Portraits - Photoshop Editing

[Partsrept]

Portraits - Photoshop Editing

My dream is to know how people do skin in Photoshop? When i look at pro Portraits face skin i see is SO fresh, color is much better that in real life, skin is so "deep" and "expensive".

There are lots of tutorials online on how to make that skin but in reality they do not work even if flow them step by step.

Example: take a look an face color (not glamour but color):
http://brettludeke.com/blog/wp-conte...3/_mg_9744.jpg
That was not best example but still very good.

Or this one:
http://static.photo.net/attachments/...3-19526984.jpg


any idea how Pro photographers do so COOL skin, so warm ?

[fletch]

Lighting and make up!

Its true though, good skin done as much in the camera as out of it. You can do some pretty extreme things in PS but the source material is very important. If you follow the online turtorial on a profesionaly shot raw file (of a profesional model with pro make up) they would look like this.

[edbayani]

the professional photographers know how to take pictures, their models are made up, lighted
and exposed very well so when they do retouch, it is easier and it comes out better.
there is nothing like a good photograph to start with.
after all it is still photography we're talking about.

[delmiaco]

I just posted this tutorial on another post, but it really has worked for me to soften skin in the past. Give it a shot!
Photoshop Tutorials: Easily Smooth and Soften Skin

[Sereina]

Try the Perfect Portrait action from CoffeeShop.

Hope this helps!

[dyimages]

Biggest issue I had with online tutorials is they teach you a specific technique that a particular photographer uses. To fully grasp it all you need to understand what is being done and then piece together several more of these tutorials and pcik apart certain pieces of each. And this may change for each given photograph you need to edit.

The above posters are also right. lighting it, proper equipment and preparation is also key. Even down to lens makes a difference. I notice a huge difference in quality stuff I shoot now with my 24-70 or 70-200 vs previous kit lens type lenses.

A good resource that Picked up is a book called "skin - The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies" by Lee Varis

The thing I liked about this book is it covered a variety of subjects and techniques. Skin tone, Smoothing, Wrinkles, body shaping, tattoos and more. But it also starts by covering taking the photo so you can get the results. As it is all modular components teaching how and why to fix certain things you then combine them to get your own look, your own style. Then mix that with online tutorials and the Kelby training stuff

[LeeR]

One of your images is from Playboy and I can tell they have hired the best to work there magic for their images. And while it is true that they use beautiful models and great photographers its the guys in the back room running PS that are the real wizards. They know every trick in the book and have every PS plugin known to man to aid them in their pursuit of perfection...or at least Playboy's idea of perfection.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by LeeR

One of your images is from Playboy and I can tell they have hired the best to work there magic for their images. And while it is true that they use beautiful models and great photographers its the guys in the back room running PS that are the real wizards. They know every trick in the book and have every PS plugin known to man to aid them in their pursuit of perfection...or at least Playboy's idea of perfection.

I doubt that greatly. Yes, there is some editing done, but as fletch said, it comes down to Lighting and makeup more than anything. Having a lens with excellent micro-contrast helps too, but isnt as big of an issue. The big thing is getting the flashes right (modifiers, etc) and getting the makeup done properly.