Photzy

HOW TO REMOVE A DOUBLE CHIN

Short Photography Guide
Written by Kent DuFault

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 There is an old saying that goes something like this those techniques, some retouching may improve the
photograph; but dont go overboard.
In this world nothing can be said to be certain,
except death and taxes. I believe that saying is This technique is for those folks who really dont have
attributed to Benjamin Franklin. a double chin and one just showed up due to the
pose or lighting. It will also work on folks who are
No offense to Mr. Franklin, but I think something must
getting a double chin but theyve just started down
be added to that list.
that path.
It is certain that no one wants a portrait of themselves
The subject in the photographs that Im going to
with a double chin hanging down in all of its glory.
share with you today is a young man just seventeen
Today, Im going to show you how to eliminate a years old. Hes not fat by any means, but hes heavy.
double chin. But before I do that, I want to clarify I would call him stocky. In normal conversation you
one thing. wouldnt look at him and say he has a double chin.

If someone is extremely overweight, and they have I recently took his high school senior portraits and
a large double or triple chin, you cant fix it with this he had a double chin in just about every shot.
technique, nor should you want to. With a subject Needless to say, I got good at removing the double
such as this, if you remove those layered chins it will chin. This technique that Im going to share with
no longer look like them. A subject that is severely you might seem a little daunting at first, but after
overweight must be dealt with in the lighting and in youve done it a few times it can be accomplished
the pose when creating the picture. After applying fairly quickly.

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 My high school senior was a perfect example
of where this technique could be applied.

He certainly would have been most unhappy

if I had delivered all of his portraits with a
double chin!
Figure 1: Photograph by Kent DuFault

Take a look at a before and after photograph.

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 1
With the image opened up in our
Workspace, we go to the Filter
Menu and select the Liquify filter.

Figure 2: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 We are now inside the
Figure 3: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault Liquify Workspace Window

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 2

We will set our image view (within the Liquify

Figure 4: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault Workspace) to 100% (if your monitor size will not
accommodate that, use the largest image magnification
that your computer setup will allow). We want to see the
entire chin and neck area at the largest magnification
possible (up to 100%; dont go over that).

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 Identify the natural chin line and
Figure 5: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault
the double chin line.

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 3 Now were going to begin the process
of Creating a Mask. This part is very
important because it tells Photoshop what
areas we dont want to be affected, and
which ones we do. The areas in red will
not be affected. We can change the color
of the mask if we want to. For me, the red
usually works best.

First well select the Masking Tool. Depending on which

version of Photoshop you are working with, it will simply
be labeled Masking Tool, and the tool below that will be
Figure 6: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault labeled Eraser Tool. Photoshop CC 2015 changed the
names of these tools. See my next illustration for some help
with that. We are going to paint a mask that follows the
natural chin line and the collar of the subjects clothing.

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 In Photoshop CC 2015, the masking tool is now
called the Freeze Mask Tool. The tool right
below it used to be called the Eraser Tool.
In Photoshop CC 2015 its called the Thaw
Figure 7: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault Mask Tool. Why they changed the name? Who
knows! It works exactly the same.

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 When we create the mask, we want to be able to see it. Therefore
we must make sure that Show Mask is checked. We also want to
leave as much skin as possible exposed between the natural chin
line and the collar on the clothing. Ill explain why in a moment. It is
not necessary to mask the rest of the picture. Notice how the mask
we have created has formed a corral around the double chin and
neck areas. All the work is going to be done in the corral so the
surrounding areas are protected.

Figure 8: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 You can clean up the edges of your
mask using the Eraser Tool or (as
previously indicated in Photoshop CC
2015) the Thaw Mask Tool.

Figure 9: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 Now comes the fun part. Were going to select the tool with the little extended
finger. Again, Adobe changed the name. It used to be called the Warp Tool. Now
its called the Forward Warp Tool. We want to turn the mask off by unchecking
Show Mask. Doing this will give us an unobstructed view of our edits. We
dont have to worry about messing up other parts of the photograph because we
know the mask is still there. We simply cant see it. We now select a brush size
that extends from the natural chin line to the top of the collar. The Pressure
and Density setting are right there next to the Brush Size. I always leave the
density at the default setting of 50. We will begin our work with the pressure set
at the default setting of 40. When were almost done, well reduce it to 20 for the
final touches. Essentially, the pressure setting determines how fast and how much
movement is going to occur when you push it with the Forward Warp Tool. We
are going to place our brush in the areas below the natural chin line and above the
collar and we are going to push up. We are essentially pushing the double chin up
under the natural chin. I want you to study the area in the red circle on the boys
neck. If you push too hard or too far in one concentrated area, youll get strange,
unnatural looking marks on the skin. Work gently and slowly. After we finish pushing
up, the double chin has been reduced to a thin line beneath the natural chin. (Look
at the two arrows above the natural chin line and pointing downward.) When were
happy that weve successfully pushed up the chin without marring the neck area,
our work in Liquify is done. We accept the changes and return to the Photoshop
Workspace. We are now going to get rid of the line that was left by our squished
up double chin.

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 Figure 10: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 Now we are going to eliminate that white line that was left
behind when we pushed up the chin (see the red circle). Select
the Clone Tool. Set the hardness of the brush to 25%. We
must make sure that we are viewing our image at 100%. We
want to use a brush that is fairly small. I put a blue dot on this
image so that you could get a feel for the size of the brush that
I was using. If you look at the red arrow to the left of the red
Figure 11: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault
circle, youll see that I have already cloned out some the white
line already. I wanted you to see what it looked like before and
after. I made my selection from the skin area on the neck and
just below the white line. The opacity was set at 100%.

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 You can see in Figure 12 how I have continued to clone
out the white area below the natural chin line. I want
you to notice the angled shadow falling below his chin
Figure 12: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault
line and onto his neck. This is a natural stopping spot.
Whenever youre editinga face especiallynever do
more than you have to! Look for natural starting and
stopping points, and have a plan ready.

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 Figure 13: Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault
4

As a last step, you want to create an almost invisible hard edge along the shadow side
of the chin. Reduce the size of your brush to about 1/2 to 1/4 of the size that it was for the
previous cloning, set the opacity to 70% and the hardness to 0. This time we will sample
from above the chin line. Drag your brush along the chin line (see the red arrows). Youre
just trying to give a little edge to that side of the chin. Finally, if you feel like you have
visible stretched skin marks on the neck area (from the pushing in Liquify), use the Clone
Tool, set the opacity to 45, and set the brush size to about 70% of the neck area. Set the
Feather of the Brush to 20. The blue dot in Figure 13 indicates the size of the brush
that I used for this image. Click on an area of the neck that has good texture and similar
tone. Then click lightly in several spots over the area that youre trying to fix. For this
image, I repaired the neck area below the three red arrows.

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 Here is the final portrait with the
double chin removed, and we have a
happy customer.

Figure 14: Photo by Kent DuFault

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 About the Author

IF YOUD LIKE TO CONTINUE

LEARNING AND IMPROVING YOUR
PHOTOGRAPHY PLEASE VISIT
PHOTZY.COM

Kent DuFault is a professional photographer and author.

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