingly accurate job of sampling the skin tone.
    This really looks fantastic, and I’ll bet she was really pleased with it.

    1. Isn’t that always the way, you can see your own “flaws” but not those of another? Thanks for the compliment, though. I tried really hard to make her look “natural”.=)

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