Sharpness of focus/skin tone editing

[amy_bb]

I was playing around w/my new flash and trying to improve the sharpness of my photos. I am working on improving the acuracy of my focus points (eyes). Also, my daughter has some facial acne. I used the healing brush and spot healing tool to try and reduce the redness and pimples. The edited shot is much improved but I'd love to now blend her skin tone to give her a smoother skin finish.
So: How did I do on the focus
How are my initial skin corrections? Where do I go from here?

I'm not concerned with composition for this photo as that was not the aim of this practice session.
TIA for your help!



Camera Sony DSLR-A330
Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired

[autofocus]

A simple procedure for skin smoothing:
If you are starting on an image where no previous edits were done try the following
1) Go to filters>Noise>Reduce noise
2) Settings as follows
Settings - Default
Strength: as needed, but i often will go to 100%
Reduce Color noise - 100%
Sharpen Details - as needed, but I will often leave this on 0%
Check Remove JPEG Artifacts
You will see the status of your changes as you make them and be able to make adjustments on your sliders for more or less smoothing
3) When done, use the History Brush to bring back the original sharpness of the eyes and mouth

If you want to do this on an image that you already started making some edits to do all the above, but start by circling the eyes and mouth with the lasso tool while holding down the shift key. Then go to Select function and hit Inverse. Now everything will be softened but the eyes and mouth and no need to do step 3 above.

[treknit]

Another trick you can try is if your camera has in the menu options switch to a softer result that may also do it for you.

Good Luck Paul

[amy_bb]

Originally Posted by autofocus

A simple procedure for skin smoothing:
If you are starting on an image where no previous edits were done try the following
1) Go to filters>Noise>Reduce noise
2) Settings as follows
Settings - Default
Strength: as needed, but i often will go to 100%
Reduce Color noise - 100%
Sharpen Details - as needed, but I will often leave this on 0%
Check Remove JPEG Artifacts
You will see the status of your changes as you make them and be able to make adjustments on your sliders for more or less smoothing
3) When done, use the History Brush to bring back the original sharpness of the eyes and mouth

If you want to do this on an image that you already started making some edits to do all the above, but start by circling the eyes and mouth with the lasso tool while holding down the shift key. Then go to Select function and hit Inverse. Now everything will be softened but the eyes and mouth and no need to do step 3 above.

I forgot to mention that I work in PSE8. I will see if the same sequence of steps will work for me in that program. I have both the original and my edited version of the image so I may try both workflows and see which I find easier to use.
Thanks so much for the tips. It really helps me to practice on sample shots like this.

[amy_bb]

Originally Posted by treknit

Another trick you can try is if your camera has in the menu options switch to a softer result that may also do it for you.

Good Luck Paul

Thanks for your comment. I was trying to get as sharp as I could on her eyes(my focus technique has not been very accurate---mix of wrong settings and forgetting to use a tripod) so I was afraid to go any softer in the camera and figured I would try and fix skin imperfections in PSE. If there is a way to do more softening which would not affect the eyes, I would try that.

[bookloveraz]

My only suggestion is to photoshop out the points in her eye where the flash reflected. I don't have any experience in smoothing the skin though.... I do know that PSE 9 has a skin smoothing tool, but not sure if it's on 8....

[edbayani]

another way is by duplicating the layer, then double click on the quickmask button on the tool box and choose, selected areas, click ok, then with soft brush, brush on all the skin areas except the eyes and lips and the eyebrows. exit quickmask and you will have a selection. press ctrl/J to place this in another layer. choose blur, surface blur and blur the selection to your satisfaction.click ok. you may move the opacity layer a bit if you find it to smooth.
i hope this can help you.