Skin job

[klam]

Here is a skin retouch I did for another photographer Rodrigo Portafolio::::RODRIGO PELAEZ::::Portafolio

This job was at least 7 hours of work and 30 something layers, a file size of 1GB. I didn't even retouch the hair!

-Made color corrections, increase exposure, contrast, for areas that needed attention in Adobe Camera RAW. Converted to sRGB 16bit so the file size is manageable and for displaying on web.

-Smoothed out the transition between highlights and shadows.

- Used healing brush and clone tool on blank layer to add or replace textures where needed. To also break up un-natural looking skin patterns. Removed/replaced anything that caught the attention of the eye(disruptive to the image) for example the bra clasp.

- After all the big noticeable flaws where taken care of I worked on the finer details using dodge & burn technique with a low opacity soft brush. This part took me the longest to complete. But the results are a lot better than using blur techniques for skin smoothing.

- Contouring was next. I didn't think the face needed to be contoured much if at all. But I did contour the breast a tad so to make them appear more round.

- I did color fixes for general areas like eye bags, lip line, arm pits, over saturated and under saturated areas, removed slight color cast.

- Liquefy body parts and facial features just a tad.
-Added contrast with slight "S" curve. Adjusted color tones again.
- Last step is to sharpen areas of image that needs to be sharper.

- I try to work non-destructive as I can so a lot of masks and layers are used.



"it's all about the details'
For higher resolution go to All available sizes | Skin retouch | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[i speak in math]

fantastic work.

Can you explain your techniques in a little more detail? For instance, healing brush and clone tool on blank layer. I wouldn't think the healing brush on a blank layer would have any effect on other layers. And what is your dodge & burn technique you mention?

[Seba]

@Klam - I really don't see those 7 hours of working on this portrait. All I see is a overall brigher photo ( 5 sec ), more saturated ( 5 sec ), and fixed up eye bag. Just to be clear, that isn't bad. But the skin on the right one glows, and looks greasy and way worse than on the non-processed photo.

Also, there are still visible pores in between her eyebrows, and you did nothing about her armpits.

Sry, but that's my opinion.

P.S. Oh, and I apologize, you pumped her breasts up too

[Shayno]

@Seba I think what he has done here is a very subtle ps process which I think looks great,

I do see how Seba sees this as not being 7 hours of work as they are subtle changes but any one who is familure with using PS properly could appreciate the effort you have put in.


Again great job.

[oldwolf]

Originally Posted by Shayno

@Seba I think what he has done here is a very subtle ps process which I think looks great,

I do see how Seba sees this as not being 7 hours of work as they are subtle changes but any one who is familure with using PS properly could appreciate the effort you have put in.


Again great job.

+1

Have to agree completely with Shayno. Great job.

The changes are subtle and to the uninitiated eye you wouldn't see anything too drastic if anything at all. I think the longest I ever spent post processing a picture was 4 hours though hehe.

[statichash]

Klam, I think you did an excellent job, navigating to flickr then viewing the original size photo allowed me to scroll left and right to compare on a much larger version of this image, I can definitely see the effort you put in on this photo. It's hard to see in the photo embedded in the post.

Your workflow does seem pretty complex but the resulting photo looks great! TFS

[klam]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

fantastic work.

Can you explain your techniques in a little more detail? For instance, healing brush and clone tool on blank layer. I wouldn't think the healing brush on a blank layer would have any effect on other layers. And what is your dodge & burn technique you mention?

For the healing brush and clone it is possible to set Sample: option to current and below, all layers or current layers. Healing on a separate layer as we know is non-destructive since we are not touching the actual image layer. So mistakes are no biggie.

With dodge and burn I'm making pixels either lighter or darker. The method I use is to create a lighten curve layer with inverted mask and a darken curve layer with inverted mask . I use a white brush on the lighten curve mask to lighten pixels and the same goes for darkening on the darken curve, use white brush to darken. Again non-destructive since we are working with mask and not dodge and burn on actual image layer.

Another way to dodge and burn is to use layer filled with 50% gray set to overlay or soft light. this time you use a white brush to lighten and a black brush to darken.

Seba- The method I use now is still new to me and the more I practice the faster and better I will become. I have heard that beginner retouches on average taking around 8 hours or more to complete. Well, I'm a beginner. I also approached this photo as if it was going to be printed on a billboard sometimes working 300% zoomed in. But if all they needed is to be viewed on the web I'm sure I would of spent only few hours on it.

Yes I did work on the arm pits. Your comment tells me you didn't really examine my work. I can even tell on the low rez I posted here that the pits were touched. Also I like the greasy look or as I call it glow. If the client doesn't like it or think it's too glowy I can easily change that with one click of the button or flick of a slider. It's good to hear other people opinions on these types of things.

Are you talking about pores or wrinkle lines?

Thanks for everyones comments, encouragements, and critique.

[Seba]

First of all, I apologize for my first post on this thread, it was a little rude.

About the picture... I'm thinking about wrinkle lines, they're to visible, and since you have spent so much effort in processing the picture, you could've done that better.
And the so-called glow, at least from my point of view, is something you should get rid of asap. 90% of portrait editing I do include retouching glowing skin, because it looks bad.

[klam]

When I view the image at low rez it does seem the wrinkles are a little more of a distraction now. I will reduce them more or get rid of them. The photog likes the image but I will send him a version without the glow and let him decide.

[olgabe]

Originally Posted by klam

Here is a skin retouch I did for another photographer Rodrigo Portafolio::::RODRIGO PELAEZ::::Portafolio

This job was at least 7 hours of work and 30 something layers, a file size of 1GB. I didn't even retouch the hair!

Ouch! 7 hrs??

Edited version does look a lot more professional and finished, and your photoshop skill is definitely most impressive. But 7 hrs... man.. are you doing it because you just enjoy creating a perfect image, no matter how long it takes? Or is there a practical reason for it?

If this is going onto a cover page of a glossy magazine, or into a multi-million ad spread, it's certianly worth it. But if it's a regular client portrait (not a major celebrity) - it is really a good use of time? I bet 50% of people can't tell the difference between the retouched and the unretouched version, and very few would be able to appreciate the differences between a 30 min fix on this (already well done) portrait and 7 hr fix...

Very curious about the resoning behind the 7 hours...