Help!!!! :)

[private]

I have some photos of this newborn (6 days old) and her skin is still peeling. Is there anything I can do to get rid of it? Would portrait professional work?

Here is the original SOOC. - especially the hands - I would like to keep that part in, but will crop if I have to... I know there are other things I need to do...

[lputman]

I say leave it in; however, you can clone if it must go.

[private]

I know - I really want to leave it - but mom does not like it.

[fletch]

Tell her your are a photographer not a graphic artist and it was there so it stays! OK maybe not that blunt but it realy was there and it will be a ball ache to clone it all out and won't improve the picture at all really.

[t blanchard]

Also consider converting to B&W - it might not be as obvious in B&W!

[LisaB]

You can also try the patch tool and reduce the opacity. It may just be enough to satisfy your client but still leave the baby's skin natural looking.

[ocnsprt]

I like the shot as is, but as a mother I understand the desire to have perfect pictures of your children and how this may bother her. Well I gave it a shot, here is what I was able to do. I brightened the overall shot bc it made the skin editing look more natural, smoothed the skin a bit and attempted to remove the flakes as much as possible. If this helps feel free to pull the large version off my flickr and I will remove it from public view in a couple days. Hope you like it.


I tried to make it look as natural as possible but looking at the difference between mine and the original there is a big difference, so
ok here is the links to more natural skin edits for you
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/...f4fe2498_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3642/...59a84409_o.jpg

[private]

Can you tell me how you did the skin smoothening? I was thinking of getting some software for it...

[ocnsprt]

Yes, it was really simple actually. I use photoshop elements 2, which is ancient but gets the job done and is very easy to use. I started by using the blur tool set to 'luminosity' at 100% opacity and went over the hands and parts of the face that had flakes, then set the tool to color and went over again. (setting this tool to luminosity helps get rid of the flakes because it targets the bright white areas of the skin and blends them with the rest of the skin) Next I selected a new background layer copy in the layers pallette and set it to screen at 50% opacity, then flattened image. This adjusts the exposure and brightened up the overall shot. For the images I sent links to this is all I did, but for the image showing in the thread I also blended the skin a bit, by selecting a new background layer again and using the gaussian blur filter set at 2px, then the dust/speckle filter set at 2 px, then added noise at .58 px. THis becomes the skin texture so I go over all the areas of the photo that arent skin, and the areas like inbetween the fingers and side of nose with the brush tool set to clear (which will remove the efects of that layer we just blurred) and I usually use a soft round brush for this to get a blended effect. Because this is a baby shot, and its so close up i set the opacity of the skin layer to 65% so it still had some natural discoloration like babies do, then flattened image layers and saved. Thats it... hope it helps