Not sure why it's not showing up. However, that post was in the context of the portrait recipe from Chapter 16 of Dan Margulis' LAB book, so I specifically did not address any retouching at all. I was thinking of using it for the tutorial I'm writing, and if you're will, would be glad to do so.
I would be more than happy if my image would be of any use for you.
Please feel free to do with it as you please, and thank you very much for your time and effort!!!
I tried the technique that Edgeworks described in the first page of this thread.
I did only use the healing brush, starting at 300% and working upwards. It took about an hour. Here is a 100% crop of the result:
Skin fixed using healing brush:
Then I though, I would try the same with some blurring. I started from the original image, did a very rough, fast healing-brush and ran the Kodak Digital GEM Airbrush filter over the face. (This filter uses blurring, it only tries to mask areas of detail out automatically)
skin fixed with blurring:
To my mind, the healing brush method gave a slightly better result, but I would say the difference is very small. Considering that the blur-method took about 1/10th of the time I really don't know which one to prefer.
What do you think?
Did I get the first method right?
Does it look good?
Which result do you prefer?
my another try at it
Hello,
I think your image doesnt have enough details to clone/heal from... Maybe Im wrong (since I am viewing a downsized image).
I did another photo using the same thing.
I did all the cloning, and as a final step I dup a layer and used median filter, masked all of it and started revealing the pores back again with a low opacity brush over the mask.
New member - different technique
Hi
My name is Larry. I got here from a link on Retourch Pro.
Interesting thread. I thought I'd throw in another technique. As I understand it this is the method used by many top retouchers who do high end magazine work.
Most of the retouching is done on a 50% gray layer set to overlay or sometines softlight. You may either use the dodge and burn tools or the brush set to white/dark color (deep skin shadow color to prevent color casts).
I used dodge set to shadows to lighten the dark areas. Wacom with pressure opacity between 5-10%. Burn set to highlights for the light areas, similar opacities. Small dodge brush at 100% mag to start attacking the dark areas so that the image looked balanced with no blemishes. Very light touch with the pen. Then burn any light areas. Repeat with lower opacity dodge to remove any dark spots missed or that crept in with the burn. Repeat burn to clean up.
Backed off magnifiication and evened the skin tones out. Finally came in close 200-300% to get small spots and the hair on the chin.
There was no healing/clone work done on this image because there were no really bad areas that needed it. Generally healing/cloning is done as a first step when bad blemishes are present.
Yes this is a very time consuming process but is offers the upmost flexability. Not only can you remove the blemishes and preserve the skin tone but you can control shadow/highlight density and create smooth transitions between areas of different densities.
You are right about the details. Unfortunatly, my picture didn't have this sharpness and resolution to start with, so this was the best I could do: clone out the imperfections, but remain as much detail as possible.
BTW, I like that kodak plugin more every day. I think it is great for those shots you want to keep, but not invest serious time in.
The picture in you posted is fantastic! Did you take it yourself?
Could you post a 100% crop before / after comparison? That would be cool!
Hi
My name is Larry. I got here from a link on Retourch Pro.
Interesting thread. I thought I'd throw in another technique. As I understand it this is the method used by many top retouchers who do high end magazine work.
Most of the retouching is done on a 50% gray layer set to overlay or sometines softlight. You may either use the dodge and burn tools or the brush set to white/dark color (deep skin shadow color to prevent color casts).
I used dodge set to shadows to lighten the dark areas. Wacom with pressure opacity between 5-10%. Burn set to highlights for the light areas, similar opacities. Small dodge brush at 100% mag to start attacking the dark areas so that the image looked balanced with no blemishes. Very light touch with the pen. Then burn any light areas. Repeat with lower opacity dodge to remove any dark spots missed or that crept in with the burn. Repeat burn to clean up.
Backed off magnifiication and evened the skin tones out. Finally came in close 200-300% to get small spots and the hair on the chin.
There was no healing/clone work done on this image because there were no really bad areas that needed it. Generally healing/cloning is done as a first step when bad blemishes are present.
Yes this is a very time consuming process but is offers the upmost flexability. Not only can you remove the blemishes and preserve the skin tone but you can control shadow/highlight density and create smooth transitions between areas of different densities.
Larry
Hi Larry,
thanks for joining in! We need every bit of info that we can get!
Your method is certainly interessting. Too bad I don't have a wacom tablet, but I will try it out on monday. (Don't have access to my photoshop machine until then.)
You are right about the details. Unfortunatly, my picture didn't have this sharpness and resolution to start with, so this was the best I could do: clone out the imperfections, but remain as much detail as possible.
BTW, I like that kodak plugin more every day. I think it is great for those shots you want to keep, but not invest serious time in.
The picture in you posted is fantastic! Did you take it yourself?
Could you post a 100% crop before / after comparison? That would be cool!
BTW, here is the final version of my image above:
Let's keep this thread alive!
Regards,
Andreas
Thanks nordic, Im flattered.
Yes, I took the shot, and my girlfriend did the makeup with her FINGERS. The makeup took about 15 minutes, we did not try to make it look too good, just the basic... a liquid foundation on her face, lip stick, and them lip gloss for the shine, and eyeshadows (with fingers too). No big deal...
Later on (on retouch) I brought up the colors of eyeshadow a bit, put some rouge, etc...
As you requested, here goes the BEFORE shot (but cropped at 100%) as you requested. the AFTER is already posted above. (you can copy both and put it side by side in Photoshop to compare)... hope it helps.
Hi Larry,
thanks for joining in! We need every bit of info that we can get!
Your method is certainly interessting. Too bad I don't have a wacom tablet, but I will try it out on monday. (Don't have access to my photoshop machine until then.)
What do you mean by "evened the skin tones out"?
Regards,
Andreas
When you work at a high mag and then back out so that you see more of the image you will notice that certain areas of the skin are too light/too dark. Even out these areas to get a uniform skin tone. Done with very low opacity, soft brush, light touch and build up. Also look for transitions between different densities, if they are noticeable, blend them in.
thank you very much for the images! You have a very beautyfull model to start with, and I think you retouche work is outstanding! To me, it looks ready to be printed in a magazine or used for an advertisement.
I've learned that I absolutly need to get more details and sharpness to my images prior to any postprocessing. I'm working on that, !!
BTW, do you have a page or gallery with your work?
When you work at a high mag and then back out so that you see more of the image you will notice that certain areas of the skin are too light/too dark. Even out these areas to get a uniform skin tone. Done with very low opacity, soft brush, light touch and build up. Also look for transitions between different densities, if they are noticeable, blend them in.
Larry
I understand, thanks for the explaination. Yes, I noticed these areas. So, you sample the color of an area you like and paint slowly over the dark/light areas.
The adjustments are done on the 50% gray layer with the dodge or burn tool, there is no sampling of colors. All you are doing is changing the density.
If you use the paint brush method instead of dodge/burn, then you use white to lighten and black to darken. Some people use a very near black sampled from a deep shadow area instead of black (to avoid gray color cast). That would be the only sampling necessary.
Thx Nordic
Thx Nordic, she is pleased with the compliment!
Well, I dont have a website yet (but Im workin on my portfolio). So quite soom, I will be publishing my website with my work.
Feel fre to try it yourself with the image I provided and lets see how it turns out!
Good luck!
Larry, I havent tried your technique yet, but I will have a try as soom as I can!!
Last week posted Part 1 of a tutorial dealing with skin retouching, and, specifically how to get a high-gloss, perfect beauty look. It's an overview of some commonly accepted retouching practices, none of which are particularly glamorous, but which can get come glamorous results.
I put Part 2 up today, and, working with an image generously donated by ricbuchner, discuss a technique for smoothing skin that is the only one incorporating blurring that I've found to work. See what you think.
Last week posted Part 1 of a tutorial dealing with skin retouching, and, specifically how to get a high-gloss, perfect beauty look. It's an overview of some commonly accepted retouching practices, none of which are particularly glamorous, but which can get come glamorous results.
I put Part 2 up today, and, working with an image generously donated by ricbuchner, discuss a technique for smoothing skin that is the only one incorporating blurring that I've found to work. See what you think.
hi edge work, great tutorial! But i'd like to clarify this step which i dont quite get...how do you do this?in part 2 that is
Now go to the history palette and revert back to the state before you applied the high-pass filter. This time, set the mode of the third layer to Linear Light, and the Opacity to 50%, BEFORE applying the High-Pass filter. This is how the the image should look.
would you be kind enough to explain this part to me...cant seem to be able to get this effect down.
also is part iii coming soon?Great work!
hi edge work, great tutorial! But i'd like to clarify this step which i dont quite get...how do you do this?in part 2 that is
Now go to the history palette and revert back to the state before you applied the high-pass filter. This time, set the mode of the third layer to Linear Light, and the Opacity to 50%, BEFORE applying the High-Pass filter. This is how the the image should look.
would you be kind enough to explain this part to me...cant seem to be able to get this effect down.
also is part iii coming soon?Great work!
You have two layers; the bottom layer is blurred, the top layer is normal. The first effect was just to show what happens when you apply the high pass filter to the normal image using the same radius as you used on the gaussian blur. So the sequence for that demonstration was Gaussian Blur, High-pass using same radius as Gaussian Blur, set high-pass layer to Linear light, set opacity of high-pass layer to 50%, bingo, the image is back. Nifty.
But, that point about the relation ship between the two filters being made, what I really want you to see is the flexibility of using various radius settings with the high pass filter. So, go to your history palette and click on the step just before the one that says High Pass filter. That will revert to the initial state, one blurred layer, one normal layer.
Next step, set the normal layer to Linear Light, and it's opacity to 50%.
Now apply the High Pass filter and play around with the radius settins. Note the difference in the detail that's emphasized as you raise and lower the radius setting. This is the key to the whole smoothing process.
Hope that helps.
There are two ways to slide through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both save us from thinking.
—Korzybski
You have two layers; the bottom layer is blurred, the top layer is normal. The first effect was just to show what happens when you apply the high pass filter to the normal image using the same radius as you used on the gaussian blur. So the sequence for that demonstration was Gaussian Blur, High-pass using same radius as Gaussian Blur, set high-pass layer to Linear light, set opacity of high-pass layer to 50%, bingo, the image is back. Nifty.
But, that point about the relation ship between the two filters being made, what I really want you to see is the flexibility of using various radius settings with the high pass filter. So, go to your history palette and click on the step just before the one that says High Pass filter. That will revert to the initial state, one blurred layer, one normal layer.
Next step, set the normal layer to Linear Light, and it's opacity to 50%.
Now apply the High Pass filter and play around with the radius settins. Note the difference in the detail that's emphasized as you raise and lower the radius setting. This is the key to the whole smoothing process.
Hope that helps.
Thank you, edgework, you are indeed the master. I'm going to try and decipher the instructions and try to work it out.
I know in your tutorial, you were saying that dodging and burning may not be needed, but would it be good to do that BEFORE applying the workflow, as with healing and cloning?
One last question, in order to achieve that effect, i have to follow the steps onwards from *the workflow right?What does the merged blended layer imply?The layer that has been worked on-healed and dodge/burn? or the layer with the high pass and blurring applied?
One last question, in order to achieve that effect, i have to follow the steps onwards from *the workflow right?What does the merged blended layer imply?The layer that has been worked on-healed and dodge/burn? or the layer with the high pass and blurring applied?
TIA!
Actually, you might find that much of the effort discussed in the first tutorial can be eliminated by the second. I hesitate to say that because there is always a need for the techniques in Tutorial 1.
However, the kinds of gross blotchiness that Dodging and burning tries to address can usually be smoothed over completely. It's a judgment call. Severe problems should be retouched out before the smoothing moves. But you'll be surprised at how much can be minimized by judicious application of high-pass layers.
There are two ways to slide through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both save us from thinking.
—Korzybski
Last week posted Part 1 of a tutorial dealing with skin retouching, and, specifically how to get a high-gloss, perfect beauty look. It's an overview of some commonly accepted retouching practices, none of which are particularly glamorous, but which can get come glamorous results.
I put Part 2 up today, and, working with an image generously donated by ricbuchner, discuss a technique for smoothing skin that is the only one incorporating blurring that I've found to work. See what you think.
Edgework, thank you so much for these tutorials!
I will need some time to figure it all out, but those are the best tutorials on this sbuject I've ever read.
Edgework, thank you so much for these tutorials!
I will need some time to figure it all out, but those are the best tutorials on this sbuject I've ever read.
Thanks for your time and effort!
Regards,
Andreas
Hope they help. I've gone back to Part II and tried to clarify some of the steps that people seem to have gotten hung up on. I appreciate any feedback regarding stuff that isn't clear.
There are two ways to slide through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both save us from thinking.
—Korzybski
Don't know how long this had been but, I just joined and with help from edgework and the picture from ricbuchner I got a chance to try to figure out the tutorial. I am glad I found this place cause the little time I have been here I have gotten help already.
hey edgework, any part III coming? I'd really love to hear your opinions on utilizing the channels effectively and blending them together to get a shine in the skin. For example duplicating the blue channel and setting it to luminosity on a new layer...somehow i've never really gotten that to work
hey edgework, any part III coming? I'd really love to hear your opinions on utilizing the channels effectively and blending them together to get a shine in the skin. For example duplicating the blue channel and setting it to luminosity on a new layer...somehow i've never really gotten that to work
any more insights!?Great work!
Yeah, it's coming. I'm trying to change jobs at the moment and it takes a lot of focus.
The idea, however, is a lot like the use of plate blends to maximize a B/W conversion. But instead of simply altering the ratio of their blends, I've had some real success by pushing the natural contrast in the channels further with Soft Light and Overlay modes, both of which make darks darker and lights lighter.
I have an action that copies each of the three channels to their own layers this way: blue channel at 30% in Luminosity mode (Normal mode is an alternate choice); Green channel at 60% in Soft light mode; Red channel in Overlay mode at 0%; original image copied on top in color mode, also at 0%
I'll first play with the opacity in the blue and green layers to strike some kind of balance that provides some shape without plugging up all the shadows, though I don't worry too much about that at this point. The image will be much darker than the original and the color will look like crap.
Now I start to raise the opacity of the Red channel's layer. Red channels are always extremely light, compared to the other two. The fact that it is in Overlay mode means that it will sharply enhance the lighter areas. It's a lot of trial and error, but usually the result will be a much more dramatic lighting effect.
Note also that you might want to try different modes for these channels. Soft Light, Overlay, Hard Light and Linear Light calculate their results differently, but all have the effect of pushing contrast, with their impact increasing in the order that I just listed. If you're not seeing enough of a result with the Green Channel in Soft Light, try Overlay. If you're seeing too harsh a result with the Red Channel in Overlay, try Soft Light. Hard Light mode should never be used at 100% since it will push lights and darks to pure black and white. But at lower opacities, it might be useful if the other two modes aren't cutting it.
At this point, you might optionally add a curves adjustment layer, probably in Luminosity mode, to help balance things out, if the image is looking too dark or too light.
Now we try to replace some of the color that's gotten bleached out. Bring up the opacity of the top Color Mode layer, which is a copy of the original image. Usually pushing it all the way back to 100% looks weird and artificial. The natural result of pushing highlights and shadows is to make them more neutral. (LAB is a poor space to try this operation, for just that reason. It won't push highlight and shadows to neutral, a useful aspect in certain situations, but very unrealistic looking when applied to an entire image). Try an opacity between 40% and 60% for the color layer. Test your blue channel's blending mode when you do this. Sometimes Luminositty allows a better overall color result, sometimes Normal mode. Either one will produce the same contrast effect.
Of course, it now looks much dirtier than before, owing to the influence of the blue plate. You will probably want to work out some the gross imperfections with the healing brush or by dodging and burning as your first step before working on the contrast or smoothing. But just accept that whatever you do, you will produce a result at this stage that looks pretty painful. The skin smoothing techniques that I discussed in Part II should eliminate most, if not all, of this grunge.
Before smoothing, if your shadows are still too plugged you have a couple options: one is to copy everything to a new layer and run Shadows/Highlights. Another option is to create the skin mask that you will be using in the smoothing step and allow the rest of the original image to blend back in with the contrast enhanced skin.
Remember, this step is for contrast. don't try to use this to make the skin glow. You'll just blow out your highlights. Skin glow is a different process altogether, an optional one, not always called for, and it takes much more precise targeting.
Don't worry too much about final color either. After all this goofing around, the whole battery of color enhancing options remains available, whether in CMYK, RGB or LAB (always a good option).
The useful aspect of all these operations is that they provide infinite flexibility in terms of how to apply them. Setting opacities of individual layers, and, later, to groups of layers, allows you to fine tune the results with remarkable precision. The downside is that you actually have to have a sense of what's going on first, because to get where you want to go, YOU have to actually coax Photoshop to go there. It would be possible to place all these moves in some kind of action, of course, but the One-Size-Fits-All approach means that, while you might get a useable result, it will never be one that fits any particular image perfectly.
There are two ways to slide through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both save us from thinking.
—Korzybski
Yeah, it's coming. I'm trying to change jobs at the moment and it takes a lot of focus.
The idea, however, is a lot like the use of plate blends to maximize a B/W conversion. But instead of simply altering the ratio of their blends, I've had some real success by pushing the natural contrast in the channels further with Soft Light and Overlay modes, both of which make darks darker and lights lighter.
I have an action that copies each of the three channels to their own layers this way: blue channel at 30% in Luminosity mode (Normal mode is an alternate choice); Green channel at 60% in Soft light mode; Red channel in Overlay mode at 0%; original image copied on top in color mode, also at 0%
I'll first play with the opacity in the blue and green layers to strike some kind of balance that provides some shape without plugging up all the shadows, though I don't worry too much about that at this point. The image will be much darker than the original and the color will look like crap.
Now I start to raise the opacity of the Red channel's layer. Red channels are always extremely light, compared to the other two. The fact that it is in Overlay mode means that it will sharply enhance the lighter areas. It's a lot of trial and error, but usually the result will be a much more dramatic lighting effect.
Note also that you might want to try different modes for these channels. Soft Light, Overlay, Hard Light and Linear Light calculate their results differently, but all have the effect of pushing contrast, with their impact increasing in the order that I just listed. If you're not seeing enough of a result with the Green Channel in Soft Light, try Overlay. If you're seeing too harsh a result with the Red Channel in Overlay, try Soft Light. Hard Light mode should never be used at 100% since it will push lights and darks to pure black and white. But at lower opacities, it might be useful if the other two modes aren't cutting it.
At this point, you might optionally add a curves adjustment layer, probably in Luminosity mode, to help balance things out, if the image is looking too dark or too light.
Now we try to replace some of the color that's gotten bleached out. Bring up the opacity of the top Color Mode layer, which is a copy of the original image. Usually pushing it all the way back to 100% looks weird and artificial. The natural result of pushing highlights and shadows is to make them more neutral. (LAB is a poor space to try this operation, for just that reason. It won't push highlight and shadows to neutral, a useful aspect in certain situations, but very unrealistic looking when applied to an entire image). Try an opacity between 40% and 60% for the color layer. Test your blue channel's blending mode when you do this. Sometimes Luminositty allows a better overall color result, sometimes Normal mode. Either one will produce the same contrast effect.
Of course, it now looks much dirtier than before, owing to the influence of the blue plate. You will probably want to work out some the gross imperfections with the healing brush or by dodging and burning as your first step before working on the contrast or smoothing. But just accept that whatever you do, you will produce a result at this stage that looks pretty painful. The skin smoothing techniques that I discussed in Part II should eliminate most, if not all, of this grunge.
Before smoothing, if your shadows are still too plugged you have a couple options: one is to copy everything to a new layer and run Shadows/Highlights. Another option is to create the skin mask that you will be using in the smoothing step and allow the rest of the original image to blend back in with the contrast enhanced skin.
Remember, this step is for contrast. don't try to use this to make the skin glow. You'll just blow out your highlights. Skin glow is a different process altogether, an optional one, not always called for, and it takes much more precise targeting.
Don't worry too much about final color either. After all this goofing around, the whole battery of color enhancing options remains available, whether in CMYK, RGB or LAB (always a good option).
The useful aspect of all these operations is that they provide infinite flexibility in terms of how to apply them. Setting opacities of individual layers, and, later, to groups of layers, allows you to fine tune the results with remarkable precision. The downside is that you actually have to have a sense of what's going on first, because to get where you want to go, YOU have to actually coax Photoshop to go there. It would be possible to place all these moves in some kind of action, of course, but the One-Size-Fits-All approach means that, while you might get a useable result, it will never be one that fits any particular image perfectly.
Thank you edgework for being so kind. You are speaking a lot of greek to me at the moment and it will take a while to digest it. But you are indeed really demonstrating a true sense of your knowledge and skill and i really appreciate that a lot. I'll try to keep reading, just don't mind me in consistently asking you questions. You've been super soild thus far!
oh and good luck with your career! i'm definitely sure you'll achieve your dreams!
Comments
Please feel free to do with it as you please, and thank you very much for your time and effort!!!
I will, I will!
I tried the technique that Edgeworks described in the first page of this thread.
I did only use the healing brush, starting at 300% and working upwards. It took about an hour. Here is a 100% crop of the result:
Skin fixed using healing brush:
Then I though, I would try the same with some blurring. I started from the original image, did a very rough, fast healing-brush and ran the Kodak Digital GEM Airbrush filter over the face. (This filter uses blurring, it only tries to mask areas of detail out automatically)
skin fixed with blurring:
To my mind, the healing brush method gave a slightly better result, but I would say the difference is very small. Considering that the blur-method took about 1/10th of the time I really don't know which one to prefer.
What do you think?
Did I get the first method right?
Does it look good?
Which result do you prefer?
Regrads,
Andreas
Hello,
I think your image doesnt have enough details to clone/heal from... Maybe Im wrong (since I am viewing a downsized image).
I did another photo using the same thing.
I did all the cloning, and as a final step I dup a layer and used median filter, masked all of it and started revealing the pores back again with a low opacity brush over the mask.
I will also post a 100% crop.
Ricardo
check the details.
Its mandatory you have all details visible, to give the image the "believability" of a untouched skin, even though is reavily retouched.
Here is the 100% crop I told you about.
Hi
My name is Larry. I got here from a link on Retourch Pro.
Interesting thread. I thought I'd throw in another technique. As I understand it this is the method used by many top retouchers who do high end magazine work.
Most of the retouching is done on a 50% gray layer set to overlay or sometines softlight. You may either use the dodge and burn tools or the brush set to white/dark color (deep skin shadow color to prevent color casts).
I used dodge set to shadows to lighten the dark areas. Wacom with pressure opacity between 5-10%. Burn set to highlights for the light areas, similar opacities. Small dodge brush at 100% mag to start attacking the dark areas so that the image looked balanced with no blemishes. Very light touch with the pen. Then burn any light areas. Repeat with lower opacity dodge to remove any dark spots missed or that crept in with the burn. Repeat burn to clean up.
Backed off magnifiication and evened the skin tones out. Finally came in close 200-300% to get small spots and the hair on the chin.
There was no healing/clone work done on this image because there were no really bad areas that needed it. Generally healing/cloning is done as a first step when bad blemishes are present.
Yes this is a very time consuming process but is offers the upmost flexability. Not only can you remove the blemishes and preserve the skin tone but you can control shadow/highlight density and create smooth transitions between areas of different densities.
Larry
You are right about the details. Unfortunatly, my picture didn't have this sharpness and resolution to start with, so this was the best I could do: clone out the imperfections, but remain as much detail as possible.
BTW, I like that kodak plugin more every day. I think it is great for those shots you want to keep, but not invest serious time in.
The picture in you posted is fantastic! Did you take it yourself?
Could you post a 100% crop before / after comparison? That would be cool!
BTW, here is the final version of my image above:
Andreas
Hi Larry,
thanks for joining in! We need every bit of info that we can get!
Your method is certainly interessting. Too bad I don't have a wacom tablet, but I will try it out on monday. (Don't have access to my photoshop machine until then.)
What do you mean by "evened the skin tones out"?
Regards,
Andreas
Thanks nordic, Im flattered.
Yes, I took the shot, and my girlfriend did the makeup with her FINGERS. The makeup took about 15 minutes, we did not try to make it look too good, just the basic... a liquid foundation on her face, lip stick, and them lip gloss for the shine, and eyeshadows (with fingers too). No big deal...
Later on (on retouch) I brought up the colors of eyeshadow a bit, put some rouge, etc...
As you requested, here goes the BEFORE shot (but cropped at 100%) as you requested. the AFTER is already posted above. (you can copy both and put it side by side in Photoshop to compare)... hope it helps.
Ricardo
hope it helps...
Ricardo
When you work at a high mag and then back out so that you see more of the image you will notice that certain areas of the skin are too light/too dark. Even out these areas to get a uniform skin tone. Done with very low opacity, soft brush, light touch and build up. Also look for transitions between different densities, if they are noticeable, blend them in.
Larry
thank you very much for the images! You have a very beautyfull model to start with, and I think you retouche work is outstanding! To me, it looks ready to be printed in a magazine or used for an advertisement.
I've learned that I absolutly need to get more details and sharpness to my images prior to any postprocessing. I'm working on that,
BTW, do you have a page or gallery with your work?
Regards,
Andreas
I understand, thanks for the explaination. Yes, I noticed these areas. So, you sample the color of an area you like and paint slowly over the dark/light areas.
Regards,
Andreas
The adjustments are done on the 50% gray layer with the dodge or burn tool, there is no sampling of colors. All you are doing is changing the density.
If you use the paint brush method instead of dodge/burn, then you use white to lighten and black to darken. Some people use a very near black sampled from a deep shadow area instead of black (to avoid gray color cast). That would be the only sampling necessary.
Larry
Thx Nordic, she is pleased with the compliment!
Well, I dont have a website yet (but Im workin on my portfolio). So quite soom, I will be publishing my website with my work.
Feel fre to try it yourself with the image I provided and lets see how it turns out!
Good luck!
Larry, I havent tried your technique yet, but I will have a try as soom as I can!!
Ricardo
here are some interesting sites: http://www.digital-retouching.com/
http://www.nyphotographics.com/retouching/index2.htm
www.glitterguru.com
richbuchner you work is fantastic, it's ready to be printed in a mag like it was said before:) what camera do you have?
Thanks for the links! I will check it later.
I have a simple D70.
I really appreciatte you liked it!
Ricardo
I put Part 2 up today, and, working with an image generously donated by ricbuchner, discuss a technique for smoothing skin that is the only one incorporating blurring that I've found to work. See what you think.
Part 1: http://tutorials.smugmug.com/gallery/1170442
Part 2: http://tutorials.smugmug.com/gallery/1169397
—Korzybski
here is another site I found for everyone :http://www.shanzcan.com/galphotrt/gal_photoretouch.html
the webmaster did a great work but unfortunatly the techniques aren't explained in details
This comes at a particularly good time for me, so thanks very much for your work in doing this!
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http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
Now go to the history palette and revert back to the state before you applied the high-pass filter. This time, set the mode of the third layer to Linear Light, and the Opacity to 50%, BEFORE applying the High-Pass filter. This is how the the image should look.
would you be kind enough to explain this part to me...cant seem to be able to get this effect down.
also is part iii coming soon?Great work!
You have two layers; the bottom layer is blurred, the top layer is normal. The first effect was just to show what happens when you apply the high pass filter to the normal image using the same radius as you used on the gaussian blur. So the sequence for that demonstration was Gaussian Blur, High-pass using same radius as Gaussian Blur, set high-pass layer to Linear light, set opacity of high-pass layer to 50%, bingo, the image is back. Nifty.
But, that point about the relation ship between the two filters being made, what I really want you to see is the flexibility of using various radius settings with the high pass filter. So, go to your history palette and click on the step just before the one that says High Pass filter. That will revert to the initial state, one blurred layer, one normal layer.
Next step, set the normal layer to Linear Light, and it's opacity to 50%.
Now apply the High Pass filter and play around with the radius settins. Note the difference in the detail that's emphasized as you raise and lower the radius setting. This is the key to the whole smoothing process.
Hope that helps.
—Korzybski
Thank you, edgework, you are indeed the master.
I know in your tutorial, you were saying that dodging and burning may not be needed, but would it be good to do that BEFORE applying the workflow, as with healing and cloning?
One last question, in order to achieve that effect, i have to follow the steps onwards from *the workflow right?What does the merged blended layer imply?The layer that has been worked on-healed and dodge/burn? or the layer with the high pass and blurring applied?
TIA!
Actually, you might find that much of the effort discussed in the first tutorial can be eliminated by the second. I hesitate to say that because there is always a need for the techniques in Tutorial 1.
However, the kinds of gross blotchiness that Dodging and burning tries to address can usually be smoothed over completely. It's a judgment call. Severe problems should be retouched out before the smoothing moves. But you'll be surprised at how much can be minimized by judicious application of high-pass layers.
—Korzybski
Edgework, thank you so much for these tutorials!
I will need some time to figure it all out, but those are the best tutorials on this sbuject I've ever read.
Thanks for your time and effort!
Regards,
Andreas
Hope they help. I've gone back to Part II and tried to clarify some of the steps that people seem to have gotten hung up on. I appreciate any feedback regarding stuff that isn't clear.
—Korzybski
Thanks,
Dooglla
any more insights!?Great work!
Yeah, it's coming. I'm trying to change jobs at the moment and it takes a lot of focus.
The idea, however, is a lot like the use of plate blends to maximize a B/W conversion. But instead of simply altering the ratio of their blends, I've had some real success by pushing the natural contrast in the channels further with Soft Light and Overlay modes, both of which make darks darker and lights lighter.
I have an action that copies each of the three channels to their own layers this way: blue channel at 30% in Luminosity mode (Normal mode is an alternate choice); Green channel at 60% in Soft light mode; Red channel in Overlay mode at 0%; original image copied on top in color mode, also at 0%
I'll first play with the opacity in the blue and green layers to strike some kind of balance that provides some shape without plugging up all the shadows, though I don't worry too much about that at this point. The image will be much darker than the original and the color will look like crap.
Now I start to raise the opacity of the Red channel's layer. Red channels are always extremely light, compared to the other two. The fact that it is in Overlay mode means that it will sharply enhance the lighter areas. It's a lot of trial and error, but usually the result will be a much more dramatic lighting effect.
Note also that you might want to try different modes for these channels. Soft Light, Overlay, Hard Light and Linear Light calculate their results differently, but all have the effect of pushing contrast, with their impact increasing in the order that I just listed. If you're not seeing enough of a result with the Green Channel in Soft Light, try Overlay. If you're seeing too harsh a result with the Red Channel in Overlay, try Soft Light. Hard Light mode should never be used at 100% since it will push lights and darks to pure black and white. But at lower opacities, it might be useful if the other two modes aren't cutting it.
At this point, you might optionally add a curves adjustment layer, probably in Luminosity mode, to help balance things out, if the image is looking too dark or too light.
Now we try to replace some of the color that's gotten bleached out. Bring up the opacity of the top Color Mode layer, which is a copy of the original image. Usually pushing it all the way back to 100% looks weird and artificial. The natural result of pushing highlights and shadows is to make them more neutral. (LAB is a poor space to try this operation, for just that reason. It won't push highlight and shadows to neutral, a useful aspect in certain situations, but very unrealistic looking when applied to an entire image). Try an opacity between 40% and 60% for the color layer. Test your blue channel's blending mode when you do this. Sometimes Luminositty allows a better overall color result, sometimes Normal mode. Either one will produce the same contrast effect.
Of course, it now looks much dirtier than before, owing to the influence of the blue plate. You will probably want to work out some the gross imperfections with the healing brush or by dodging and burning as your first step before working on the contrast or smoothing. But just accept that whatever you do, you will produce a result at this stage that looks pretty painful. The skin smoothing techniques that I discussed in Part II should eliminate most, if not all, of this grunge.
Before smoothing, if your shadows are still too plugged you have a couple options: one is to copy everything to a new layer and run Shadows/Highlights. Another option is to create the skin mask that you will be using in the smoothing step and allow the rest of the original image to blend back in with the contrast enhanced skin.
Remember, this step is for contrast. don't try to use this to make the skin glow. You'll just blow out your highlights. Skin glow is a different process altogether, an optional one, not always called for, and it takes much more precise targeting.
Don't worry too much about final color either. After all this goofing around, the whole battery of color enhancing options remains available, whether in CMYK, RGB or LAB (always a good option).
The useful aspect of all these operations is that they provide infinite flexibility in terms of how to apply them. Setting opacities of individual layers, and, later, to groups of layers, allows you to fine tune the results with remarkable precision. The downside is that you actually have to have a sense of what's going on first, because to get where you want to go, YOU have to actually coax Photoshop to go there. It would be possible to place all these moves in some kind of action, of course, but the One-Size-Fits-All approach means that, while you might get a useable result, it will never be one that fits any particular image perfectly.
—Korzybski
oh and good luck with your career! i'm definitely sure you'll achieve your dreams!