I would like to touch up some of my own shots like this. Does anyone know of any tutorials or a good guide to explain how this is done please?

I know the before and after pictures are not the exact same ones and models probably had loads of make up on but there must be a smoothing technique out there?

Is there a thread here that explains this process? I've searched :-(

Thanks.

HI Yad and welcome to RP!

I guess this thread will help you:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10071

Look for Chamberlains post, he describes about how to achieve the effect you desire. In addition to the steps described by him I use to add a bevel and emboss layer to the noise layer to make the artificial texture a little more realistic.

Patrick

PatrickB !

In addition to the steps described by him I use to add a bevel and emboss layer to the noise layer to make the artificial texture a little more realistic.
A very interesting post by Chamberlain there and your method to add the bevel and emboss to the noise layer sounds like something I need to explore further. To me this is of very high interest since I'm right at this very moment doing work on a "training file" that will aquire this kind of operation(-s) ones the basic retouch is done.
Think you could elaborate this technique of yours a little to help on the way ?

Would be very greatful if you did ..

-- Jiger --

Hey you two,

sure I can:

Basically I apply the same technique Chamberlain describes. But before I make sure the skin is smoothed with the Spot Healing Brush as much as possible! That's extremely important to me because the more blemishes you leave the more you have to apply the median layer and lose detail!

After all this, do the following:

- select the layer with the noise
- go to filter/stylize/emboss and pick the values to look similar to real pores and skin texture

That's basically all you need, but as I said before remove as many blemishes as you can as the more of the median you have to apply, the more artificial it will look.

The picture attached shows the three stages: before any retouch, with blemishes removed, all layers applied.

Patrick

PatrickB !

Ah. Yes - I see. That was about what I estimated.
Of course I could have experimented with this on my own, but learning from someone that can show you the grips is more efficient, I think.
But before I make sure the skin is smoothed with the Spot Healing Brush as much as possible! That's extremely important to me because the more blemishes you leave the more you have to apply the median layer and lose detail!
Yes indeed. The "training file" I'm workin with is a hi-res but I still put in the effort in doing this thoroughly. You know: "You can't make gold out of s**t - but you can always shape a diamond".
I'll test this technique when I get to that stage whith the image I'm working on. I guess the settings for the noise layer and the bevel-emboss layer have to be balanced to fit image res, type of subject, expected texture etc etc.
As you do the bevel-embossing in layer style I guess it can very well be saved as a Layerstyle with a "generic" setting to start out from.

Sorry for "hijacking" this thread, but I had to jump in since this was really interesting. :bow:

-- Jiger --