My first posting. I recently had an engagement session with a lovely couple and am now doing the retouching. The attached is a cropped in view of their faces. As you can see, I've got a significant challenge in that both have problematic skin. What's the best procedure to fix this?

a very kick way
select the green channel
edit > use as motif (i'm not sure of translation)
and use the patch tool with the motif.
-edit-
it's "define pattern", not "motif" , motif is the french' pattern :D
-/edit-

Here's my first attempt at retouching for this site, so I hope that with it is ok!!
Basically, I didn't want to glamorize the couple too much. The photo is wonderful and I wanted to retain as much of the couples natural characteristics as possible, including moles etc and basically just give them a clean up.
I used a little noise reduction, played with their skin tones to remove excess redness and then continued on with the clone and healing tools.

Well looking at the photo channel by channel the red channel obscures the acne which isn't too surprising. So to start select a channel Mixer adjustment layer. Select 100% red with monochrome which will place this layer on top of the original layer. Then select blending mode of luminosity which will remove many of the red spots

Great method there Phil

Thanks, Cass.

Hi and Welcome, Atom Kat....

Just another version to add to the mix..... I did a very quick method from Katrin Eismann's book using a Curves Adj. layer:

Press 'Q'
Used round 70% hardness black brush to dab on several dark spots
Press 'Q' again
Select > Inverse
Add Curves Adj. layer (bottom of Layers palette)
Raise the midpoint until the selected dark points blend with surrounding skin
Used a white 100% brush to paint over remaining dark spots
Adjusted opacity of layer
Flattened

Selected skin then:
Image > Adj. > Selective Color (Reduced Magenta from Reds)

Just for fun brightened teeth ......

Beth

Hi there

Good work all

This is a good candidate for the degrunge routine I think.

I used a highpass of 6 and a Gaussian blur of 2.

Butch

Pretty much used the same method as Phil, (needed to mask man's shirt s this had a lot of noise from the adj layer).

Added a levels adjustment layer to tweak the lighting which was altered by the channel mixer adj layer.

Cloned out a few other blemishes (I removed the man's mole, but probably wouldn't if doing it again as this is characteristic of him).

I've been able to duplicate all styles used except..Solitear's..
Can't seem to make it work..I seem to be buzzing along until the Curve Adj.. it doesn't seem to blend for me at all, then when I when I paint over the remaining spots it just lightens everything but the blemishes are totally there.
I'm doing something wrong.
Solitearsm Which Katrin Eismann's book are you referencing?
I've got some of hers..love them.

Lasa

Hi Lasa..... it's her Third Edition Restoration/Retouching..... I went back over my steps and realized I'd left out the darkening phase (you know, getting rid of the bright ring left when lightening the dark spots)......

I didn't do the darkening part like Katrin suggested in her Dual Curves Technique..... mainly because I felt like I had a little more control when I used the below darkening technique (which I'm sure everybody and his dog's hairy cousin already know about)....

To darken those bright halos:

Alt click the Add New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette
In the dialog box, change blend mode to Soft Light and check Fill with 50% ...
Using the Darken Tool set to Midpoints at 20% + I darkened the too light areas

Hopefully, this is what will make the difference ..... sorry about that..... I was trying to make sure I got all of her instructions in about the curves technique, along with, taking the magenta out of the reds... totally forgetting you'd have people left with the dreaded and highly contagious 'hot pink polka dot-aderma' (which I think George once contracted on a Seinfeld episode)....

Anyway..... hope that does the trick... :classic:

Beth

Thanks I'll give it a try when I get home.
Lasa

well here's my version...i went way more overboard than the other posts...but keep in mind i'm still learning too....u can use the same method that i used but in smaller doses...i tend to like the flawless look so i go toward that a lot :P even though i know it isn't always best...but here's what i did anyway:
used healing brush to hide the more noticeable blemishes
duplicate layer
filter>add noise>dust & scratches
filter>blur>gaussian blur
filter>noise>add noise
then masked the dup. layer
and fill the screen with black paint bucket
then switch to white color and "paint over" the areas to be softened...you can choose whichever opacity you think best but as u can tell i used a higher opac.
finally, i lowered the layer's opacity to about 60% and this is the finished image
...oh and i tried to whiten the teeth...any how, i hope this gives u some idea of a technique u may be able to use for something in the future!

Thank you, all. I'm playing with several of your techniques.
Jeangab is right about the translation of "motif." I can't find it or a similar word under "edit." Regardless, I've learned a lot from this posting.

Well, I always look for a quick way to get to the 90% point so here is my approach.
Ctrl J to duplicate the background layer. Next Image>Apply Image and select the background layer, Red Channel, Blend Mode to Lighten and leave opacity at 100% and click OK. Don't worry about the part gray / part color result. Now change the Blend mode of that layer from Normal to Luminosity.
The image is restored to the original but with the skin anomalies significantly cleaned up. The rest is a matter of taste. You can fine tune the mole or tweak the color and contrast - but as is looks pretty natural.

Phil, you were on the right track but if you don't apply the Red layer and changed the blend to lighten, you end up with all that black gunge on the shirt.

Regards, Murray

I posted my stab here on my website...I can never get the photos to upload for some reason...so this is easier with iWeb.

http://web.mac.com/chris.ducasse/RetouchPro

welcome to RetouchPRO, scott.

some nice work here, folks :)

however, this is a retouching piece and not a restoration one, so, i'm moving it to the appropriate forum. i'll leave a link in here for a while to keep things managable.