GIMP Tips¶

Overview¶

Emily: Hey girlfriend! Yep—there are a few solid paths to “de-ridge” a brow before you train a LoRA. Here’s what works well without wrecking identity or skin texture.

Pixel Retouch¶

Photoshop / GIMP

Goal: soften the supraorbital ridge (above the eye sockets) while keeping pores & hair intact.

Liquify (Face-Aware helps)
Convert layer to Smart Object (non-destructive).
Filter ▸ Liquify → use Forward Warp with a large, soft brush, low pressure (5–15%).
Nudge the ridge inward/upward a few pixels; also raise outer brow tail slightly to create a gentler arc.
If available, Face-Aware Liquify: tweak Brow Height ↑ a touch and Brow Tilt for a softer shape.
Dodge/Burn to kill the “ridge” shadows
New blank layer set to Soft Light; paint with low-opacity black/white.
Dodge (midtones) the shadow just under the ridge; Burn (highlights) lightly on the upper forehead to flatten contrast.
Frequency Separation (texture safety net)
Run FS (8–12 px blur radius usually fine for forehead).
Do contour tweaks on the low-freq (color/volume) layer; leave the high-freq (pores) layer untouched so skin stays real.
Finish
Heal/clone any wiggles on the brow edge.
Tiny High-Pass (Overlay, 0.7–1.2 px) pass if you lost snap.

Batching: record an Action (Liquify + Dodge/Burn steps at light strength) and run File ▸ Automate ▸ Batch so the whole set gets the same treatment—consistency matters for LoRA.

ComfyUI inpaint¶

Keep Identity

Goal: small structural rewrite via diffusion, but locked to the same face.

Nodes (one good recipe):
SDXL (or your base) + IP-Adapter FaceID (or InstantID) with a clean reference of the same person.
Create a tight mask over the ridge & a sliver of forehead (avoid eyebrows/hairline).
Inpaint with denoise 0.18–0.30, CFG 4–6, 25–35 steps.
Prompt nudge: “soft forehead, smooth supraorbital area, subtle brow arc, natural skin texture”. Put “prominent brow ridge, heavy brow, bossing” in negative.
If needed, run FaceDetailer only on the masked region (don’t let it rework the whole face).

Tip: Keep the mask narrow. Multiple light passes beat one heavy pass (identity stays truer).

Re-shoot Sources¶

Soft frontal fill (big diffuser) plus a slight top fill kills the shadow band that makes a ridge look harsher. Even 3–5 cleaner sources mixed into the set can steer training.

Dataset-Training Guardrails¶

Be consistent. Don’t mix heavily edited with totally unedited; apply the same light treatment across all.
Curation beats correction. Prefer angles/lighting that minimize the ridge.
Captions: include a style token like “soft brow”; and during inference always negative-prompt “prominent brow ridge”.
Don’t overdo geometry. Big warps can drift identity; small, repeatable moves are safer.

Quick QC checklist¶

Zoom 100%—pores intact? brow hair edges clean?
Profile/¾ view still reads as the same person?
No banding/flatness on the forehead?
Apply identical tweaks across the batch.

If you want, tell me which route you’ll use (Photoshop/GIMP vs. ComfyUI inpaint), and I’ll jot a precise mini-workflow with settings tailored to your tools.

GIMP Specific¶

Perfect—GIMP can do this cleanly and non-destructively. Here’s a practical, repeatable workflow tuned for softening/removing a prominent brow ridge while preserving pores and identity.

Quick win¶

(10–15 min per image)

Goal: small geometry nudge + contrast flattening, without plastic skin.

Prep
Open the image → Duplicate the background (Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-D).
Name it 01–Warp. Keep the original hidden for A/B checks.
Subtle shape tweak (Warp Transform)
Tools ▸ Transform Tools ▸ Warp Transform (W).
Mode: Move Pixels; Deform radius large (150–300 px), Strength low (0.02–0.08).
With a very soft cursor, nudge the ridge inward/up a few pixels. Work symmetrically and tiny. Toggle the eye icon to compare with the original often.
Flatten the ridge shadow (Dodge/Burn on a tone layer)
New layer: Layer ▸ New ▸ Fill with: Transparency. Name 02–Tone.
Set its Mode = Soft light; Opacity ~10–20%.
Select the Paintbrush (B), low flow/opacity (10–15%).
Foreground white = lighten. Lightly paint under the ridge to lift the shadow band.
Foreground black = darken. Feather a touch above the ridge so highlight isn’t popping forward.
If you prefer tools: Dodge/Burn Tool (Shift-D), Range = Midtones, Exposure 5–10%; but the Soft-light brush is more controllable.
Edge cleanup
Heal Tool (H), small brush, sample nearby skin to fix any wobbly edges you introduced near the brow.
Avoid the eyebrow hairs; if you touch them, Clone Tool (C) with aligned sample, 30–50% opacity, single strokes along hair direction.
Micro-contrast snap (optional)
Merge a visible copy (Shift-Ctrl/Cmd-C then Edit ▸ Paste as ▸ New Layer) and name it 03–Snap.
Filters ▸ Enhance ▸ High Pass (Radius 0.7–1.2 px). Mode Overlay or Soft light, lower opacity to taste (10–30%). Mask it out everywhere except forehead/brow if needed.
A/B and mask control
If anything looks overdone, add a Layer Mask (White—full opacity) to 01–Warp or 02–Tone and softly paint black on the mask to ease back specific spots.

Pro, texture-safe¶

This method is the Wavelet/“frequency” approach

Goal: change shape/volume on low frequencies while preserving pores perfectly.

Wavelet Decompose
On the original image: Filters ▸ Enhance ▸ Wavelet decompose…
Scales: 5–7 is plenty for faces.
Keep “Create group” checked.
You’ll get a group with layers: Residual (low-freq volume) + several Scale N (high-freq detail).
Volume sculpt on Residual
Inside the wavelet group, select Residual.
Warp Transform (W) with a large, soft brush and very low strength (0.02–0.06), nudge the ridge as before. Because you’re on Residual, pores/hairs stay intact on the higher scales.
Shadow band fix at the right frequency
Still on Residual, add a Layer Mask (white).
Create a new layer above Residual but inside the group, set Mode = Soft light, name Residual–Tone.
Lightly paint white under the ridge / black above it to flatten contrast (same as the quick method), or use Dodge/Burn Tool on Residual with Midtones 5–10%.
If fine “creases” remain, hop to Scale 2 or 3 and very gently blur or heal just along the crease line:
Select Scale 2 (or 3) → Filters ▸ Blur ▸ Gaussian Blur (0.5–1.0 px) on a masked selection of the crease, or use Heal to break the micro-shadow line.
Global sanity
Collapse/close the Wavelet group eye icon to compare A/B.
If the forehead looks “too flat,” reduce Residual–Tone opacity first, then ease the Warp mask.
Commit for export
Duplicate the Wavelet group (for safety), then Layer ▸ New from Visible to produce a clean, flattened result for saving. Keep your layered file as the master.

Consistency¶

for LoRA datasets

Do every image the same way: duplicate background → warp (tiny) → tone layer → (optional) wavelet cleanup. Consistency > perfection.
Angles: prefer frontal/half-frontal, soft frontal fill light; avoid harsh top-down lighting that re-casts the shadow band.
Don’t over-flatten: a hint of natural brow is good. Over-smoothing can drift identity in training.

Handy Settings & Tips¶

(GIMP specific)

Brush settings: Hardness 0.00; dynamics off; Force/Opacity ~10–15% for painting. Use a big brush—let softness do the work.
Warp Transform: If you see ripples, lower Strength first; then increase Deform radius rather than pushing harder.
Masks are your safety net: If anything goes “plastic,” paint black on the mask to bring back original texture locally.
Batching: GIMP doesn’t have Photoshop-style Actions, but you can speed up with saved Tool Presets (Dockable Dialogs ▸ Tool Options ▸ Save) and, if you later need true batching, consider the BIMP plugin or a small Script-Fu for uniform tone-layer creation.

Export checklist¶

Save a layered .XCF master.
Export training images as PNG or high-quality JPEG (95–100), sRGB.
Keep EXIF consistent if you’re tracking sources.

Checklist¶

2-minute version (one gentle pass)¶

Duplicate layer → name 01–Warp.
Warp Transform (Move Pixels): Radius 200–300, Strength 0.03–0.05, super-soft brush.
One or two tiny nudges to the ridge (inward/up). Stop early.
New layer 02–Tone (Mode Soft light, Opacity ~15%).
Paint white lightly under the ridge (lifts shadow).
Paint black very lightly above it (tames highlight).
Layer Mask on 01–Warp or 02–Tone if anything feels overdone.
Save as .XCF (keep layers), then Export your PNG/JPEG.

What “good enough” looks like¶

The ridge shadow is less banded, but pores and brow hairs still read.
The forehead curve looks a touch rounder—not flat.
A/B toggle doesn’t scream “edit,” it just feels softer.

Safety rails¶

If you see plastic skin: lower 02–Tone opacity first; then paint black on its mask to ease back.
If you see ripples: undo, drop Strength, increase Radius, try again.
If you lose brow hair edges: fix with Heal/Clone at 30–40% opacity, strokes following hair direction.

When you’re ready for “pro mode” (later)¶

Wavelet Decompose (5–7 scales) → nudge only on Residual, do micro shadow fixes on Scale 2–3. This preserves pores perfectly, but don’t rush it.

Make a reusable template¶

Set up an .XCF with:
Background (your image)
01–Warp (empty)
02–Tone (Soft light, 15%)
Open each new photo, drag them into the template, and repeat the same micro steps. Consistency = better LoRA.

If you want, describe one photo’s angle/lighting and I’ll recommend exact Warp radius/strength and how much to paint on 02–Tone so you have a concrete starting point.

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