Noise reduction/beauty glow/soft skin??

babycakes

I am a children's photographer looking to improve my shots. There is a look that I am trying to achieve but not sure if its the result of postprosessing or off the camera. The look is extremely smooth blemish free skin that looks overexposed without the rest of the image appearing overexposed. I have tried using a "soft skin" action which does even out the skin to an extent but leaves the image looking less sharp. With the look I want to acheive everything is sharp not softened or glowing. How do you get this perfect skin look that doesn't look like overdone plastic skin. Is it neat image or some other noise reduction filter?? Are they using their flash or other lighting source to achieve this look? I appreciate any helpful advice or if anyone knows of a thread to point me to. Thanks!

Eric&Susan

A picture example of what your talking about would help.

I'm assuming what your trying to do could be done in PS with layers and masks. Making the skin soft with a mask and then erasing the softness on the areas you don't want it on such as the eyes, hair, and whatever in the image you want sharp.

Eric

~Jan~

Is it soft light? I agree, an example would help.

babycakes

~Jan~ wrote:

Is it soft light? I agree, an example would help.

I've just seen it on photography websites. I would love to show examples but I'm not sure what you are allowed to post of another photographer's work without their permission. Is it okay to use a watermarked image from a blog that is out of my market area? I don't want to offend anyone.

Cuong

You can post the link to the site that you saw.

Cuong

~Jan~

Yes, perfectly OK to post a link to another site. Is this it?
http://www.jessicarstrickland.com/blog/page/3/

babycakes

yukio wrote:

You can post the link to the site that you saw.

Cuong

Here is an example of what I'm talking iabout. I like whatever she has done to these to smooth the skin but maybe a little less subtle. Any ideas on the technique? Do these kids just have great skin? The little babies that I have shot have had some skin issues all over their face... more than I touch up naturally using the healing brush or patch tool. I was hoping to find an effect/action or shooting technique that can give an overall smoother skin appearance. I did just purchase an alien bee and soft box that I have been playing around with. I have noticed while practicing on my own kids that light from the alien bee does seem to even out the skin's appearance. What do you think?

http://irwinphotography.blogspot.com/

pyrtek

Those are done with an inordinate amount of blurring (probably surface blur). They look like dolls, not
like children.

kwcrow

Here is a link to a nice photoshop plug-in that will help you achieve this and makes it easy to batch many pictures up and process (portrature by imagenomics).
http://www.imagenomic.com/pt.aspx

Tutorials if you don't want to spend the money.
http://www.lunacore.com/photoshop/tutorials/tut020_2.htm
http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/beauty_retouching.html
http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13726
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=101733&seqNum=3&rl=1
http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/smoothing/smoothing.html

Video tutorial: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/956390/photoshop_advanced_skin_smoothing_newdarkroom_com/

google "photoshop skin smoothing"

babycakes

pyrtek wrote:

Those are done with an inordinate amount of blurring (probably surface blur). They look like dolls, not
like children.

I agree, it is a little overdone but I thought I if I could adjust the opacity or amount of the effect then I might be able to achieve smooth skin without the doll look.

babycakes

kwcrow wrote:

Here is a link to a nice photoshop plug-in that will help you achieve this and makes it easy to batch many pictures up and process (portrature by imagenomics).
http://www.imagenomic.com/pt.aspx

Tutorials if you don't want to spend the money.
http://www.lunacore.com/photoshop/tutorials/tut020_2.htm
http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/beauty_retouching.html
http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13726
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=101733&seqNum=3&rl=1
http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/smoothing/smoothing.html

Video tutorial: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/956390/photoshop_advanced_skin_smoothing_newdarkroom_com/

google "photoshop skin smoothing"

Thanks for the links to the tutorials. I'm going to see what I can come up with that looks natural. Isn't dgrin great! Thanks!!

rdlugosz

Yea, I'd agree that those shots are most certainly smoothed over quite a bit with some surface blur. I do this a lot of with portraits, but the key is to make it subtle.

There is certainly a "look" to what they're doing here... if it works for them (and their clients) then more power to them!

Cason

babycakes wrote:

I agree, it is a little overdone but I thought I if I could adjust the opacity or amount of the effect then I might be able to achieve smooth skin without the doll look.

I've played around with the Mizuno's airbrush technique. In this tutorial, they went to far for my taste. It does not look natural. However, everything can be adjusted to your preference.

http://www.h-designer.com/?p=17

I agree with you. You can always tone it down. That is the beauty of layers in Photoshop.

If you like the look of what Neat Image does, you can always merge the photos in Photoshop. One photo would be smooth and the other sharp.

Another fav of mine...

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213