Enhancing your pictures in an image editing program
There’s nothing wrong with adding a final touch with the help of an image editor as long as you don’t change the pic too much (you want your date to recognize you if you decide to go out).
Below I provide a small tutorial where I remove 15 or so years from the world-famous composer György Ligeti's face so that noone will complain about any weird beauty ideal.
For this, I used Adobe Photoshop Elements, a great program for graphic editing. These tips work with the regular (and more expensive) Photoshop as well.
Before pic - let's get started!
Boy, has that guy got wrinkles. I doubt he will get any messages at all to his account. We've gotta do something to help him!
Open Photoshop Elements and select Edit and Enhance Photos. To view, click the screenshot below:
Cloning tool
First of all, use the zoom tool to work with a larger image:
To remove the bags under the eyes I use the cloning stamp:
Hold ALT and click the area you want to clone. Use the stamp as a brush and cover the flaws. Hold ALT and click to clone evey once in a while.
Click the image below to view a screenshot:
One eye done, one to go.
Brush with low opacity
Set Opacity (in the upper tool list) to a low value (for example 42%) and use the brush tool: Since removing the lines completely around the mouth would look funny, I just made them a little more discreet by brushing over them. Use the eyedropper tool to determine the color:
Click the image below to view a screenshot:
Looks a little better, huh?
I combine the brush tool and the clone stamp to remove some wrinkles on the eyelids and on the forehead:
I use the eyedropper tool again to determine the color of the white of the eyes. The brush size it set to 2 pixels. Set the size in the upper tool list. Click to view the screenshot of this operation:
I also use a combination of the cloning stamp and the brush tool to fix the eyebrows. The result so far:
Lighten up your picture
If you're only going to perform one operation on your pics, it should be lightening them up. Most analog cameras and many digital cameras take pictures that are a little too dark. Also, any flaws in your face will be smoothed out.
Play around with the controls to see what looks best. I chose to increase the Lighten Shadows value and decrease the Midtone Contrast.
The color of his face has become a little warmer and he's starting to look like a nice guy! My grandma would totally click on his profile after this.
Learn from the pros about image editing
There are hundreds of books and courses out there with detailed image editing instructions.
I didn't bring up how to make cool and flashy backgrounds for your pics, but yeah, that's definitely a thing that can make more people look your way on web communities. A professional background instead of your living-room (possibly messy) will cause your pictures to rack up some extra points for sure.
WARNING: Image editing can be very addictive once you've started!
