I love the de-grunge technique (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213). The skin texture is great. …but I need some help with difficulties I got.

Although it’s a great skin retouch, the skin still keeps its unevenness. These 'spots' distract from its result, and the picture looks retouched. I know this is why a good make-up artist is priceless, but not all my shoots has one around (will change in the future).

My question, how are others handling this? What is your workflow regarding this problem? I want to keep the skin structure intact, or else the de-grunge trick loses its advantages.

btw, the picture is 50% crop

That is downside with the technique...maybe we do it the wrong way? Maby byro has some nice tips to us=?????


GERRY

Do you have the original?

That's pretty simple, you just use Dodge & Burn. Here's my pic, I didn't make it perfect, I spent under 5 minutes on it. Spending a little longer, and it'd look perfect.

Here's a tip: the less you rely on filters, and the more you do 'by hand', the better and more convincing your picture looks.

My question, how are others handling this? What is your workflow regarding this problem? I want to keep the skin structure intact, or else the de-grunge trick loses its advantages.

btw, the picture is 50% crop

I often do different parts of a face using different highpass radii. For large smooth areas, you need to use a larger highpass radius in the first step. Near the hair line, eyes and eyebrows, use another layer with small raduis. Around the nose use an in-between radius.

I did a highpass 7/blur 3 on yours and just blotted a few places with a soft white brush.

Bart

@ Bart It look like a good advice to use different highpass radii for different parts in the face. I assume you changed the Gaussian Blur accordingly (divided by 3). I shall try this tomorrow. Never thought of it.

Using a new highpass 7/blur 3 layer is indeed a good method to get better results. I assumed wrongly it would destroy the texture, but the effect is way more subtle then I thought.

@ TheVeed. Thanks for your advice. The dodge and burning technique is difficult, but I assume its because I never used these tools before. I shall try it tomorrow.

@NancyJ Yes, the original is a 11 Mp image from the D200. This sample was only a small crop.

Thank you all. I must learn to use a multi-step approach and stop trying to get perfect results in the first technique.

@ Bart It look like a good advice to use different highpass radii for different parts in the face. I assume you changed the Gaussian Blur accordingly (divided by 3). I shall try this tomorrow. Never thought of it.

Yes, I usually scale up the blur radius, but divide-by-3 is just a rule of thumb--not set in stone. It depends on the range of textures you're trying to get rid of. In your case, the uneveness was caused by variations of diameter roughly between 6 and 14, so that's why the choice of radii 3 and 7. If the original skin had a wider range of texture problems, you might blur with a radius smaller than divide-by-three.

In general, I turn on linear light blending and invert the layer ahead of time so I can see how it's going to look while you adjust the blur radius.

Soft light, hard light, and overlay blend modes also give more subtle results--often worth a quick look when you think your result looks too artificial.

Bart