Critiques - - Critics for beauty retouch - Page 2

madclark · #16 07-06-2008, 07:17 PM

I've only worked on the skin here, but I've tried to create a step-by-step to get a more natural looking base.

You have two things working against you in this image. The model doesn't have great skin tone in the first place with all the blemishes and she naturally has a lot of freckling. It's very difficult to find unadulterated areas to use to heal problem areas.

Try this as a start though:

1. Go to the Red layer of the image and copy and paste it as a new layer in a new group. This will be your luminosity layer.

2. On this greyscale image, use the spot heal or the heal brush to even out any remaining blemishes. In areas with little contrast, try using the spot heal brush in Create Texture mode to really even out the tones.

3. Create a duplicate of the Background layer, and desaturate. This layer should be under the luminosity layer.

4. On the luminosity layer, create a mask and then open a square to the desaturated background layer for reference.

5. Create a Brightness/Contrast layer above the luminosity layer and "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask." Adjust brightness and contrast to match the desaturated background layer.

6. Finally, clear the mask of your luminosity layer and then mask everything in the group but the skin and change the blend mode to Luminosity of the luminosity layer. You should have decently dewy, and realistic, skin tone to start from.

7. Finally, create a blank layer and in Overlay mode use a large soft black pen with a low flow rate to burn in some of the shadowing in the hollows of the cheeks that were lost from the luminosity layer.

Took me about 20 minutes to do the attached picture.

secretagents · #17 07-07-2008, 01:03 PM

I had a play with that pic. It was interesting, thanks for sharing your model with us. Neat Image plus a bit of healing brush and median here and there and various brightness adjustments. I think that's all I did. Despite the relatively little work on it I feel it is more high end than yours for some reason. At any rate it's completely different.

JD Spears · #18 07-07-2008, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by secretagents

Despite the relatively little work on it I feel it is more high end than yours for some reason.

Alex, You may want to go for the low end;-}

dsgoen · #19 07-07-2008, 04:12 PM

Put some freckles back. We redheads must not be denied!

alex.justino · #20 07-07-2008, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TommyO

I like the skin tones, hair color and lighting. The retouch is definitely moving in the right direction.
I agree with amica999 on the hair. The cloning is too obvious at the top near the part.
Also, the eyes may be a bit too white.. they really stand out. You don't need that given the natural beauty of her iris's.
While some may say the skin is too soft, I don't think so, given her age and what the image may be used for, i.e. a cosmetic market. If it were just a portrait retouch, it may be too much.
Great job !

I'm Brazil the girls from the hair color box have that look, so i was thinking... i need to know how to do that, so i tried =] .... so it is more a cosmectic photo

for a example this is Angelica from Brazil she's is famous in Brazil,
this is her normal: http://angelica.globo.com/adm_img/fotos_13.jpg
this is her photo for loreal: http://bp2.blogger.com/_5c9vjaQwSI8/...0-h/Loreal.JPG

Quote:

Originally Posted by amica999

Alex, looks very good to me...even though I am no pro, it looks a little retouched on the top hair, seem to be some cloning spots, could that be?

yes the first version had a pretty bad hair hahahahha i changed now bc of the comments ^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by madclark

I agree with everyone in complimenting how beautiful it looks. Wonderful job.

However, to my eye it's been so perfected that you're moving into the realm of photo-realistic illustration. There's literally not a flaw anywhere on her face. The eyes are very saturated and whitened and very sharp. And the skin has been smoothed and texturized to the point of no pores.

If I can tell it's been Photoshopped, despite how beautiful it is, I don't think it's the right answer.

Have you experimented with blending the layers to see if you can affect more realism?

I totally skip your post... sorry.., i just saw it now... i'm still getting used to this layout on retouchpro... i never thought before u said, u tried but then i lost the light/bright of the final version =/

Quote:

Originally Posted by madclark

I've only worked on the skin here, but I've tried to create a step-by-step to get a more natural looking base.

You have two things working against you in this image. The model doesn't have great skin tone in the first place with all the blemishes and she naturally has a lot of freckling. It's very difficult to find unadulterated areas to use to heal problem areas.

Try this as a start though:

1. Go to the Red layer of the image and copy and paste it as a new layer in a new group. This will be your luminosity layer.

2. On this greyscale image, use the spot heal or the heal brush to even out any remaining blemishes. In areas with little contrast, try using the spot heal brush in Create Texture mode to really even out the tones.

3. Create a duplicate of the Background layer, and desaturate. This layer should be under the luminosity layer.

4. On the luminosity layer, create a mask and then open a square to the desaturated background layer for reference.

5. Create a Brightness/Contrast layer above the luminosity layer and "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask." Adjust brightness and contrast to match the desaturated background layer.

6. Finally, clear the mask of your luminosity layer and then mask everything in the group but the skin and change the blend mode to Luminosity of the luminosity layer. You should have decently dewy, and realistic, skin tone to start from.

7. Finally, create a blank layer and in Overlay mode use a large soft black pen with a low flow rate to burn in some of the shadowing in the hollows of the cheeks that were lost from the luminosity layer.

Took me about 20 minutes to do the attached picture.

i will definitely try this on next saturday, this week is gonna be a little busy for me, tks a lot for the tips, i really appreciate that =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by secretagents

IMO means In My Opinion. Sorry about that.

u have nothing to sorry about =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by secretagents

I had a play with that pic. It was interesting, thanks for sharing your model with us. Neat Image plus a bit of healing brush and median here and there and various brightness adjustments. I think that's all I did. Despite the relatively little work on it I feel it is more high end than yours for some reason. At any rate it's completely different.

you did a great work on the skin and actually the girl is not my model, i just took the pic from that site, like i wrote on DA i don't have any info about the photographer, which is a shame bc i really like to give credits to them

Quote:

Originally Posted by JD Spears

Alex, You may want to go for the low end;-}

not high end, not low end... definitely is dead end!!!!! hahahahahaha

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsgoen

Put some freckles back. We redheads must not be denied!

hahahahahaha
i loved that comment, it's so funny
hahhhahh she looks blond to me =)

JD Spears · #21 07-07-2008, 10:21 PM

Alex, Not sure when you put that BG in but it adds a real nice touch. However, I would blur it a bit.

alex.justino · #22 07-07-2008, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JD Spears

Alex, Not sure when you put that BG in but it adds a real nice touch. However, I would blur it a bit.

do u mean blur the bg???

JD Spears · #23 07-08-2008, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex.justino

do u mean blur the bg???

Well, yeah. A slight lens blur. I would make sure that the BG was the least focused thing in the frame. As is, the BG is sharper then her hair on her lower right.

alex.justino · #24 07-08-2008, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JD Spears

Well, yeah. A slight lens blur. I would make sure that the BG was the least focused thing in the frame. As is, the BG is sharper then her hair on her lower right.

i'll try that on saturday =)
tks for the tip ^^

amica999 · #25 07-09-2008, 04:33 PM

@madclark, thank you for your technique, but healing brush on red channel layer leaves colored spots, anything I missed here?

madclark · #26 07-09-2008, 05:20 PM

Make sure if you're using the healing brush the option for "Sample: Current Layer" is selected instead of the other options. You only want to draw from the B&W luminosity layer for the fixes.

If you're still having problems, let me know.

amica999 · #27 07-10-2008, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madclark

Make sure if you're using the healing brush the option for "Sample: Current Layer" is selected instead of the other options. You only want to draw from the B&W luminosity layer for the fixes.

If you're still having problems, let me know.

madclark, thank you for sharing your knowledge and support :-) I did clone with "current layer", but still when blending the red-channel layer to luminosity I get this light red spots...attached a screen shot, but not sure if it can be seen in the low res...I am puzzled :-)