There are tons of different ways and several products on the market that people buy to reduce the appearance of bags under their eyes. So it shouldn't be a shock when a client asks you to help them out and reduce or remove the bags under their eyes in the photo. Just as there are many ways to reduce the appearance in real life, there are many ways to do it in Photoshop as well.
Depending if your subject is either male or female, Unmesh Dinda from PiXimperfect shows a different process on how he removes the bags under the subject’s eyes for each. His stance is for males you should reduce the wrinkles and folds but for females, you should remove. I don’t quite agree with that, when I retouch my subject I reduce no matter what their gender may be.
My method of removing bags under the eyes is similar to the technique he shows using the patch tool with fade patch selection to reduce the wrinkles but with a different tool very slightly combined with curve layers for dodging and burning. To wrap it up, I use Dani Diamond’s method to blend the skin tones under the eyes which I came across a few years ago here on Fstoppers. As I said before, there are several different ways to achieve the similar results but I see it as learning as many ways as possible and using the right one for the job.
Give it a try, test the different methods out and see which one works best for you. What is your favorite method for removing bags under the eyes?
I guess there's a lot of room for interpretation between "reduce" and "remove." I've never been very successful doing a full removal without something looking strange. An unnatural under-eye seems to attract as much attention as dark circles. It most often ends up being a full strength pass with whatever tool and then using the "Fade" command to bring back some believability into the portrait.
Personally, I reduce instead of removing as I agree with you where complete removal looks weird.
Doing the lighting clone first saves you from having that mushy dark effect when removing. I copy layer, remove and then fade that layer. Softens without making plastic.
The thing to remember is that the eyeball is a ball, and it must show a lower shaded underside, even though that's under the lower eyelid. There needs to be that hint of a shadow defining the ball.
Removing eyebags this way is destroying the texture of the skin. I think it would be better to approach it with frequency seperation and with a layer beneath the highpass layer (set on blending mode color) paint with a brush with a low flow with the lighter colors around the eyebags. This way you preserve texture.
Oh wow! That was bad :/
The look is "more mature," suggesting that he more likely has his life in order and is more accomplished. Like the difference between Dane DeHaan in "Valerian" and Daniel Craig in "Skyfall." The craggy, more mature look is more acceptable as someone who has become a top-notch government agent.
hahahahaha just shaking my head
this overcooked face look using portraiture plugin or bad editing like this and FS done wrong is the new spot color :)
but McDonalds food IMHO is garbage yet so many go there ? so guess this is like McD editing :)
I can't imagine there being an eye ball in there. The cheekbone also looks odd and the eye socket. Perhaps I wouldn't notice it if not for the comparison before image...
Dani Diamond is a great photog and retoucher IMO. But there's no comparison between his techniques and this video. Unmesh however has produced some excellent video instructionals, but this one isn't one of them. That's a fact...
I Agree, Dani Diamond is amazing at his work! This was not a professional retouch video at all.
I would refrain from removing the shadow from the bottom eyelid. The under eye bag is definitely a good one to reduce or remove, but the lack of a bottom lid tends to add a bit of an uncanny quality that makes the face look surreal.
I didn't watch the video. To me, the "after" photo for this article is not good. I don't mean to be rude. I do a round of FS just for the eyes, group it and reduce the opacity of the group to an improved, yet still natural result. Hope this is helpful in this discussion.