Face washed out ???

[dustyshop]

I've been working on this for a couple of weeks and can not get the right side and middle of face right.
When I adjust the levels I loose alot of the detail. I have tried darkening and cloning a piece of the good skin all over the face then adjusting the opacity but I am lost (Help)
-100 is orginal -200 is where I am at.
I am cleaning up the pictures so that I can carve them into Corin and back light them. Anyone interested I can attach a finished photo

thanks in advance for your help again

[Flora]

Hi dustyshop!

Welcome to RetouchPRO!!!

You don't say what software/version you are using...
Picture like the one you posted are nasties... no matter what you do they don't look right... .. as you said, the light parts of the image are 'blown out' ... just solid (colour) blocks with no detail whatsoever ...

When I adjust the levels I loose alot of the detail

Yep...in this case, if you use Levels or Curves to increase contrast, you certainly improve some areas of the picture, but make the other even worse... If you haven't tried it already, you could try to use Levels or curves on selections instead of globally, but it doesn't really work when no details are there.

You are on the right track ... you made a nice neat selection of the subject, and you definitely didn't overdo with the shadows where all the details are still visible.

If you really feel you have to change the Background, I wouldn't go for a 'flat' coloured one ... it's a dead give away for manipulation and it makes the whole picture look unnatural ... try a gradient instead ...

For the skin/features, you could try the following:

• what you have already tried.. use 'good' parts of the same image to correct the bad ones..

• If available, use another picture of the same subject from which 'borrow' good parts.

• Use a picture of a different subject (similar in age and position in front of the camera) ... Be very careful if you do this on a portrait ... you could change/lose the 'identity' of the person portrayed very easily!!!

• *Play with shadows and highlights and 'add noise' on various selections, trying to bring back a 3D feeling to the features.

* That is what I did .... not perfect, but, in my opinion, pictures with these kind of problems will never look really good...

Let me know if you'd like a more detailed explanation of what I did ... and, btw, I work with Photoshop CS3.

[dustyshop]

Flora
Thanks for the help. If you could go into more detail that would be great I have messed with shadows and highlights but don't seem to be doing any good.

Again thanks for your help

I am using CS3 well I am trying to use it.

[Flora]

Sorry for my delay...

Here you can download my .PSD file where you can see more clearly than going through miles of verbal explanations ...

It's a biig .zip file ... (20.9MB)

Extract and open it in PS ... Check blending Mode and Opacity/Fill of each layer..

If you'd like to comment it or have questions ... just yell ...

***P.S. For those using previous versions of Photoshop, when trying to open the .PSD file, do not choose the "read composite data" option ...simply press "OK "***

[philbach]

Hey Flora Thanks for posting your .PSD file. It was fun to move up the various levels of that file and see the retouch "build."

[Flora]

Hi Phil!!

Thanks for your feedback!!

...It was fun to move up the various levels of that file and see the retouch "build."

...and hopefully much faster and clearer than reading tons of written explanations!!!!