Need help achieving a certain effect.

[sarkastic]

For the longest time i have been trying to come up with the formula that would give the skin tones or make the skin look like the pictures in the links that i posted below. if anybody knows how to achieve it could you please let me know how. ive cracked my head for way too long.

http://musicremedy.com/webfiles/arti...ike-02-big.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qqc1V4I4Jk...ler%2BMike.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/2q3t1f7.png

http://i43.tinypic.com/w8nr4g.png

http://i40.tinypic.com/144bugy.png

[0lBaldy]

sarkastic, welcome to RetouchPRO

I see where you get your handle.. posted 5 samples wanting to learn a style and there are four different styles..

Study how the photos are lit..(where does the light come from) Working with a properly exposed photo lit in the style you are trying to achieve goes a long way in the creation process. So my suggestion is... learn the lighting aspect on the photography end first then you won't have so much work to do in Photoshop.

Not knowing your level of expertise makes it sort of difficult to engage in meaningful dialog. A sample of a picture that you are trying to transpose would be helpful in determining whether your can achieve any of the styles you want.

A good place to learn lighting is:
Strobist Learn How to Light - Lighting 101.

Lighting 102: Introduction

the Strobist Group on Flickr (A lot of people in this group put up lighting diagrams for their particular shots)

After learning to recognize the various patterns of portrait lighting and how to position your lights where needed to obtain the desired patterns, Google how to make composites, because, when you cut and paste images together, the lighting has to match, or the image just does not look right!

Hope this helps

[William Wilson]

Look at the cross lighting techniques basically two light sources diagonally opposite each other. Sun and a small strobe is all that's needed, drop your ambient by 2 stops under key.