How To Create A Glamour Headshot In PSPx2

Photography is one of my ultimate passions. I'm known for taking my camera everywhere and taking so many pictures of my children. I literally have thousands. I loved posed, as I've used in this case and fortunately one of my three daughters is a willing participant. I love candids and will sit and watch them through the lense of my Sony DSC-H50 and wait for that magical moment. A perfect profile, a laugh, a moment of contemplation.

Another of my passions is editing all of my photographs, making them the best they can be or more creative with Corel's Paint Shop Pro Ultimate x2. This tutorial is a simple way to take a nice photograph and create something magical.

Below you will see the Cropping tool highlighted on the left side tool menu. Center the face, the model, or subject's eyes should be your focal point. I usually crop portraits at least twice. The first time (first picture) a larger crop, once you click the green check mark on the crop box you can make the decision if the photograph can be cropped further. In the second screen, you can see I decided to go in a little closer, eliminating more of the background and really bringing her eyes more to the center.

Click on the Adjust menu and click on Smart Photo Fix. The screen will appear as illustrated below. The Smart Photo Fix will do an automatic adjustment, however, you can adjust Brightness, Shadows, Highlights, Color Saturation, and Sharpness to your liking. You can also adjust Blacks and Whites of the photograph. I toggle off and on the Preview on Image option at the top to see how the larger image is being adjusted.

On this photograph, I lowered the brightness level as it somewhat washed her out, added more color saturation, and increased the whites to make her stand out more against the white background.

She's a beauty, but no one is perfect so let's do some touching up. The Options under the Makeup Tool Bar are Blemish Remover, Toothbrush, Eye Drop (adds a tear), Suntan, and Thinify.

In the picture above she has a small scar on her left eye and a few blemishes on her forehead. We're going to get rid of those. Simply click on Blemish Remover, zoom in to pinpoint blemishes, adjust the size of your tool, larger or smaller and click so that the blemish is in the center circle of the tool. Apply this carefully, it is a sensitive tool and will sometimes obscure your image. You can always hit the undo button, zoom in further on your photograph and adjust your tool size, if this happens.

So now that we have cropped her, adjusted her, and de-blemished her, let's give her a bit of glamour. PSP Ultimate x2 has this built in filter. You'll see in the example below, click on the Effects Menu and Film and Filters. The Film and Filter Screen comes up. Under the Film Looks drop down menu select Glamour. This adds a beautiful glow and softens the photograph.

There is also a Creative Filters drop down menu, which adds coloring. Below that a preview of the coloring and a density adjustment. I did not opt for any of those here. Strictly glam. When completed click OK and the filter screen will close.

Now, she needs a true Glamour Headshot frame. As the photos illustrate below. Select the Image Menu and select Picture Frame. The Picture Frame Screen will pop up and click on the Picture frame drop down menu. There are many frames and silhouettes that come standard, you can also download additional frames from Corel's website or create your own frames.

Below I've selected the frame entitled Film, once you select a frame you will see the preview on the right. The options below that I have selected are Frame current layer. Frame outside of image (displays more of the image inside the frame), and Rotate frame right so that the film strip appears on the sides and not on top and bottom as shown in the frame selection window.

Click OK to apply the frame to your picture and you will exit the Picture Frame Screen.

The end result is a Fabulous Hollywood Glamourized Head Shot.

Remember, as I always recommend to preserve your original photograph (ex. headshot1) and use the Save As option to save the adjusted one. (ex. headshot glam 1)