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Quick Retouching Trick For Slimming Portraits in Lightroom

Hi Gang, and happy Friday. Here’s a quick retouching trick on how to make people look slimmer. This is something we used to have to jump over to Photoshop for in the past, but Adobe added something into Lightroom in a while back that made the process quick and easy, and keeps us right inside Lightroom the whole time.

slimming1

STEP ONE: Open the portrait you want to apply the slimming effect to, then click on the Lens Correction panel (the Lens Correction panel? Yes, the Lens Correction panel!), and click on the Manual Tab (the Manual Tab? Yes, the Manual Tab!).

slimming2

STEP TWO: Go to the Aspect slider (the slider we use to flatten out our image or make it taller after we’ve done a major lens correction) and drag it to the right. As you drag to the right it compresses the image toward the center (like you’re squeezing the image together from the sides) and that makes your subject look slimmer. You’ll have to recrop to remove the white gaps at the left and right side, or just turn on the Constrain Crop checkbox at the bottom of the panel. The farther you drag to the right, the thinner your subject appears. Of course, if you drag too far, it’s looks obviously retouched, so don’t get carried away — less is usually more when it comes to retouching.

 

slimming3

BEFORE/AFTER: here’s a side-by-side so you can compare the took (look at the width of her face in the two shots above). Again, I didn’t over-do it — the idea is to make your subject look 10 – 15-lbs. lighter, not 50-lbs. lighter.

slimming4a

ABOVE: You can see the difference a slight tweak makes. Again, the key is — less is more.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Best,

-Scott

P.S. Come see me in New York next Wednesday. I’ll be teaching my “Lightroom Seven Point System” class live. Here’s the link with details. 

 

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29 comments

  1. Tomas Jech 19 February, 2017 at 17:00 Reply

    I am using Lightroom CC an Photoshop CC – you refer here and in your Photoshop of Lightroom Users to Aspect Slider in Lens Correction Panel under Manual Tab. I do not have that slider at all – how would you do the slimming in the CC versions?

  2. Simon Grosset 4 March, 2016 at 04:59 Reply

    I think this is your best tip yet! I’d never have thought of using the lens correction panel. I assume by moving the slider to the right you can make someone look fatter, too?
    But like the adjustment itself, this is something I’d use sparingly, and only on the client’s instruction….

  3. Sharon 1 March, 2016 at 02:03 Reply

    The girl’s adjustment is perfect. The guy’s head has elongated alien-like proportions in the after photo.

  4. Frank 26 February, 2016 at 09:50 Reply

    Some “surface” retouching, such as a slight softening of the skin in a portrait of a woman, or removing temporal conditions, such as acne, have been done since the very first camera was invented by B and H PhotoVideo, either in camera or in the darkroom.

    I see no appeal, however, to altering skeletal structure or an excess of epidermis, however subtle. This is not a matter of morality, but taste (unless it’s a client requirement). And what if the poor subject is too thin (is there such a thing?)? Do we as photographers/retouchers have to learn a technique to add fat cheeks to their face? (CTRL-ALT-fat on Windows, CMD-OPT-fat on a Mac.)

    Both subjects in the article look fine in the original photos, perhaps even better. If a person has a full face, as does the woman, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be mistaken for being a relative of Jabba the Hutt.

    • Zawinul 28 February, 2016 at 21:51 Reply

      Frank, I concur with you on your statement how much is enough, I’ve seen post work edits on people and just shake my head they might have looked that way 20+ years ago but not today.

  5. Sarah 26 February, 2016 at 09:13 Reply

    It’s nice and subtle. I can see using the technique if you don’t have a lot of time to pose in a flattering stance- especially when shot straight on. Rather than using it deceive reality,I see it used to correct a poor shot back to reality. Cool, thanks Scott.

  6. Mark 26 February, 2016 at 07:16 Reply

    Unless your doing a fashion shoot with a model I would never do this.

    You can shoot at different angles to make people look a little slimmer.

    To me it is what it is. I would bet most people would not even relize the photo of the man has been slimmed. So why do it!

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