A pretty model retouch.

[toxic_snake]

Ok, so I saw in one of the posts a link to a thread were it has many models' photoshoots, so I decided to start retouching some of them:

Before:
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/9...hion491ns4.jpg

After:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/556...hion491ax6.jpg

I know that the area under her eyes look smoother than the other parts of her face, and I wanted to make the face smoother, but I have no idea what to use on order to achieve that beside the blur tool -I really didn't want to use the blur- so if anyone of you have any other opitions in order to minimize that sharpness and the appearance of the facial hear; please share, besides, you can add your own notes as well.

[hawkeye60]

I am not a retoucher but it seems a little on the harsh side to me. I prefer a softer look, but is that just be personal preference? Here is what I did with it...

[AltIvan]

Use degrunge (see the tutorial section) and start using healing brush on strong hightlighst (mayba you can fade it after to get a smoth result (ctrl+F).

PD:Where are those photos?

[TommyO]

I can see the corrections you made to the blemishes, scar and overall tonality. These look fine. Depending on your goal, any remaining hint of the blemishes would be removed with the skin refining.

You asked about making the skin smoother and reducing facial hair. Well, the techniques number in the hundreds depending on how you came into the industry and which you like the most. Obviously, a good book or two would be helpful for you, as they provide good examples and walk you through the steps.

I came from a restoration background, so my retouching techniques are somewhat limited to those that get the most results the fastest. One technique for skin smoothing that is still used and is a good starting point is this:
- merge your existing layers up to a work in progress layer;
- use Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. Use a high value for "Strength" like 10; use a moderate value for "Preserve Details" like 25%. Leave the last two controls at their lowest setting. The nice thing is you get a preview. Notice the skin will smooth out/soften but the eyes, brows and hair will/should remain sharp.

Now you have a good starting point for refining using other techniques.

Hope this helps. Good luck !
Tommy

[toxic_snake]

Originally Posted by TommyO

I can see the corrections you made to the blemishes, scar and overall tonality. These look fine. Depending on your goal, any remaining hint of the blemishes would be removed with the skin refining.

You asked about making the skin smoother and reducing facial hair. Well, the techniques number in the hundreds depending on how you came into the industry and which you like the most. Obviously, a good book or two would be helpful for you, as they provide good examples and walk you through the steps.

I came from a restoration background, so my retouching techniques are somewhat limited to those that get the most results the fastest. One technique for skin smoothing that is still used and is a good starting point is this:
- merge your existing layers up to a work in progress layer;
- use Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. Use a high value for "Strength" like 10; use a moderate value for "Preserve Details" like 25%. Leave the last two controls at their lowest setting. The nice thing is you get a preview. Notice the skin will smooth out/soften but the eyes, brows and hair will/should remain sharp.

Now you have a good starting point for refining using other techniques.

Hope this helps. Good luck !
Tommy

Thank you so much for the guidsance, I'll try to do those steps and see the results.