Soft Skin Tones

[miniwakka1]

Used 4 different layers with varying amounts of Gaussian Blur in CS3 to get desired skin tones then sharpened eyes, eyebrows and mouth using eraser tool. Any critique on all aspects of shot welcome.

[laura.wilkerson1333]

Hmm. In my opinion, it seems a touch overdone. If the model didn't have perfect skin, as the majority of us don't, then retouch using a healing or clone tool. The blur is just a bit too much.

[WooD]

I think it looks good. Viewed full size it doesn't look over done at all. I would mask out the hair from the Gaussian Blur.

I work with several models that like the plastic "barbie" skin look. I edit them the way they like.

[SusanH1970]

I think her skin looks okay - a touch overdone, but not by a huge amount. What does bother me is her eye, though - it really needs to be brightened. The white is appearing very dark.

[KrisStamm]

I think the skin tone looks fantastic. I even like the way it makes the hair look soft and angel-like. But I do not like the way her eye looks. It has a foggy appearance which feels yucky. Like Glaucoma. Fix the eye and in my opinion it's perfect!

[djase1]

Doesn't look bad. A bit much for my taste, but if she likes it then you have done a great job. I like the capture, nice pose. I have had luck with using Surface blur to help smooth the skin. You might try that and see if you like it. I agree that the hair should be masked out though. Good job.

[dblightsey]

well, it shows how much I know, I think the pic looks good but could swear white balance looks a lil off. The whole pic looks alil blue to me. Of course its late and that could be it. overall its a nice pic.(could be my monitor?)

[kelticsol]

This is what I did. I tried to correct the colour. That actually proved to be a daunting task. I still don't quite like the results. It still seems a little green.

I also dodged the whites of the eyes a little bit and sharpened the irises a bit and put the opacity on that layer at about 10%.

I also did some skin softening on just the skin to give you an idea of what it might look like if you did that with the original. To give an example of the contrast between the detail of the hair and the skin softening. That layer was set to opacity of about 35% (I think, brain is foggy this early in the morn.) But now the effect is exaggerated so you can get an example of exaggerated skin softening as Wood was describing.

I'm of the school that I need to be shown something before I really get it. That's why I did the extreme skin softening. (This is preemptive to everyone saying that my example was overdone.) I know it's overdone.

Oh and I started to clone out the hair in the front of her mouth using the healing brush but I decide to stop doing it because it's not quite my favorite thing to do.

In all honesty I've never seen her so the color may be completely off but someone did say it looked a little blue and I would have to agree.

Beautiful subject, great portrait.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

I think her skin looks okay - a touch overdone, but not by a huge amount. What does bother me is her eye, though - it really needs to be brightened. The white is appearing very dark.

Yup, I like what you have done and as Susan states I think the eyes need a little pop. Try this... on a blank layer use your white airbrush tool to paint in the catchlight, also add a u shaped brush of white in the underside blue of the iris. Then lower the opacity until it looks proportianal and realistic. It will probably be somewhere between 15 and 25%... If that doesn't make sense I could post an example in the evening when I'm at home...