Don't know where to start? (Retouch)

[Atoriaz]

Hi all - thanks to anyone in advance who's willing to help shed some light on this with me.

So this is a small version of the poster I have to retouch, I'm perfectly fine knowing what I have to do with the face, I was just simply wondering how in the world I go about giving the skin the texture and color of the face? There's so much shadow and highlight in the photo?

I have begun and restarted with this photo too many times, once after about two hours of clone stamping with no end in sight... I rarely get stuck this bad, but I have to ask, doe anyone have any ideas about how I should go about this to get the best result?

[Flashtones]

I did this pretty quickly.

1. Patch tool to bring some texture from face to body. Surface blur on the patches as they were sharp compared to body.
2. Sample face colro with eye dropper and paint that color over the body on a blank layer set to color mode.
3. Two curve layers with masks to darken body and background. My masks were pretty mottled so as to add a sense of roughness to the skin.
4. Slight desaturation with HSL.

This could certainly be improved upon but it was a quickie to get the ball rolling.

[Atoriaz]

Oh wow amazing job Flashtones!!

I wanted to redo the photo as you did it, but I'm a little less educated on some of the techniques you used to accomplish this... (Have never used Patch tool, or curve layers...) If you have time would you be willing to rewrite the steps you took for me in more detail? If not that's fine, thanks again for your help, and again amazing job!

[Flashtones]

For the basic adjustments I made levels would work just as well as curves.

Not sure what level of detail to get into here. Are you familiar with layer masks? Do you have access to a photoshop book?

[Atoriaz]

Oh wow, Flashtones no I don't have a photoshop book, but enough playing around with it and I finally figured out what you meant. Looks great now, thanks so much for your help!!!

[Flashtones]

Glad to be of help.

[Atoriaz]

Hi again,

I was actually wondering if I could get your opinion on one more thing... I don't do much of this but I guess the task with this section of the poster is to super-impose gloves over the hands.. Originally I was supposed to have part of the thumb and fingers showing through torn gloves, but I found it a little above my level and couldn't create it realistically.. (I hate 'couldn't' ... I need training.. ).. Anyhow, so I am still planning on placing the gloves.. I've started here in this photo, I just wanted to know if you've had experience with this type of thing and if you would have any tips for me? If not that's fine, I thank you again for your help.

[Flashtones]

The one on the left looks good. The one on the right is a bit confusing, especially in the thumb area, but I doubt I'd do much better. The trick would be to find a glove already in that shape.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Atoriaz]

Hey

Thanks. - Yeah I'm not done with that one, using a mix of the clone stamp and transform tool... but I'm trying. Just was wondering if it looked like it belonged, kinda. Thanks for the advie, I really look forward to learning more from you, as you seem very knowledgeable.