A double chin is the cause of complexes for many people. The most insidious thing is that sometimes it even appears in photographs of those who do not suffer from such a problem in real life. And the point is not that the person was nervous about the photo shoot and gained 20 kilograms from stress in half an hour — the culprit is almost always not the best angle or tilt of the head.

We are sharing two ways to carefully remove a double chin in Photoshop and thereby save the photo, as well as the client’s mood.

In order not to get chin frills, you need to work with the model during a photo shoot, but in the creative heat of the moment it is not always possible to control everything at once/ Photo: unsplash.com

How to remove a double chin — a simple case

A double chin is not always a huge problem that a photographer needs to wrestle with. Often it manifests itself in the form of a small unaesthetic bend. Most often this happens if a person lowers his head slightly. Especially if the model is facing the camera in profile. We tell you how to remove a double chin in Photoshop in a couple of minutes.

1. Open the photo and immediately make a duplicate layer so that, in case of an error, you will have a clean source: Layer / Layer — Create a duplicate layer / Duplicate Layer.

Name the layer Plastic and click OK / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

2. Now let’s move on to the main tool of this lesson — Liquify . It is located in the Filter menu.

3. Click on the finger icon. It is located on the left at the very top. This is the Forward Warp Tool , which is also activated by the W key.

Set the settings: Pressure — 10, Density — 10. This way the result will be smoother and more accurate / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

4. Now we remove the chin. This will happen due to the fact that we will move pixels from one place to another. Because of this, the jawline will move and become smoother and more aesthetically pleasing. To do this: left-click just below the jawline and, without releasing the button, move the pixels upward, towards the face.

Direction of brush movement / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

Important: The hardest part is choosing the right brush size. Don’t be shallow! The diameter of the brush should be slightly wider than the chin line, slightly overlapping it. It is impossible to give exact recommendations — it depends on the size of the photograph and how large the person is photographed. For example, for this full-size photo with a head-to-toe portrait, the Plastic brush size is 540 pixels. 

5. Click Ok to exit Liquify and save the changes.

Correcting a “simple” double chin using Photoshop took no more than two minutes / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

How to remove a double chin — a difficult case

The first thing photographers do when they need to remove a double chin or correct their figure is the Plastic filter in Photoshop. Indeed, the tool is simple and useful. When working with it, you just need to move the pixels in the desired direction to make a correction. 

In simple cases, as in the previous block, Plastic surgery in Photoshop also helps with a double chin. But not always. For complex cases, additional tricks are used, which we will discuss below.

If a person looks at the photographer directly, full face, it is naturally impossible to move the pixels with plastic surgery, since the chin bifurcates into two distinct lines / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

1. Open the photo and duplicate the source layer twice: Layer — Create a duplicate layer. For convenience, name the first copy Plastic and the second copy Jaw.

2. Stand on the top layer — Jaw. The purpose of this step is to trace and copy the correct shape of the lower part of the face so that it does not suffer from Plastic surgery.

3. Take the Pen Tool. It is located on the toolbar on the left, almost at the very bottom.

Zoom in on the photo so that you can see your face clearly. To do this, press the hot keys Ctrl +. Here the photo is zoomed in to 500% / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

4. Place points with the left mouse button and use the Pen to trace the outline of the chin. This can be done quite roughly.

Next to the Pen, find the Convert Point Tool. Left-click each point to round the outline / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

Advice: if it seems that the point is in the wrong place, take the white arrow tool Direct Selection Tool. It moves the point you clicked on.

5. Once you have traced the outline of the chin, turn it into a mask. Go back to the Pen tool and click on the Mask button on the top line.

The mask is gray. This is because the Pen tool is a vector tool. To make it normal, in the Layers palette, right-click on the mask and select Rasterize Vector Mask / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

6. Now it’s time to remove the double chin! Go to the Plastic layer and go to Filter — Liquify.

7. In the upper left corner, select the Forward Warp Tool in the form of a hand with an extended index finger.

In the upper right corner, set the settings: Density and Pressure — 10, Speed ​​- 0 . Select the size so that the diameter of the brush is slightly larger than the jaw line. In this example, when the photo is small and the person is photographed at full height, this is 35.

8. Without sparing your face, gently move your second chin upward. The effect will seem comical, but this is a temporary measure.

If you are afraid of deforming objects around you — jewelry, clothes, fingers, freeze them with the Freeze Mask Tool / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

9. When the result of Plastic surgery is applied, the following will happen: the double chin will tighten and disappear, and the jaw, which was copied earlier, will block the effect where it is not needed.

The effect is good, but the jaw line is too sharp. To make it natural, click on the mask and in Properties set the feathering to 1-2 pixels / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

10. Sometimes nine steps are not enough — the result still seems unnatural, since the shadow on the neck disappears under the jaw. To draw it, click on the Plastic layer. Click on the plus sign in the Layers palette and set the blending mode to Multiply on the empty layer.

Take the Eyedropper Tool and click on the shadow in the picture. Then switch to a regular Brush with Opacity 5-10 percent and paint the shadow / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

Important: if the shadow still seems too rough, in the Layers palette , reduce the opacity of the shadow layer. For example, in the screenshot above Opacity is 52%.

The double chin disappeared, the face became more toned / Screenshot: Elizaveta Chechevitsa

This method is relevant for cases of any complexity. The hardest thing for a photographer or retoucher here is to correctly outline the jaw line using a pen. 

3 tips on how to avoid getting a double chin

For those who like to solve problems proactively and prefer to work on set rather than sit in front of a computer, we have prepared three tips on how to avoid getting a double chin in photographs.

• Don’t photograph too much from below. The example photo from the previous block is the author’s mistake. In real life, the girl does not have a double chin, but the angle from below and the light from above were able to create it.
• Ask to slightly raise your chin and lower your shoulders. This way the neck line stretches out and becomes more aristocratic. 
• If the model is full, read the previous tips and combine them: shoot a little from above and ask to raise your head a little up. The main thing is that the facial expression remains natural, the emphasis does not move from the eyes to the forehead, and the eyebrows do not creep up.