Testing out some editing techniques for skin softening and eyes.

[PhotoGnat]

Please be honest and open, I want any and all critique I can get. I know my composition for this shot isn't that great but I'm really trying to get some of my editing down. In this portrait I was trying to soften the skin and make the eyes pop out. I don't feel that I did a great job but I was adequately satisfied for my first attempt.

Exif Info:
Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 21 mm
ISO Speed 800


1.) Burn and Dodge tool on the eyes, created a copy of the eyes and did High Pass and Vivid Light for the layer.
2.) I duplicated Layer and applied Gaussian Blur Mask to face and set for soft light then reduced opacity.
3.) Duplicated mask, desaturated, applied overlay and reduced opacity.

That was pretty much it, although it seemed like it took a lot longer to do than to type out lol. I appreciate all your feedback.

[ccting]

Serif Photoplus
it is extremely easy and the learning curve is extremely high, but i hate the program writes so much metadata into the original image file, for example, original size as 2mb will be increase to 6mb.

Lightroom
Use enhance iris, soften skin, teeth whitening, catchlight, etc etc .. and finally use noise reduction to smooth skin. ;D

Photoshop: I find hard to use this software..merely because i don't want to spend time learning this software. ;D

I guess you are using photoshop which uses lots of layers, and i believe you spend more time compared to if you are using lightroom.

[NicolaB]

Hi

Personally I think he is a little over cooked.

Pull down the levels more (I think to around 30 - but someone who uses CS5 may confirm this). I am happier skin smoothing for ladies as we are supposed to have super perfet skin (!). Guys have stubble and I imo shouldn't be left 'rougher'. Skin smoothing in this instance is really just to even the tones.

The same for the eyes - I guess he has a deep blue eyes naturally?

I like the composition as you are draw directly to his eyes

[zona5101]

I'm w/ NicolaB, he's been in the oven too long
The eyes are obvious but passable but the skin is over-the-top too much.

[scootermcq]

Gotta agree with above. Did you do the lips? They look softened, and that is one area that usually gets left alone. They look fairly unnatural to me.

[PhotoGnat]

Originally Posted by ccting

Serif Photoplus
it is extremely easy and the learning curve is extremely high, but i hate the program writes so much metadata into the original image file, for example, original size as 2mb will be increase to 6mb.

Lightroom
Use enhance iris, soften skin, teeth whitening, catchlight, etc etc .. and finally use noise reduction to smooth skin. ;D

Photoshop: I find hard to use this software..merely because i don't want to spend time learning this software. ;D

I guess you are using photoshop which uses lots of layers, and i believe you spend more time compared to if you are using lightroom.

[B]I had never heard of Serif Photoplus so thanks for that tip. Lightroom is definitely on my list of things to get but I'm really new and this has already been a lot of $$$ to invest lol. I am currently working in photoshop so am a little limited on what I can do but thanks for the suggestions I really appreciate all the feedback![B]

Originally Posted by NicolaB

Hi

Personally I think he is a little over cooked.

Pull down the levels more (I think to around 30 - but someone who uses CS5 may confirm this). I am happier skin smoothing for ladies as we are supposed to have super perfet skin (!). Guys have stubble and I imo shouldn't be left 'rougher'. Skin smoothing in this instance is really just to even the tones.

The same for the eyes - I guess he has a deep blue eyes naturally?

I like the composition as you are draw directly to his eyes

[B] I see what you are talking about now being overcooked since you said that. The model is actually me, and I haven't had any women model for me yet so that's why i'm using myself to practice these techniques. Yeah with the eyes I had actually went WAY overboard and I had tried to tone it down a bit, I guess I should have toned it down a little more . Thanks for the compliment on the composition LOL I find it really difficult to get a good angle taking self portraits.[B]

Originally Posted by zona5101

I'm w/ NicolaB, he's been in the oven too long
The eyes are obvious but passable but the skin is over-the-top too much.

[B]Thanks for the feedback I will try again tonight.[B]

Originally Posted by scootermcq

Gotta agree with above. Did you do the lips? They look softened, and that is one area that usually gets left alone. They look fairly unnatural to me.

[B]I did a little bit on the lips but just because they looked so off balance being so sharp compared to the skin, I guess I should have went the other direction and used less softening on the skin to even it out. [B]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback!

[pkd14u]

In addition to the comments by others, the eye irises are lighter than the whites of the eyes. Perhaps lower the opacity of the iris layer, but also do a screen mask of the whites at an opacity of maybe 20 or less.

What struck me is how the face is quite blurred, but the hair is very sharp. Yep, tone down the face smoothing so it's just a touch.

[autofocus]

I also agree with the above comments. Here's a little tutorial that I did here on another thread that you might like to try. What's good about it is that you can paint in selectively the amount of sharpening and/or softening...and it's quite easy to do

How to - Selective Sharpening & Selective Skin Softening

[BK553]

Dial it back a little, you cranked it to 11 when it should be more like a 7. The skin looks way too soft for a dude.