Photoshop retouches dark characters and enhances skin texture

Source: Colorism Author: Pig's Sorrow There is not much text in this tutorial, but the methods used are very practical, especially suitable for character refinement. For example, use a layer similar to neutral gray to enhance the brightness of the character's skin color.
Original picture

final effect
First, open the original film. The whole film looks gray, so let’s ignore it for now. Use the Liquify filter to liquefy the character’s legs. Then enlarge the picture to 100% and use the spot healing brush and stamp tool to repair the blemishes and spots on the character's skin. After retouching, the color levels will slightly brighten the image.

2. Create a new black and white adjustment layer, then create a 50% grayscale layer below the black and white adjustment layer, set the layer mode to "Soft Light", and use the Dodge tool on this layer (setting range: midtones, exposure: About 4%), erase the highlights of the character.

The layering and subjectivity of the characters have been enhanced after the previous step, but it is not enough. Now we use the curve tool to enhance the contrast of the background and characters respectively. Of course, this step requires the use of masks.

4. The coloring step is basically completed. Please note that you can choose your favorite method according to your preferences.

Create a Levels adjustment layer and set the parameters as shown below.

Finally, we stamp the above layer and execute: Filter > Other > High Contrast Preserve, set the radius to 1, change the layer mode to "Linear Light", give it a mask, and use a brush to sharpen it Wipe it with 30% transparency.

Final effect: