Hi Everyone...thanks for all the wonderful tips on this forum! A client of mine would like the skin on these images to appear "more wet" in the highlights. I am trying to work with the original shimmer on the skin, but I don't know how to create it where it does not exsist. Any ideas on how to reproduce this? More wet...more shimmer....BUT I have to keep skin texture! Thanks!
Tracy

The wet shimmer is going to involve a high-contrast, hard-edged highlight and its corresponding shadow. A slow but high quality way to achieve this look would be to take samples of wet skin or wet objects and study how the light reflects off the highlight. Then go back and duplicating the original layer, use your dodge and burn tools to create high-contrast, hard-edged highlights. You can the use a suitable blend mode and opacity to sink the highlight into the original layer. It'll take some time as well as traditional media rendering skills but you might be surprised with the results.

Hi arien,

I wanted to respond to this cuz this is an area of interest for me, but the methods used are some really worthwhile, but somewhat basic methods, and would be a waste if they got lost in a thread, so I've put up a tutorial for you and anyone else who's interested. I think it might be what you're looking for.

The link might be:

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=212

If not, it's called Wet Skin. Let me know if you have any problems.

Mig

Thanks guys! That tutorial is awesome way of getting those highlights out of there. I currently have been creating a D/B set with a highlight Curve and a shadow curve that I created by eye. That blue channel really makes it pop, though! I have so many images of these women that this will really help!

Best!
Tracy

Hi arien,

I wanted to respond to this cuz this is an area of interest for me, but the methods used are some really worthwhile, but somewhat basic methods, and would be a waste if they got lost in a thread, so I've put up a tutorial for you and anyone else who's interested. I think it might be what you're looking for.

The link might be:

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=212

If not, it's called Wet Skin. Let me know if you have any problems.

Mig


hi mig, i went through your tutorial, and i'm not quite sure how you actually make use of the blue channel?

How do you select the channel such that it makes it shiny, when i activate it along with the other channels, suddenly the picture becomes red.

I totally understand the dodge and burn part and increasing contrast for the blue channel copy, i just dont understand how to activate the blue channel to make it shiny

thanks!

Hi Everyone...thanks for all the wonderful tips on this forum! A client of mine would like the skin on these images to appear "more wet" in the highlights. I am trying to work with the original shimmer on the skin, but I don't know how to create it where it does not exsist. Any ideas on how to reproduce this? More wet...more shimmer....BUT I have to keep skin texture! Thanks!
Tracy

Hi Tracy

Some of the techniques I explain in this tutorial:

http://www.bechbox.dk/pwl/

can be used for the 'wet' look

Hope it helps you

/megl

Hi tristfoc,

and i'm not quite sure how you actually make use of the blue channel?

How do you select the channel such that it makes it shiny, when i activate it along with the other channels, suddenly the picture becomes red.

I think the confusion might be that the use of the blue channel is only for the purposes of making a selection. This is a very common method people will use for selections - they'll make a duplicate of a channel, in this case the blue channel because it had good contrast, and then manipulate the duplicated channel even further (in this case to get more contrast), and then this duplicated channel, which is actually an alpha channel now, will stay at the bottom of the channels palette for use later, when you want to use it as a source for selections.

Once you've duplicated the blue channel you can basically forget that it was once the blue channel. It is no longer the blue channel, but an alpha channel, and functions as a source for selections.

So try this, with your mouse, grab and drag the blue channel down to the bottom of the channels palette and duplicate it. You now have an alpha channel. You can do anything to this you want, in terms of manipulating it to create sophisticated selections. When you need it, return to it and click it. You'll see that the marching ants appear. From here you'll be able to work on areas of the picture with more control.
Incidentally, this method, of using a high contrast duplicated channel as a source for selections, is the way you'd most likely be able to grab very intricate details of a picture that you wouldn't be able to grab with other selection tools. This is how you should try to select wispy hair, for example.

Mig