Critiques - - Incidentally good result

PatrickB · #1 03-01-2006, 10:01 AM

This is a picture of my gf and her friend. It was shot during a warm-up session and of pretty low quality and poor lighting, yet they loved the shot and wanted this picture. After a few enhancement and improvements I ran across my usual "super-secret-mystery-skin-smoothing"-technique (blur) and achieved this glowing effect.

Cassidy · #2 03-01-2006, 10:17 AM

too hard on yourself Patrick, repeat out aloud "I am not an animal", despite depictions otherwise

PatrickB · #3 03-01-2006, 10:27 AM

Why the heck do I have that feeling this elephant thread will accompany me all of my rp-life?

Cassidy · #4 03-01-2006, 10:29 AM

no it wont, smileys only from me, totally selfish just looking for acknowledgement, call it my ego or whatever, lol

Cassidy · #5 03-01-2006, 10:38 AM

btw, absolutely gorgeous elephant eyes

Jeronimas · #6 03-01-2006, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PatrickB

This is a picture of my gf and her friend. It was shot during a warm-up session and of pretty low quality and poor lighting, yet they loved the shot and wanted this picture. After a few enhancement and improvements I ran across my usual "super-secret-mystery-skin-smoothing"-technique (blur) and achieved this glowing effect.

"super-secret-mystery-skin-smoothing" lol

), I think pro's use this technique as well, just they have different name for it, as you said, super secret

Kraellin · #7 03-01-2006, 01:17 PM

ok, skipping the elephant trend here, i like it. very nicely done. i really dont understand this aversion to blur by some. the results are all that matter. how you got there is moot, except as a lesson on how to get there again. i think it's a delightful picture. very nicely done!

now, the picture does have a sort of hindu statue look to it with all those arms flailing about, and i do believe the hindus have a sort of mystical regard for the elephant...

craig

studioj · #8 03-06-2006, 07:03 PM

Ok Patrick, I have been trying with all my blurs, and non works like yours.

How did you do it?

PatrickB · #9 03-07-2006, 12:22 AM

It's under Filter/Blur/Genius Blur

Seriosly,

I use this mainly for fashion and beauty. It had always annoyed me that skin had such a few variations in luminosity on many pictures. So to enhance skin I often used a blurred layer which I set to overlay. (Basically the overlay-layer is a skin-flattening layer with a median blur or something which is a common thing to smooth skin) The result is it enhances lights and shadows, yes, but not very smoothly.

So my technique for this is to apply a very heavy blur, say 20-40 pixels, depending on the image quality and size. With a little adjustment of brightness and contrast you can achieve awesome gradients and a wide range of skin tones throughout the picture.

Well I applied that to the picture and this is what I got before I could apply any masks. Of course I usually set the opacity on the overlay-layer a lot lower, but for this picture it works out just fine, doesn't it? The halo-effect is a result of the light skin and the dark background.

Attached an example of how it looks like if applied to skin only and with the right opacity.

studioj · #10 03-09-2006, 06:31 PM

Thanks a lot, it's really a great simple technique

Genius blur