Zoom In for Photoshop Liquify

A thing which I find hard to do with liquify is that there is not enough details while you are editing. The liquify edit window lowers the resolution of the image in order to speed things up.

A neat and common technique is to copy the region you intend to liquify, paste it into a new image, then apply liquify on that smaller image. Copy and paste it back to the original image when done. This approach has several advantages:

- the original image layer is not altered, the liquified image segment is pasted in as new layer

- while doing the liquify, you have a higher resolution image to work with. Preview is closer to the end result.

Here is the step-by-step guide:

1. This is the original image. I have decided to use a male model since female models will complain when I show their ugly pre-edited photos ; )

His eyes are a bit sleepy. We are going to use liquify to open them up a bit.











2. Select and copy the eye region. Make sure there is more than enough margin around the intended edit area. Paste this into a newly created file.





3. Now choose Filter -> Distort -> Liquify. Open up the eyes slightly by bringing the middle upper lids upwards. Pull up the neighboring area to ensure the eye shape is still intact. Lift the outer ends of the eyes slightly if the eyes look droopy.


4. Once done, copy the edited eyes, and paste it back to the original image. It will automatically be created as a new layer. You can activate and deactivate the layer to see the before and after effect.