How To Adjust Facial Features In Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will learn how to adjust facial features in Photoshop. We will mainly work with two tools: The Puppet Warp Tool and The Liquify Filter. Both of these tools allow you to distort pixels in a controlled manner.

Use The Puppet Warp Tool To Adjust Facial Features

The Puppet Warp Tool is ideal for shaping hair and repositioning arms or legs, but it can also be used for adjusting facial features.

The Puppet warp places a visual mesh around your active pixels which can be distorted by pins that you place on the mesh. When you click and drag on a pin, you distort the image accordingly. You can add as many pins as you like, but you tend to get better results when you use fewer pins.

When you are working with the Puppet Warp tool remember to turn your layer into a Smart Object so that you can work nondestructively.

Adjusting Facial Features With Liquify Filter

The Liquify filter lets you push, pull, rotate, reflect, pucker, and bloat any area of an image, making it the ideal tool for adjusting facial features in Photoshop. Here’s a quick recap of the tools found in the Liquify Filter.

Face-Aware Liquify Tool

The Face-Aware Liquify is a tool that is specifically designed to make adjustments to facial features. I created a tutorial on this tool during the release of Photoshop CC 2015.5, so I will not go over it in this video.

Forward Wrap Tool

The Forward Wrap Tool pushes pixels forward as you drag.

Freeze Mask Tool 

This tool allows you to paint areas that you don’t want to be affected by the other distortion tools in the Liquify filter.

Pucker Tool

Moves pixels toward the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Bloat Tool

Moves pixels away from the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag. (The opposite of the Pucker Too.)

Twirl Tool

Rotates pixels clockwise as you hold down the mouse button or drag.

Reconstruct The Liquify Adjustments

The Reconstruct slider works a lot like the Fade command in the Edit menu. You can use this slider to fully or partially reverse any distortion made within the Liquify Filter.

keep Adjustments as Subtle as Possible

The image used in this video tutorial does not need any changes. The model’s face looks great the way it is. All the adjustments that we make in this video are not only unnecessary, but they’re also exaggerated and extreme. We will make these drastic changes because it makes it easier to demonstrate how the tools work.

The distortions you create can be subtle or drastic, but try to keep all your facial adjustments as subtle as possible.

Also, keep in mind that when working on any image, you never really want to make a drastic change. Always keep your changes subtle. That way they look more realistic, and you maintain the essence of the person.

In This Tutorial You Will Learn How To:

• 01:44 – Use Puppet Warp Tool
• 04:10 – Work with Smart Object
• 07:10 – Use The Liquify Filter’s Tools:
• 07:17 – Face-Aware Liquify
• 07:57 – Forward Warp Tool
• 08:44 – Freeze Mask Tool
• 09:29 – Pucker Tool
• 09:45 – Bloat Tool
• 09:57 – Twirl Clockwise Tool
• 11:21 – Reconstruct (Fade Liquify Adjustments)

Final Image

Drag The Slider To See Before & After