There's wildlife in my hair!

'Sup Buzznet? To make up for my uber lack of tutorials in the recent past, I shall be covering oodles of material in one big fat journal! Such material as...

• Basic lighting correction for portraits (Pre-airbrush fixer-uppers)
  
• Clearing up blemishes, wrinkles, zits, and unevennes on skin using various tools
  
• Cleaning up hairlines
• Defining eyes with lashes
  
• Changing eye/hair color
  
• Getting sharp, professional results from a not professional photo
  

Disclaimers:

1. You must have basic knowledge of tools, layers, and menu options to follow these lessons easily. So, if you're not accquainted with Photoshop yet, be prepared to Google.
2. Your photo must be relatively closeup (anything zoomed in closer than bust, head, and shoulders) and have fairly even lighting. No damaged photos: Airbrushing does not equal repairing. 
3. You must download this set of eyelashes for Lesson Four to work.

Enough of that jibber jabber. Let's get started already!

Lesson One: Basic Ligthing Correction (Preparing for Spot-Editing)
This entails: The Dodge And Burn tools

**If your photo is ready to airbrush, the lighting is satisfactory, and you're happy with the color scheme, skip to Lesson Two.**

Anypoop, this is our image:

I don't want to edit the lighting TOO much before I begin spot-editing (airbrushing,) but to make it easier on myself, I'm going to take the dodge tool to the shadow-y bits:

Notice how my brush is set to Midtones, at 20% exposure? DON'T MIMICK THIS. Your photo may be vastly different, so play around with settings. Remember, you can always undo.

Pft. That's not very attractive, is it? Well, no. But be patient: The goal of this lesson is to make it as easy as possible to do spot-editing.

Judge for yourself if you need to burn any too-bright bits. (Not needed for this photo.)

Lesson Two: Spot-Editing (Eliminating blemishes, uneven tones, and cleaning up the hairline)
This entails: The Patch and Heal Brush toolsm multiple layers, and the Clone Stamp

Moving right along, it's time to clear up the nasty patches on this lovely model's face! We'll start with the Patch tool.

This tool works just like the selection tool: You click when you want to begin selecting, drag your mouse to encase the selection, and let go of the mouse when you're done selecting.

(Make sure you're zoomed in so you can see details)

Notice how I've selected a spot on her skin? ALWAYS SELECT THE UNCLEAN AREA WITH THE PATCH TOOL.

Now, all you have to do is CLICK INSIDE THE SELECTED AREA, DRAG TO A CLEAN AREA, AND PHOTOSHOP WILL FILL IT IN.

This screenshot was taken while I was sourcing a clean patch of skin for photoshop to use in order to fill in the spotted area. Don't get it? Check out this video.

Now photoshop has mixed together your selection, with the sourced selection you clicked and dragged. Deselect.

Behold! You now have a beautifully clear patch of skin, using nothing but the Patch tool!

No wai!!! Keep going through all the blemished parts of skin, using the Patch tool. And the results are beautiful!

Hey, wait! What the heck is up with those uneven tones? They must go!! But how? Um, with the Heal Brush tool!!!

This works exactly same as the clone tool: Hold ALT (OPTION, on Mac) and click a clear patch of skin, then click the uneven patch. It will automatically fill in. Don't get it? Check out this video.

Zoom in for this process, and you'll see fabulous results.

Yay! Continue using these tools until the face of your model is smooth and clear.

SPECIAL TECHNIQUE: HARD CORE CLONING: Please skip if you're not confident with Photoshop

Source a large, clean area of skin WITH A LARGE BRUSH in the clone tool, such as a cheek. DO NOT CLICK OVER THE UNEDITED AREA YET.

Add a new (blank) layer.

NOW click over the unedited area, while still in your new layer, until it is clear. It will look very stupid at first:

Yeah, she's got an eyeball in her hair. That's why we're doing this in a separate layer. ERASE ALL THE AREAS THAT THE NEW LAYER IS INTRUDING. (Such as, the eyeball in the hair thing.)

Use the move tool to increase the size of the clean layer, covering all of the unedited layer, as shown above.

Now use the BURN AND DODGE TOOLS to darken and brighten certain parts of this layer, making it look more like it belongs. Remember to vary the brush size, exposure, and shadow/midtone/hightlght settings and undo when you mess up!

FINALLY, USE LEVELS AND COLOR CORRECTION TO MAKE THIS LAYER BLEND IN COMPLETELY.

This, coupled with some careful use of the DODGE, BURN, AND SPONGE tools, has beautiful results:

For fun, scroll up to the top and see how different the image already looks. Seriously.

Lesson Three: Defining Eyes With Lashes
This entails: The Paintbrush tool, the move tool, and separate layers.

This is a fun and cheap alternative to buying fake eyelashes: Photoshop those babies in! First, you'll need to download* these eyelash brushes from DeviantArt and FOR GOD'S SAKE, FOLLOW THE STOCK RULES.

*There is an orange icon on the left side of the screen that says "download." Click it, then you'll have the file. Double click it to open it in Photoshop.

Create a new layer.

Working in that this new layer, select the Paintbrush tool.

Find your eyelash brush and click once to make it show up. Use the Move tool (with transform controls on) to adjust the lash to fit the eye.

Now COPY AND PASTE THIS LASH AND FIT IT TO THE TOP AND BOTTOM LIDS OF BOTH EYES. If the lashes are too long, use the Eraser tool.

Okay, that does femme up the face a little, but it also looks incredibly fake. How do we remedy this? By going back to our Background layer! Use the burn tool around the eyes to make them darker.

*You will want to zoom out for this.*

Well that just looks ridiculous. Merge all the eyelash layers by selecting them in the layer palette, right-clicking, and selecing "Merge Layers."

Then you must trim the lashes with the eraser tool.

Eh, a bit better, but still not perfect. What are we doing wrong? Oh yeah: NORMAL PEOPLE DON'T HAVE BLACK BIG, BUSHY BLACK EYELASHES. (Unless they happen to be Jeffree Star. If you want to look like him, you're done by this step.)

Go to your layer palette and blend the eyelash layer in OVERLAY mode.

You may also need to decrease the OPACITY to make the lashes look real. I set mine to 70%, and wound up with this!

Isn't that lovely? (Mind you, the photo isn't done: For the lashes to look UBER real, the whole photo will need more contrast. Hop to it!)

Lesson Four: Changing Eye/Hair Color
This entails: Separate layers, the Eraser tool, Curves, and Color Correction

Select, copy, and paste your model's eyes (just the irises.)

Now go ahead and change the colors and curves however you want!

Now erase everything around the irises with a small and soft brush.

Zoom out to see your lovely eyes!

YOU CAN USE THE SAME TECHNIQUE FOR HAIR! Copy and paste around it, change the color, then erase!

Now flatten the image.

Do your usual curves/contrast adjustments:

Only one step to go!!

Lesson Five: Sharpening/Finishing Touches
This entails: The Unsharp Mask

Apply an Unsharp Mask, paying close attention to the Preview. Keep fiddling with the settings until it looks sharp, but not different in color.

This is the final product, after the Unsharp Mask, a bit of dodging, and a color edit to the eyebrows. (Same technique as eyes and hair.)

Questions? Ask em here.

By the way: This journal is probably laced with spelling errors. I care not.