OK, here's a model with the worst skin ever. I'm not quite sure how to handle it, so I wanted to see how some of you may treat it. She is so covered in bumps, that there is no good texture to sample from. She also has a scarred upper lip. I gave it a try, but I already know that Ant will be writhing in my magnifying glass (my ignorance being the sun). Anyhow, if any of you have suggestions for exzema skin, that would be appreciated.

I don't see any eczema here -- that's usually discolored skin, I thought.

I don't see a problem with this woman's skin that the usual retouching wouldn't take care of; I think you've oversmoothed in your "after" version -- no one's skin is that smooth, is it? ;) Not even a baby...

Try reducing the Opacity of the smoothed layer so some of the grain starts to show through

I used Katrin Eisman's soft focus technique. I used less blurring.

Looks a lot better because you can see some of the skin texture now :)

Great picture..softened it up some..then tried to bring back the light sheen.
(Lost some smoothening on the downsizing..oh well)
Lasa

I used Katrin Eisman's soft focus technique. I used less blurring.
good job phillbach, could you explain a little about this technique please?

Great picture..softened it up some..then tried to bring back the light sheen.
(Lost some smoothening on the downsizing..oh well)
Lasa

Good job but still looks a bit plasticy imho

Alright. I worked some of her texture back in. I touched up what I was too lazy to do before I softened. Softening is kinda like a nicotine habit... I get frustrated and then just blur up at the slightes bit of trouble. I'll have to get the gaussian patch. This may still be too soft for some of your tastes.

Well a good technique which I didn't use is Ro's degrunge technique which is located in the tutorial section here. The technique I used is described in Katrin Eisman's 3rd edition of "Photoshop Restoration and Retouching" page 376. I like it because its easy and you can control many variables. At any rate here is how it goes.

Copy the Layer and use Screen Blending mode. Use an aggressive Gaussian Blur to this layer like 30. Next Copy that layer and use mutliply blending mode. Adjust the opacity of the layer to a luminosity that sort of matches the initial, background Layer.

Select the Screen Layer and Select the Multiply Layer and in the layers menu select new Group from Layers option. To this group layer apply a group mask and then paint the mask.

Nice Phil! This photo is a good candidate for your technique. Little Fisher, I prefer your second attempt with more texture. Actually, I thought her skin wasn't that bad at all. She doesn't have any acne and apart from those striations on the upper lip and some very minor creases on the forehead there wasn't much work to do. A more pressing problem was was posed by those harsh shadows coming down from her nose. I dodged those away using a 2% opacity, white brush on a Soft Light Layer. I used the Healing Brush to fix up the larger imperfections and a Screen Layer to lighten her overall complexion. I used a Curves layer to increase contrast in the midtones and desaturated her shirt a bit.

Syd

I also gave this one a try.
I first cloned out the wringles, then I used the Degrundge method, then did some dodge and burn on 50% gray layer set to soft light.
The I tried a layer of air brush at 40% to see if it helped.
Good job Syd.

Thanks for all of your input. I just got Katrin Eisman's book and have to say that it's much more informative than other books I've bought recently. I've been getting into her technique that CathyH mentioned, where a 50% gray fill layer is used to dodge and burn. I have trouble with that technique when using another touchup layer where I use the rubber stamp and heal tools. Do you use it last, or do you put it above or below the touchup layer?

As far as her bad skin, I wish you could see the full-res version. Perhaps I'm also thinking of another shot I have of her where her whole body is covered in little bumps. Maybe you're right, though. She could be worse.

Thanks,
LF

LF
I'm no expert, but i have learned a lot on this site. And experimenting is the best way to learn.
What I have found is that you do all the marjor fixes first. such as blemishes, wrinkles, reshaping, then you work on the texture of the skin with the dodge and burn tools, or the other methods.
I used a combination of them.
Take care and keep on practicing.

i thought i'd try this one also. here's a quick go at it.

Say, that's a nice chocolate tone you got there Pixeltek. What did you do?

-LF

thanks LF,

it's the virtual photographer plug-in, copper, set to multiply and lowered the opacity. you can play with it to get varying degrees of the copper tone.