Getting Urban

[KathrynWilson]

I wanted to try out some urban and fashion-feel photography, and get some really fun, colorful portraits together. Here's a few recent images from experiments with it that I really like and thought I would share with you.

These are all shot outdoors and in all-natural light.

[candleman]

wow..
you either have some awesome PS skills or they all have the most incredible skin.. these have the same look as JasonGrovers stuff..

wide aperture and soft light? or are there a few more little PS tricks to getting this clean/crisp look.
these are reminiscent of the perfect wedding shots you posted that were in direct sunlight..

very cool indeed.
10/10 ..top marks
as i say.. if you ever feel the need for a student.. i'm happy to learn.

[KathrynWilson]

Thanks.

They actually did all have very nice skin, but as all 3 girls want to use the shots for portfolios they wanted a fairly 'airbrushed' sort of look. Normally I prefer to leave a fair bit of texture in my skintones, but hey, I think it works for this kind of thing.

[candleman]

how do you do your airbrushing??

my two methods (normally combined) are
1. gaussean blur and mask out the eyes (pretty standard)
2. use a brush with a colour i've plucked from their natural skin and wash over the skin with a brush set to screen... but this overlaps one another allot and can be a bit tricky.
i havn't been able to get anything of this sort of result.. although i han;t ever used a actual "model" .....maybe i should practice on baby skin.... but thats perfect already..

i'm sure they were stoked to get these.

[KathrynWilson]

I used to have all sorts of ways, including combination approaches like you've mentioned. Instead, I finally caved and I now use Portraiture. I apply it to a duplicate layer and mask back everything but the skin, then I tone back the opacity of the layer. As I said, I wouldn't normally do it this much.

[KathrynWilson]

And, I meant to add, yes, the aperture has a lot to do with it Kind of like 'in-camera airbrush'.