Image Help - - Ideas for a "full glamour conversion"?

AndersN · #1 10-08-2008, 03:55 AM

Hi folks.. ;-)
First, I'm completely new to this forum, and to Photoshop advanced editing.. I've only used it for the most basic hobby editing.

After posting in the "Salon", I got the tip to post an image here and ask for ideas, hints and guidance on how to start, what to look for and more or less a "HOW-TO" on image editing.

So, here goes.. This is an image of my wife, from here we want to go all the way to a full glamour photo. And I really, really want to learn how to do it myself, not only see the results from experts..

So please bear with me, I'll ask tons of questions that to me are puzzles, and to you are like "flipping the switch on the coffee maker".

The uploaded image is resized and recompressed to fit the forums, if anybody wants the image straight from the camera, send me a note and I'll e-mail it to you.

Thanks a lot!
Anders.

mac macintosh · #2 10-08-2008, 03:58 AM

What do you want to start with????

AndersN · #3 10-08-2008, 04:09 AM

Actually, I have no idea whatsoever about a good workflow to accomplish the task.
As the happy amateur I am, I would consider getting rid of the dirty background by selection and quick mask and then copy my wife to a new layer to get started.

But after what I've seen browsing sites looking for info is that getting rid of backgrounds would be one of the last steps in a good edit session.

In other words, I don't have a clue... My reason for being here is that I found this site while browsing for information, and what I saw was overwhelming.
So I thought I'd ask for kicks and pushes to actually learn something, from the most basic things to really advanced. I mentioned my thoughts here in the Salon.

Verywierd · #4 10-08-2008, 01:21 PM

Bear in mind that I did not try to do a "glamour conversion", merely throw some ideas at you, so the attached image is very crude. I did not try to "fix" her hair or adjust any colour tones or general lighting. Please note that even 16 year old models often need retouching or skin make up, so please do not take anything I say or did as reflecting on the appearance of your wife.

I cropped the image, basically to taste. If you want to get technical you can look up "rule of thirds" in the forum or on Google for thoughts on "proper" composition.

Since it was white, I removed the background as requested, simply by desaturating and lightening a duplicate layer and masking out the figure and chair. Naturally, in a detailed image you would need to to some extraction of the hair using one of the many methods that you can find on this site. Whether you do it at the end or at the beginning depends on your intentions for the ultimate look of the background.

Next, I flattened the image and rotated it clockwise very slightly so that the feet of the stool were level. In Photoshop, that is Edit/transform/rotate.

Then the skin. She has veins and marks on her legs and that are visible even through the stockings, so I cleaned those up. I touched up the back of her hand too. You would have to look at the large image and decide whether to use clone/heal, d&b, degrunge or a combination of all. D&B (dodge and burn) and degrunge are much discussed on the forum so you should have no problem finding info on those techniques if you are not familiar with them already.

I smoothed out some of the creases on her face and did a tiny bit of shaping using d&b. Added a little highlight to her legs, her hair, jacket and shoes. I also lightened the whites of her eyes a little.

I played with a faint reflection on the ground just to give the image a more 3D effect, but the reflections are probably all wrong, as I did not spend much time on them.

So, there you have a start (not necessarily the only or best). From here you can decide on the lighting, skin tones, background effects, changing her hair, soft focus, hard or soft contrast etc. to get whatever your vision of "glamour" is.

It would be interesting to see your results when you are done. Good luck.

AndersN · #5 10-08-2008, 01:40 PM

Thanks for those pointers!
It's a fantastic difference, and most scary part is that you make it sound so easy! ;-)
I'll do some searching and reading on what you suggested, so far I've most of created a mess by experimenting.. Hehe.
But if you don't try, you'll never win either.

And of course I'll post my result when I come to a point where both I and my wife are satisfied, but I don't expect that to happen very quick.. I really want to learn these techniques and also understand what I'm doing, and why..

Again, thanks!
Anders

palms1 · #6 10-08-2008, 01:49 PM

hi Old one

just had a senior thought, you might find the links from this thread helpful

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...tutorials.html

Palms

AndersN · #7 10-08-2008, 01:52 PM

Are seniors allowed in that thread? lol
Thanks, I'll look!

Aleksman71 · #8 10-08-2008, 02:53 PM

First I clean up and hide some light reflection,done white balance,smoothed whole image,applyed brown layer in soft light mode,high pass sharpen in soft light mode and soft focus was added.

Karlington · #9 10-15-2008, 05:04 AM

Here's a technique that you can use to quickly create a somewhat cool, "fashionish" style:
Make two duplicates of the original layer. Desaturate the middle layer so it's black and white. Then put the top layer to a blend mode of Soft Light. Probably here you will have to pull down the opacity of the middle (B&W) layer to about 60-70%. This effect often results in very dark blacks. You can go around this by double clicking the top layer and split the black little triangle in the "Blend If/This layer" option (hold down alt and drag the right part of the triangle to the right). And thats about it. Quick and dirty but quite nice.

/Karl

TommyO · #10 10-15-2008, 10:35 PM

Anders,
Also, since this shot is farther away, you can shorten some of the normal glamour retouch steps in a workflow. So, since you mentioned you weren't sure about a workflow, I've attached an abbreviated version of a glamour workflow, just FYI. Again, ignore anything pertaining to closeup work, i.e. skin imperfections, etc.

Level 1:
- remove larger imperfections, distractions.
- basic color correction.
- basic/general clean up of shot.

Level 2:
- skin smoothing.
- improve catch-lights.
- improve glare.

Level 3:
- modify skin color to add glamour, contrast.
- improve eyes, lips, overall facial features.
- improve hair.
- sculpt body, face, etc.

Level 4:
- global changes to color, lighting.
- adding special effects.
- adding your own special/creative touches.

AndersN · #11 10-16-2008, 12:38 AM

Thanks a lot for all these tips!
I'm experimenting all I can here with a couple of different pictures from the sets taken, with various amounts of success.. ;-)

I think basically I need to be a lot better in masking techniques and also get a better understanding of adjustment layers etc.

So far, the best we've seen according to our own values and wishes is the image made by Verywierd above, I'm studying than one as I try myself.

I'll make a list of what I and my wife have discussed as "goals" for the sets in general, and the image I posted specifically. I guess that would make it a lot easier for you to give me pointers in how and where to start..

Anders

tom60634 · #12 10-21-2008, 11:21 PM

white balance
smooth skin
rotate and crop

AndersN · #13 10-22-2008, 01:25 AM

I think I'm getting the hang of things.. ;-)
However, the step "skin smoothing" is still something I cannot seem to get really right..

I've been doing a lot of spot healing, healing brush, blur brush etc. to remove unwanted features from the skin, but when it comes to "overall smoothing" I fail miserably.

The closest I seem to get is to make a mask for the skin areas, then make a new layer of it and apply a gaussian blur to it, then set fill and opacity of that new layer to let the original texture come through.
Doesn't seem to be just right though.. I saw somewhere that there is a way to create a "gaussian blur brush", but I can't recall how that was done.

Are there better ways than the track I'm focusing on?

Anders.

mfischer · #14 10-22-2008, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndersN

Are there better ways than the track I'm focusing on?

Good retouching needs good photography.
I would start with that.

AndersN · #15 10-22-2008, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfischer

Good retouching needs good photography.
I would start with that.

Naturally...
But at this time, the images are what they are, and I truly believe that if I can learn to retouch "not so good" images successfully, a good raw material would make even better results.
But maybe I'm just silly..