A thought came to me while planning this tutorial. The 3-D modeling folks who try to mimic real skin have

their work cut out trying to introduce random imperfections, blotches and general grunge into their

perfect skin – all to get it more human.
We are going the other way, and this technique is actually an inversion of one of the 3-D techniques. [details (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213)]

Rô

If you wish to try this out on the original image from NancyJ's thread, here the link (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12277&highlight=revenge)

(plenty of skin there :cool: )

Rô

thanks Ro.

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

ALL HAIL RO!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Absolutely awesome tutorial and technique and very well written and easy to understand - I just can't thank you enough or say enough good about it. THis is not going to cost us our first born is it? (Trust me you would send her back by day's end!)
Boy was I scared this was going to be hard to learn, but you have written this absolutely beautifully!

THANK YOU RO!!

:bow: :bow: :bow:

Great tutorial! I just joined RetouchPro and I already love this forum!

Keep those glamour/retouching tutorials coming :)

Thanks for a great tutorial!

Awesome tutorial, byRo ! Thank you !

I'm currently applying the method on a pic of mine, and I'm trying to wipe out the "bad edges" in a semi-automatic way.
I' like to semi-automatically select the edges, in order to use it as a black selection in a see-all mask for the layer created with your technique... But I haven't been able to do it yet : the high-pass filter gives an image that is not contrasted enough, and other tools won't do yet...

I'm gonna try using a FFT... and let everybody know if this or anything else works !

Hello...

I've been "investigating" this last question of mine.

In order to make the process even more automated, I've come to the conclusion that it is possible, instead of painting with black on the "degrunge" layer, it is possible to use an edges mask.

To create it :
- copy paste the original pic in a new layer
- run the high pass filter to the same settings you've used
- run the Stylize > Find edges filter
- using Levels, decrease the "white" level : the aim is to have the inner skin areas fully white
- then augment contrast sharply and luminosity a bit (or use curves for the same effect)
- select the dark areas ; use "Select > Expand" by 1 to 3 pixels, according to pic resolution - the "black edges" must be several pixels wide and must draw most of the exterior body lines
- paint the new selection black

Now use this layer as a mask for the degrunge layer... voilà !
Edge fringing is 90% solved.


Please let me know if you found this useful !

Very useful, eogg,

I had been thinking (though not "investigating", yet) along the same lines.
Although the method I have in mind is rather different, the results should be about the same.

My idea is to use something like, Find Edges -> Posterize -> Blur.
Ideally the Posterize step would create black lines about 3 times the width of the High-pass radius and the blur would be at the High-pass radius, that way the gradient of the mask would match the "gradient" of the edge interference.

However, seeing as the basic de-grunge method can already be a bit confusing to some folks, a (more complicated yet) masking procedure can get real scarey.

It would be nice if the whole procedure were wrapped up in a plug-in, which (by coincidence :rolleyes: ) is something I am working on. :classic:

Rô

Ok byRo,

Here is my try after I read your tutorial, hope to get some C&C.

Image here (100 KB) (http://www.nicoli.com.mx/photos/8.jpg)

And thanks for the tutorial!!!! :grin:

Chepe

Cool, another mexican :D

Well it should be a lot, but I don't know all

Bienvenido a Retouchpro.com Chepe.

Olá, Chepe, benvindo à RetouchPRO :bigthmb:

Looks pretty good to me.

Although one of the dangers of this technique is in letting things go a bit too far - the forehead texture comes over as a bit too strong.
Pores in the nose and cheeks are to be expected, but on a young lady's forehead they seem a little out of place.

Look forward to hearing more from you.

Rô

No nit-picking here, but I've already seen this tutorial months ago, I think I remember it was even with the same picture. How come?

Thanks studioj and byRo

2 Days ago I was wondering how to smoothing out the skin and after some google I came to this site.

I will give it another try taking care of the forehead.

Chepe :masked:

Ok... here is a second try in another image, same model.

Large file here (http://nicoli.com.mx/photos/9.jpg)

I did take care of the forehead: using the BLUR TOOL and then FADE BLUR TOOL until I got what i wanted.

Chepe :classic:

Quite amazing! I tried it here on my friend Buddy. Mind you, this was my first shot with this technique and my first guess at the radius to use.
Thanks for this!
Bill

No nit-picking here, but I've already seen this tutorial months ago, I think I remember it was even with the same picture. How come?
Unlikely, unless its a MASSIVE coincidence, the image in this tut is one I pulled off stock Xchng and Ro used for the tutorial - the probability that someone else took the same image and used it to demonstrate the same tutorial is minute.

Thanks for the tutorial, just used it for the first time and it worked out great.

Thanks for the tutorial, just used it for the first time and it worked out great.

Welcome to RetouchPRO, elshagon :bigthmb:
I'm glad this was useful.

No nit-picking here, but I've already seen this tutorial months ago, I think I remember it was even with the same picture. How come?
Maybe Patrick is referring to the tutorial mentioned by shelby here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12869), published soon after mine which covers the same ground and coincidentally uses some of the same words.

(The image is different though)

Rô

Nope, that's not it. It was using exactly the same picture. But reading yours again the technique is (as far as I remember) different, although it covers skin smoothing as well :)

Don't remember where I found it though.

Hi byRo,

I have reading yours tutorials and I'm very impressed with your knowledge in photoshop. Your english is great too! Congratulations! It's my first post here, because my english is bad and i'm ashamed to write something. I'm from brazil too.

"Estou realmente impressionada com seus posts, vc mora mesmo no brasil? Seu ingles é excelente, incrível...um dia chego lá...hahaha...Vc não participa de nenhum forum de fotografia aqui do brasil? A sua contribuição seria ótima, pense nisso."

Abs,
Rari
:wavey:

Hey Bill. I like what you did with the "keep the pores" technique and for myself, this has opened up a new approach for my own goals in retouching. I feel you made it, but perhaps pull back just a bit and display a more natural result. I am working with the same area as to how much or how less to apply. Of course it depends on the source image. Over all a good job. steveb

Thanks, Steve. Yes, I would never leave what looks like a 30 year drop in age for any finished effort. His wife might like it if I could adapt it to his real face, however. I recorded an action at the same time I was following the steps of the tutorial, and this is the default push-button result. It still amazes me. But I always try and get natural looking results when I finish something. You would want the viewer to have to look closely to see if anything was touched up. Thanks again.
Bill

read my note

Ro,

I didn't feel that 5.1 was enough because I was looking at the red welts on her jaw. I ran it up to 6.1 and the results were horrid. As you said, That is a critical choice!

Since I am new and starting to realize how out classed I am, help me get calibrated. Is this similar to the results that you and others achieved?

Ro,

I didn't feel that 5.1 was enough because I was looking at the red welts on her jaw. I ran it up to 6.1 and the results were horrid. As you said, That is a critical choice!

Since I am new and starting to realize how out classed I am, help me get calibrated. Is this similar to the results that you and others achieved?

I was reading the tutorial and playing around with PS and did this which is almost as fast and simple:

1.Create three duplicate layers
2. Desaturate the topmost layer and apply high pass filter. This is used to restore the skin texture to taste. You can switch it off until after you have finished working with the other layers.
3. Apply a gussian blur and a median filter (separately) to the other two duplicate layers, adjust blur to taste with the median layer more heavily blurred. Black mask these two and paint back selectively to taste using a soft white (or grey) brush. Apply the gaussian layer first as a general clean up, then the median layer more selectively on the more obvious spots. The transparency setting of the layers provides one more fine tuning option.
4. Finally re-activate the high pass layer and blend as required using soft/hard light and layer transparency. If you want to have more control you can always apply a black mask to this layer too.

Other than the above I did some clean up of the background and colour/contrast balancing including making her lip colour match her necklace.

By the way, you missed a bit under her chin when painting the background black.

one note here about byRo's tutorial; he mentions near the end using 'invert'. if you're a psp user, this is the same as 'negative image' and not 'invert' on the layer palette, nor inverting/converting to grayscale.

also, since psp has no 'linear light' blend mode, try 'hard light' or 'soft light' and adjust the opacities to suit.

you can also try adjusting the opacity of the brush in the last step when painting with white on the mask for more control.

craig

TooWeird,

I felt like my result was too fuzzy. Now that I see yours I know I was right.

What's with the handle? Pick something nice for yourself. If you think that YOU are too weird, then you just don't know enough people.

I have been searching for a way to smooth skin without creating the "plastic" unnatural look. I have tried many tutorials to no avail. I just tried this one and I love it. Thank you Ro for this tutorial.

Bella

TooWeird,

What's with the handle? Pick something nice for yourself. If you think that YOU are too weird, then you just don't know enough people.

On a philosophical note, I think that deep down everyone thinks that everbody else is just that little bit strange; and of course it works both ways. So, the guy or girl with a bone through the nose, green hair and a tattoo of Barney the Dinosaur probably looks at Joe Normal on the street and sees a weirdo.

On a mundane level, I use the name for various purposes other than as a nic in forums. You might note that the spelling of Verywierd is "wrong". You would not believe the amount of email I get just to tell me that :)

While it may not be "nice", it does tend to stick in people's minds.

read my noteHi there, blue dog.
Nice change to see some graphs instead of graphics!

The supression of a range of frequencies will certainly ruin any good edges in the image. A good edge needs the appropriate mix of odd numbered harmonics - start eliminating harmonics and the edge gets mucked up pretty quickly.

Which is why the de-Grunge must be masked near the edges. There is no way to combine the edge / skin in one process. In fact, part of the "wow" is in the contrast between the smoothed skin and the hard edges.

In my de-Grunge plug-in the hard part is being not the de-Grunge, but deciding on a good masking process.

As to deciding the correct radius, my method is to use the lowest radius possible to eliminate most of the grunge. Sometimes one pass isn't enough. So just apply the method again, at an appropriate radius for the "exceptions" masking as required.

Rô
PS. I'm not sure how you arrived at the graph, but something to remember is that the Gaussian blur / High-pass is very far from being a perfect Low-pass / High-pass filter.(tutorial planned)

Great time-saving tutorial! Thank you so much!
Attached find my tweak (while following tutorial of course)... found out masking the skin works best, also did some cloning, curve layer adjustments, coloring for the lips (new layer, blending mode "color"), sharpening for eyes, jewlery, etc. but overall very, very, very, usefull. Would make a great action script if someone had the time to write it (hint, hint).
Thanks again,
~Nancy~
_____________________________
www.iphotofx.com

Great time-saving tutorial! Thank you so much!................. Would make a great action script if someone had the time to write it (hint, hint).
Hi there, Nancy, glad you found this useful. :bigthmb:

The script is pretty easy, and I think a few people have already put it together.
However, as folks find out quickly the tricky part is getting the radius right, for which the action doesn't help.

I am developing a plug-in which allows you to have a preview of the output while you adjust the radius. I've been thinking of putting up a "test" version somewhere. I don't have my own page, so if anyone has a bit of space........:rolleyes:

Rô

I have the space and I'm willing to help out.

Hi there, Nancy, glad you found this useful. :bigthmb:

The script is pretty easy, and I think a few people have already put it together.
However, as folks find out quickly the tricky part is getting the radius right, for which the action doesn't help.

I am developing a plug-in which allows you to have a preview of the output while you adjust the radius. I've been thinking of putting up a "test" version somewhere. I don't have my own page, so if anyone has a bit of space........:rolleyes:

Rô

Hi,
Firstly great tutorial, however I am running photoshop 6 and do not have the linear light blending option.
Can anyone recommend a solution? CAn I use a different blending method or a combination of more than one method to give the same result?

Thanks,
Martin

With CS3 and smart filters we can have a Smart Degrunge that is totally editable after it's set by double clicking on the smart filters for the layer :) I made an action for anyone wanting to try it. This degrunge technique/tutorial has to be my favorite of all the RetouchPRO tutes! This isn't better than a plugin, but it does allow you to quickly get set up and then change the settings.

I've added another action file - I'm not sure what happened but when I tried it the other day it wasn't working right. The Smart Degrunge2 should be working with PsCS3 now.

Hello...

...select the dark areas ; use "Select > Expand" by 1 to 3 pixels, according to pic resolution - the "black edges" must be several pixels wide and must draw most of the exterior body lines
- paint the new selection black

Now use this layer as a mask for the degrunge layer... voilà !
Edge fringing is 90% solved.


Please let me know if you found this useful !

this might sound stupid but i'm up to this point and i don't know how to use the layer as a mask for the grunge layer, help would be much appreciated.
Great tutorial by the way!!!!

I am using CS2 so staying on the same layer I go to "Layer" / "Layer Mask" / "Hide All"
Use a white paint brush to paint in the effect.

Thanks for the tuto.
This is a couple days I'm crawling the web searching for improving my very poor skills at skin tretouching. I heve read and tried countless tutos. And Then ... I read yours. I have nothing to add. I just got what I was searching for. Something simple, flexible, and with the two words of basic signal processing science that make the whole understandable at perfection. THANK YOU :-) :-) :-)