This tutorial will show you a technique on how to create that soft Dior magazine style look to your portraits. It will also show you how to selectively remove uneven skin, wrinkles, blemishes and add highlights to create some drama. This technique requires Photoshop CS2 for the smooth skin segment because the surface blur filter is brand new in that release. [details (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=209)]

Great tutorial so far.

Can't wait till its done. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Great tutorial, extremely helpful. I'm sure it will be even better when finished. Thanks!

Hi,

IM_Fletcher,

Welcome to RP! :pleased:

ray12

...what can I say ... just don't stop!!! ... Great Tutorial :bigthmb: :bigthmb: Very detailed and covering all the aspects of this very delicate procedure!!!!!!

That's an awesome job you've put yourself into ! Many thanks for sharing this with us !

This tutorial just keeps getting better.

Best one I have seen in awhile.

Thanks for all your efforts. :bigthmb:

Gr8 tut, another way to 'skin' a cat. lookin froward to the next one.

As a newcomer to this art thanks for this Ray. The information is absolutely invaluable, I am learning so much following and experimenting with this tutorial.

As a photographer I try to get it right in camera but thats a tall order in 90% of all shots. Thanks again Ray I look forward to following this to the end. :bigthmb:

It's a great tutorial ...Plenty of detail and well written ...making it very easy to follow

Regards

Bob Mc

Excellent tutorial. You put a lot of time and effort into this and it shows in the quality of the finished product.

Janet

Too Cool... Thanks...
Hopefully someone will do a similar tutorial for the "Dragan" Ficus etc.. Look..
Thanks again!!
Snook
PS. I think there could be more on how to bring back or put in more texture as The "trend" is coming to more natural retouching...
We'll see..
:bow:

Thanks all... for your nice comments.

Snook, I was thinking about doing a separate tutorial specifically on how to add skin pores and skin texture back into a protrait - but I was thinking it would be somewhat redundant with some of the detail I had in this present tutorial.

I was thinking about a tutorial on: How to create skin textures - how to make up skin texture masks - and how to blend and shade a portrait. I would cover some of the same stuff - but add in more detail.

Would this be too much - or do others want more detail on this specific area. Didn't want to over do it.

Ray

That would be gr8ly appreciated and lookin forwrd to the tut. Tha :) nks heaps.....

Hi Ray

I was thinking about a tutorial on: How to create skin textures - how to make up skin texture masks - and how to blend and shade a portrait. I would cover some of the same stuff - but add in more detail

Don’t stop Ray. The Dior tutorial is excellent. :bigthmb:

Would this be too much

Definitely not. The more detail the better.

I look forward to it.

Ken

thanks for tutorial.
But I can't get my head round on how to make a skin texture face mask using good skin texture samples. There are too many complications. For example, you have a hi-resolutiuon image of a face with perfect skin texture and you wanna use it for anothor photo. The complications are:


1. skin texture varies with type of lighting sources, angle of illuimination,angle of the face toward the camera, the highlight, mid-tone and shadows. Skin texture is more obvious in mid-tone/shadows than highlight areas. Each photo and individual face are different in the distribution and appearance of skin texture...many variables. :scared:

2. A skin texture face mask??? I can't visualise in my head how this is done in practice because of the variables mentioned above. Also if you have a rectangular strip of ideal skin texture sample from a third party, how you blend it locally to three-dimensional features of a face in a 2D photo?:dizzy:

3. scaling of the skin texture size due to different resolution, size etc of different photos.

BTW I never use any form of blur in retouching because it removes too much skin texture, getting really plastic but this is a matter of personal taste though.

A skin texture face mask??? I can't visualise in my head how this is done in practice because of the variables mentioned above. Also if you have a rectangular strip of ideal skin texture sample from a third party, how you blend it locally to three-dimensional features of a face in a 2D photo?
I think that is where 3D texture and bump mapping comes in... I have done this a bit in 3D animation apps such as Poser http://www.daz3d.com although I have not used this specifically for Photoshop projects, I have however heard of it being possible and used from a graphic art standpoint at least. I think from this siteGraphics.Com (http://www.graphics.com) I think I'll look into it further for myself, out of curiosity.

singlo,

I know I didnt go into skin texture masks in the fullest possible detail because of space and other reasons. Maybe I should do another tutorial someday on just that part of it. But... here is some additional information.

Attached is an actual low-resolution version of a hi-resolution skin mask so you can see what one looks like... and actually play with it. There are portrait masks for full and side views. You only need a couple.

Here is how to work it:

1.) Put a portrait on layer 1. (You can smooth the skin out because it wont matter later on. You will be able to totally adjust the final skin texture appearance to suit your own taste.)

2.) Lay the attached mask over the portrait on layer 2. Be sure to Set the layer blend mode to "SOFTLIGHT". The mask itself will mostly disappear... and only the textures will remain!

3.) You use Free Transform to adjust the size of the mask so it overlays on top of your model. Approximately match up the eyes and mouth. You can use the warp function to precisely fit the mask if you like. This isnt going to be perfect... but its close enough to get the general idea of it. My mask isnt going to perfectly fit your model.

4.) Look at the image. All the skin lines are going in the right direction and are in the right place. Now...adjust the opacity slider on the 2nd layer. Notice how you can make the skin texture however weak or strong you want. Try it at 100% strength. It might look better at 36% opacity to you.

5.) If you are somewhat advanced - then use a black (hide all) layer mask on layer two. Now the texture mask will totally disappear for just a short time. Now... paint with a soft, low opacity (30%) WHITE brush on that mask. Where ever you paint with white - the skin texture will begin to show through on your portrait! Paint some skin texture on the cheeks, paint less on the nose, paint medium intensity on just a small corner of the eyes, paint even more on the cheeks again to make it even stronger in this one place. Now you have TOTAL CONTROL over WHERE the skin texture is placed...and exactly how STRONG it will be. If you make a mistake - change back to a Black Brush and paint with it to correct your problem. You can apply and smoothly blend the textures any way you want artisticallywith this technique.


Here are some totally random thoughts:

- You can create your own masks so they face the way you want. You can composite several different mask textures together into one image. There are ways to adjust the lighting direction in Photoshop.

- Skin textures can be strong or subtle, or maybe only hinted at, in other places. You dont have to be biologically perfect to make a good artistic expression. People looking at your photograph will never anayze to see if those skin pores are really from the subject. Pores are pores. People will get the impression just fine.

- There are hundreds of hi-res images a week to choose from on the forums listed.

- The masks -- as well as your portraits -- are of real 3D people shot with a 2D camera - so the 2D/3D issue is not really a problem in my experience...everything is 2D inside of Photoshop anyway...they usually match up very well.

- It takes some time, effort and some interesting experimentation to get the results the magazine artists get.

- You can use one skin mask for the cheek texture, another part of another mask for the eyes, and even a third mask that has only great forehead textures. Use the layer mask technique to paint in the exact textures - exactly where you want them - and as strong as you want them. A little bit from each mask in different places. Some places may be left smooth by choice.

- Use layer masks, shading techniques, and traditional artist techniques to achieve the look of 3D depth that you want. There are techniques to make a 2D image look really nice.

- After a while you eventually end up with a sheet of collected cheek textures, forehead textures, eye creases etc. Build your own library. These accumulated libraries are what add value to a professional.

- You can even make up and use the models very own original skin as a texture mask - and then put that detail back in later - after you have smoothed out the skin tones. This produces a nice controlled balance between smoothing and realism.

Hope this helps some.

Ray

Many thanks Ray for the killer tips :bigthmb: :bow: Your texture trick is the most useful thing I have ever learnt for ages. I have used your texture mask to try it on a completely different face and it works!!!! I flipped, rotated and free transformed your mask. I cloned the smaller areas of texture not covered by the mask. Here is the results of a quick 15 minutes crude job (no layer mask yet). I could have done a lot more fine tuning with layer mask.

PS. The first photo was before. The second photo was done with 39% texture opacity to exaggerate the effect but I think opacity of 20% will look more natural. BTW, if the texture is not so homogenous, it will look more convincing. For example, eyelid texture tends to be coarser. Maybe it is good to have separate texture samples for arms and legs as well.

Mmmm..further thought on this. For example if you have a small rectangular strip of skin texture specimen, the easier way to "reconstruct" a face mask from ground zero is to clone stamp the specimen expanding it to the shape of a face mask. To make the texture less homogenous, it is good idea to use different specimens on different features of the face ideally as you suggested. You need to uncheck the "sample all layers" box with the clone stamp bush and increase the opacity of the texture mask such that you can see both the texture and the face layer underneath during the cloning. :rolleyes:

If you have an existing face mask but the shape like the facial contour, eyes or mouth don't fit to your model, you can also use Liquify-> Forward Warp tool to sculpture the shape. :idea:

Singlo,

Nice going. You have some great Ideas there. One very minor point though. The texture mask you used had the best cheek textures on the same side as your model. You might have gotten stronger, and more evenly distributed pores, if you did not flip the mask in this case. I horizontally flip the masks all the time, like you did, to use the best side of each master mask.

I agree with your cloning thoughts. I usually use the clone stamp at 50% hardness and 50% opacity and click several times so that my cloned part blends in better and looks more natural. You can clone an area from the same texture mask - or once you get into it - clone the skin texture from another mask all together. Use the best cheek texture from one image, the best forehead from another. If you have a bad spot, clone in from some other texture map to cover it up and make it look natural. Different masks usually blend together very well because the high-pass process makes them all the same shade of gray. If you spend the hard work time - you only need several of these master masks.

I think I forgot to tell you another trick. Once you have a skin texture overlay created - then sharpen a copied layer version of it 100 -200 % to get more pronounced pores - and then when you use a layer mask to paint with the pores - use a lower opacity brush 30% and below - or use the opacity slider on the layer. This allows you the full range of pores from full strong, to subtle, to none - on exactly where ever you paint on the layer mask with your white brush. With a layer mask - if the texture goes on too heavy - just change the color of the brush to Black and paint the harshness back to an acceptable level. I always sharpen the basic skin texture mask. Id rather have a strong effect and knock it back - rather than not have enough. The one I posted was sharpened at about 90%.

Let me give away a very hard won skin texture process. The most polished way to get that specific Dior looking skin texture is to make that high pass version first - and then - run it through the Menu> Filter> Sketch> Bas Relief filter. Use a detail of 14 and a sharpness of 1 - and here is the best part- light the texture from the Top Left. Now you have the highly accentuated pores that you see in the magazines - with the correct lighting angle to go with it! You can also try other lighting angles to fit your needs. Note: This technique can produce very pronounced yet natural pores - so you have to use a layer mask to control it or a much lower layer opacity setting to look great.

Good luck experimenting. Siglo, thanks for sharing your results. There's always something neat to learn in this forum.

Ray

many thanks Ray once again for sharing the tips :D I had a play with your suggestion of using Bas Relief filter + lighting render (using spotlight). This Bas Relief filter is pretty strong! I guess the lighting direction should match the lighting direction of the oringinal photo. Maybe this is not needed in flatly lit photos.
I just find it a bit hard to find decent resolution top model photos from web sites of fashion photographers and cosmetic companies with very good, usable skin texture samples. Maybe it is time to invest a scanner for scanning fashion mags....

Singlo,

Yes the Bas Relief filter does seem pretty strong at first glance. However, of all the methods - it re-creates the depth of the pores that is characteristic of the ultra sophisticated Dior look. Balancing the strength of this look is a matter of your taste and the end objectives - but I do agree - this approach has to be coupled with subtle layer mask applications with brushes in the 20% range - or with layer opacities in the low 20-40% range - otherwise they do look strong. Its no problem really, just control it so that it matches your individual tastes.

Here is a site that will end your search for high quality, high resolution glamour images that will fill up your entire monitor screen with images so big that you can count individual eyelashes. The site is simply: skins.be Be sure to go to the FORUM section and then register. It is free - and it is highly worth the effort. There has to be a couple thousand images to pick from. Go to the High Quality thread. This is one of the better places to go for skin pores, eyelash cutouts, eye pupils, jewelry cutouts, hair strands, or shiny lips to add bits of sparkle to your own images.

Ray

Ray, awesome :knockedou You are my hero :bow:

Wouldn't go that far!

Later on - would love seeing any kind of work you do. Its always fun to see other peoples efforts with images.

hi Ray, thanks :)

here is a 30 min rush job. Texture mask is from Hollywood goddess Keira knightley :D. First picture is Keira's skin texture. Second picture is my not so Keira lookalike model before applying texture. Third picture is the transformed texture mask to fit her. Fourth is the result with 35% opacity texture with layer mask..sorry it is a bit of rush & crude job but I must go to bed. :wavey: (I think i need to tune down the texture a bit more in the shadow and mid-tone area.)

I like it Siglo, very nice job.

My own taste is for skin textures a little bit stronger than yours - thats why its so interesting to get a sense for other peoples work and taste here on the forum. So, thanks for being willing to share your work.

Sometimes I will put just a little bit of extra skin texture on the cheeks, or forehead, or chin - It gives the "Impression" to the viewers eye that the rest of the skin must be textured also - even if they dont actually see it. The hint of texture is someimes just enough.

Also, like you suggested a while back - once you get some master masks made up that you like - you can clone in the holes and extend the textures outward so the mask is very easy to use and apply.

Again, thanks for sharing. You created a great mask..

Ray12, its possible to get this result with your technique? ....

superfrasky,

Not totally sure how to answer your question. Your own base image is obviously very important to your own end success.

What the tutorial goes into is... shows a way to smooth out the skin, add in highlight glows where you want them, add selective shadow areas to the picture, how to use the models own skin or skin masks to add skin detail back in, and how to adjust the color palette for different looks.

One particular characteristic I notice about the photo you show above are the white highlights.

These can be created in many ways.

- Where to put the highlights...Use a threshold adjustment to see the actual highlight areas in the image to accentuate, or control click the channels RGB thumbnail to get a selection of the highlight areas in the image, or best yet, artistically hand paint them in exactly where you want them - and then - use the softlight layer mode so that they blend in well).

- Making the highlights super soft and easily blended... Use gaussian blur to soften and spread the highlights and to create smooth blended edges.

- Making the highlights glow... Use the diffuse glow filter.

- Finally... Adjust the highlights intensity to suit your needs using the layer opacity sliders.

Hope this helps some.

ray12 , Thank you for great tutorial !

Ray12!

Thank you for this incredible tutorial. I am going to try it soon! Really good of you to take the time to write it all out!

How do you find this tutorial?

Olof: you can find the tutorial here:
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=209

Enjoy!

Hi all.

Thanks for all your kind comments here! I'm the author of this tutorial and I have a question...

Several acquaintances have suggested that I consider doing a full video version of this tutorial. It would be much more detailed than the written version and would obviously be easier to understand and much more visually interesting.

Im thinking I would cover strong Photoshop skills and the Dior retouching skills at the same time. I would go from basic to advanced and cover each of the major steps in a separate section. What I would end up with is what I call the "infinitely adjustable portrait" - where all adjustments would be dynamic and adjustable so that the end user could adjust each retouching aspect to their own taste and degree of intensity.

I was asking on the main forum how to market this. I do photoshop great but how to produce the video DVD from a marketing standpoint is something I am new to.

I was thinking of how long (2 hours maybe)? Subjects (from levels, to blemish removal, to porcelain skin, to digital makeup, to hair retouching and overall balance)? Format (DVD primarily - good quality - so users could see the steps and settings easily without the web blur). And naturally, price ( who knows what the marketplace would bear... for a full treatment of glamour portrait retouching process, and the necessary Photoshop steps and skills...all from beginning to end - Maybe $49.00 USD to maybe 79 or $99. The more I make from it the happier I'll be - but I have to price it smartly for the user too.

I also have a library of special retouching and makeup brushes and textures for repairing skin, painting in hair, hair textures, different kinds of eyelashes and lip glosses and even eyeshadow and lipstick palettes. I also have a Dior color palette. I was thinking that these might be separate - some would not need them?

The time frame might be late spring early summer.

Does anyone have any suggestions or comments or expertise that might help me along some?

Thanks for your help in this.

Ray 12

wow, some the besto tutorial about retouching. thanks.. well if you produce a DVD, is good, but im from mexico and here dont arrival stuff, you can put online the lessons and option for suscribe to the site..

you don't have to make a dvd in order for it to be of high quality, lynda.com makes their tutotials movies at only 5 fps as anything more seems to be overkill and they use .mov files as opposed to those aweful .wmv files...

Let me give away a very hard won skin texture process. The most polished way to get that specific Dior looking skin texture is to make that high pass version first - and then - run it through the Menu> Filter> Sketch> Bas Relief filter. Use a detail of 14 and a sharpness of 1 - and here is the best part- light the texture from the Top Left. Now you have the highly accentuated pores that you see in the magazines - with the correct lighting angle to go with it! You can also try other lighting angles to fit your needs. Note: This technique can produce very pronounced yet natural pores - so you have to use a layer mask to control it or a much lower layer opacity setting to look great.

Ray

the bas relief filter really worked well, i found it too difficult to use another shot for the pores and no matter how much high pass/USM I used it didn't look like some of the images i've seen in fashion magazines or any of the images from some of the porfolios on this site....i still think there's room to improve the final texture even further but i doubt the pros will reveal all their secrets...

Ray Good Tutorial, for a skin texture paint in, one could use the highpass, tech etc, and make a pattern patch to use as the texture source to add the texture with the Pattern sampt tool,where desired. On seperate layer set to Soft light, addin the texture were needed and fade the opacity to adjust. Probably not as good as the full face tech, but sometimes you just need a little tex here and there, and is much quicker. It beats using noise, for sure. To make a pattern patch ref.: new doc, 64x64pixels-300dpi, transparent, BG, drag a skin texture - Highpass'ed and sharpened, to the New Doc, set layer to softlight, Flaten and save as "Define pattern", then use the pattern stamp tool (Under the Stamptool) and drop down on the Blue bubbles pattern in the tool bar to choose the new pattern you just made. On New layer set to soft light, Paint in texture where you need it ( Opac 50%) and then fade it to just enough. Qucik and simple, although not as refined as your procedure, but good to use on 140 retouches tonight. You're right that the suggestion of skin texture is all that is needed to make the RT more believeable. Mike

thanks for new idea. I am yet to try that. I have never used pattern stamp tool.

Question: If you paint in texture, you have to paint a given area only once not twice or more, otherwise the texture gets smudge. Or if the opacity is low enough, you can get away with several strokes of painting texture on the same area? How do you blend different painted texture areas on a face seamlessly togethor? I don't know if my question makes any sense?

Hi All

Thanks for the comments and questions. I have been traveling.

Im just now beginning to work on a training DVD (about time) that shows all the exact steps of adding accurate skin textures back into cleaned up skin.

There are about 6 different kinds of skin textures on a face. They all have different characteristics, directions and patterns.

The six different skin textures are: forehead skin texture, under the eyes skin texture, cheek texture, nose texture, under the lip texture and chin texture. Each of these texture patterns are uniquely different from each other visually. The most professional looking results come from adding the correct texture withinin each zone.

Once you develop a good "Master Section" of this skin texture pattern...it can be successfully used over and over again on many different models. The texture, the pattern and the direction are fairly much the same across most people.

My experience is that low opacity layer masking is the most predictable and controlled way to get perfectly placed and nicely blended textures.

Ray12

This is one of the most helpful tutorials I've ever done. I've approximated this effect in many ways for a while but the highlight/shadow soft light thing is something I've overlooked. Far better than the 50% Overlay Dodge/Burn method. That's of course useful, but none too flexible or artful.

Ray - write more tutorials or a book! I'll preorder today! :)

Scott

Oops - missed the dvd discussion, reposted from the first page. Ray about the DVD, I don't think a dvd would be overkill but you could accomplish much with cd content (much lower production costs). PhotoshopCafe and their Wacom Graphics series are excellent. I (personally) do not like the cumbersome interface of the Lynda.com menus. Photoshop cafe's approach is the best I've seen.

Although Scott Kelby is the 'master' at such hot selling dvds, I think his narration is too simplistic. Your market would be much more narrow, being advanced/professional photoshop users but these individuals (I believe) would easily pay for the quality level of your detailed guides.

The most impressive thing about your tutorial is to take an already acceptable image and create something masterful out of it, there are FAR TOO many of the quick/dirty/fast/neato type tricks/tips dvds out there. Avoid that, as I'm sure you would already, but just something I've been thinking about.

You might want to try and partner with something like UK's Advanced Photoshop magazine, which already produces excellent tutorials using high level photohgraphy and industry renowned professionals to gauge how your tutorial work is received. They also regularly distribute custom brushes/fonts/etc on their dvds but you should definitely save those for your own distribution. Contact them and publish a feature in their magazine, for which they already distribute a rich and professional cd in every issue. It would give you an opportunity to step into the tutorial production with someone else's backing and also see how much interest it generates.

This may sound dorky, but you might also want to do this with NAPP's magazine, Photoshop User. Katrin Eisman, Deke McLelland, Scott Kelby, JP Caponigro among others regularly do excellent in-depth tutorial work in that mag and it already has a huge subscription base for people who do photoshop work on a professional level. It would get your name out there and only help in garnering attention if/when you do create an entire dvd. Might pay pretty well too.
I sincerely believe that the best ways to get your dvd noticed and actually make some money would be to somehow partner/write for/advertise in/get reviewed by PHotoshop User or Advanced Photoshop UK, and above all, get it distributed for purchase via Amazon.

Does that help at all?

Scott

(Photoshop - if you do create this, i'd be thrilled and most eager to pony up for a purchase.)

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the comments. You are highly creative. I like many of your suggestions. I may have some contacts in those areas, and I think you are brilliant for suggesting that approach.

Right now im working on producing some High-Resolution "Hair Brushes" to be able to repair a models hair that doesn't cut out cleanly using Adobe's selection tools. Its always tough to extract a model from the background via a cutout because the hair never looks right in the small details. What I have done is to photograph actual hair in studio conditions that cuts out cleanly and drops right in place over the existing damaged hair areas. This hair repair brush set can be made any color to match existing colors. Im also working on some Lip Gloss Brushes, Eye Lash Brushes and Eye Catch Light Brushes in order to spice up a retouch. Im hoping that these extra dazzle brushes will add value to the package. They all add a nice sparkle to a portrait and since they are brushes - they apply real easily.

Im still working on developing a price point. Everybody has their own range of what they consider good value for the money they part with. If anyone has any suggestions in that area... its one area that i havent finished thinking about. What is that magic number for "Too high = fewer sales, down lower in price = brings in more quantity".

Im going to do full retouches on 3 models it seems like...and show all the steps in full motion on the DVD and explain how-to and why im doing each step. Im working on the script.

Thanks for your input. Ive wanted to update this tutorial here several times but just got busy. I appreciate your comments and insights. They are real helpful.

Ray

Excellent tutorial. Thank you.

I am trying out something NEW.

I am Now doing Live Glamour Retouching Seminars On-Line. I broadcast my live desktop and sound... right into your web browser live.

I will be teaching students the Techniques of Glamour Retouching... plus some of the hidden secrets of the NYC Retouchers.

I will cover correcting levels, balancing exposures, color correcting, blemish removal, wrinkle reduction, skin smoothing, adding pore detail, electronic makeup techniques, facial contouring, sparkeling eye retouching, lip retouching, lip glosses, eye lashes, adding interest and focus to portraits, and hair repair.

This is in preparation to creating a new 2 hour retouching Training DVD.

You can contact me here using a Personal Message if you have questions... or e-mail me at ray@raylasky.com ...or visit a glamour website http://modelmayhem.com/member.php?id=364873.

Great tutorial Ray. Much appreciated time and effort.

Thanks

Great tutorial

Im considering the possibility of updating the content on this tutorial...does anyone have any suggestions or desires on what direction I might take it?

Thanks Ray12

can you get similar results without blurring and expand the section on adding/making texture as that seems to be the one step that is difficult to do right...

Just been through the tutorial. Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for your kind comments.

Ray12

So basically in high end retouching, art directors don't want to see nor allow any blurring filters to do a basic "smooth over" to get more of a gradient look before a texture mask is applied? Are there exceptions to this? I have seen ads in LA that are looking for high end retouchers that stipulate, Absolutely NO BLURRING! hehe

Anyway, I would assume that high end fashion images shot with 39 MP Hassys capture skin pores so well that there must be some type of smoothing to even things out. I doubt images at those resolutions would need added texture masks.

There are some decent retouching lessons on Lynda.com, but it probably is not focusing on more pro techniques that would work for pre-press, but a good place to start.

I have shot some fashion type models with my Canon 30D and I can get very good pores and skin textures and I always have a makeup artist. Of course an 8MP DSLR is not going to capture the quality that the Hassy will, but for decent shots, it's not bad.

It would be cool if there were more high end retouching classes at adult education schools or weekend seminars available to pick up some techniques and tips. Some more DVD's that cover this subject are definitely needed. Just some thoughts

Thanks for the comments Steve.

Art directors are interested in the LOOk and not how you got there necessarily. Blurring and transparent curves are used to even and smooth colors throughout the face area alot and to get skin-tone evenness (like applying foundation in makeup)...then as long as its applied non-destructively and transparently..then you can still see the pores and it doesnt look so plastic. Some of the older 1st generation techniques I shared here are being enhanced with adjustment layer techniques.

If you dont use non-destructive or transparent methods...then skin pores are added back in afterwards.

Shooting with a Hasselblad or Phase 1 is the way to go. With a 39mb image you CAN get down to the skin pore level at reasonable magnifications and do some incredible work.

One of the most exciting advances ive seen recently is makeup artists using an airbrush to apply foundation. If you dilute it with water alot, the coloring is able to go into the pores themselves and to color inside the skin texture...rather than sitting on top of the skin and clogging it up like regular drug store foundation. It only costs $50 a shoot...but talk about getting perfect skin texture!!

Ray12