Soften Blotchyness of Baby Skin

[djsretouchpro]

Does anyone have suggestions on how to soften the blochiness of the baby skin in the attached sample? I have a high quality scan of the original pictures - so I have some pixels to work with.

I have attempted a new layer with smart blur and then used the eraser tool to open up areas where the blotchiness is worst.

Blur tool results were not that good (in my hands anyway)

I guess I should mention that I do want to be able to selectively soften the blotchiness if a wholistic technique for all the skin does not yield a satisfactory result.

Thanks!

[tyeise]

Woops - you forgot your attachment, or it didn't attach correctly.

[LactoBeeZor]

If you use photoshop 7 the "heal" tool works wonders.

[djsretouchpro]

Heres the attachment

[djsretouchpro]

The healing brush does not work well because the blochiness is almost a checkerboard pattern.

What about adjusting the color of the darker bloches?

Would love to hear from someone whose done this one before.
D.

[LactoBeeZor]

Can you send a larger picture, say a close up of the arm or leg skin?

[LactoBeeZor]

PS: The discoloration is the vascluar pattern under the skin. It is normal. Body and ambiant temp has alot to do with the pattern. Maybe a curve adjustment on the skin only might be an option if you are being asked to get rid of it. If it is yourself that wants to get rid of it; it is normal, ask the client.

[djsretouchpro]

Yes I know it is normal, just want to soften it a little. I had been using smartblur and then found this reference to using smartblur for this exact problem.http://www.lonestardigital.com/smart_blur.htm (bottom of page).

[Mike Needham]

I think it's whats known colloquially as 'Corn Beef Skin'.

If you want to eradicate it perhaps a selective colour adjustment layer to even out the darker pigments? (just a thought)

[KenB]

This was a pretty small sample, but anyway, here's what I did.

I only worked on the arm to show the difference, first I blurred only the red channel, that cleared up the blotchiness enough to let me use the healing tool effectively, that and some additional blurring cleared up the blochiness. Lastly I used variations to do some color correction.


Ken

[LactoBeeZor]

Looks good Ken.

[Flora]

Hi everybody!

I've been using Photoshop since over 3 years now, completely ignoring the 'Smart Blur' tool until reading this thread ....

Thank you very, very much for the link,djsretouchpro!

I used The Smart Blur in the example attached .... Because of the size of the image and the very close pattern, It was nearly impossible for me to 'selectively' fade the skin blotchiness, but if you

...have some pixels to work with..

after running the Smart Blur Filter, you could try a Layer Mask (Hide All) and a soft white brush, to selectively correct the worse spots .... changing the Opacity of the brush you can also selectively increase or decrease the intensity of the correction ....


Very nice, Ken!