If you’re a Fashion Blogger who edits his/her own pictures or a Photographer, this post is for you. It’s going to be a really simple explanation of how you can Contour and highlight your face on Adobe Photoshop. There are hardly 5 steps and the results are incredible. Though I would like to mention, I didn’t create this method, I learned it from various sources like YouTube and thought I might share it with you today. So, choose a picture, open Photoshop and keep reading on!

Firstly, if you don’t have Photoshop installed, download it by clicking here. This technique works only on the desktop version of Adobe Photoshop.

Opening the image and adjusting lighting

When you’ve installed and opened Photoshop on your desktop, go to ‘File’ in the top menu bar and select ‘New’. A dialog box appears from which you can select the picture you want to edit. Find it and hit ‘Open’. I would suggest that you fix the lighting in the picture before we begin editing on the face. If the picture is a bit blown out, bring down the highlights or if it is too dark, bring up the blacks. You can perform all these changes by going to  Filter>Camera Raw Filter.

Create Curves Adjustment Layer in Photoshop

Now that the lighting has been fixed, we’ll get onto the real business. On the panel that you see on the right hand, at the bottom, you’ll see an icon which looks like this – . Click on it and select ‘Curves’. This creates an adjustment layer of curves. Hold the curve from the center and pull it upwards to blow up the picture with brightness. Really, do it. Similarly, create a Curves adjustment layer again and this time pull the curve down from the middle to darken the image.

Read Also: 5 Minute High-end skin retouching | Photoshop Tutorial

Rename the layer where you’ve increased the brightness to ‘Highlight’ and the layer where you decreased the brightness to ‘Contour’. Click on the Highlight Layer to select it and press Ctrl+I to invert it. Same thing with the Contour Layer. Select the Contour Layer by clicking on it choose the ‘Brush Tool’ from the panel you see on the left. It looks like this-

After selecting this tool, below the top menu, you’ll see a new bar just showed with options like opacity and flow. Keep the flow to about 60-70% and opacity to 90%. Now, here comes the magic! Paint with the help of this brush on the face. Take a cue from the image given below, you’ve got the Contour layer selected, so paint in on the regions where the contour goes in normal makeup. Simply draw thin lines.

After drawing the lines, go to the properties of the contour layer by clicking on the second rectangle you see in the layer. Keep on slowly increasing the ‘Feather’. See it yet? To a value of about 60-70, the lines you drew, spread out and the contour is done! Do the same thing with Highlight Layer. If the contouring is changing the color of the skin, change the ‘Blend Mode’ from ‘Normal’ to ‘Luminosity’.  You can also decrease the opacity to get the perfect amount of makeup on. All these options can be found right above the panel that shows the layers you have. Loving it? Let me know in the comments below if you have any doubts.

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The post How to Contour and Highlight Face on Photoshop appeared first on GarimaShares.