Loretta Lux's skin tone and pastel tinting

singlo · #1 03-01-2006, 07:28 AM

I really like her stuff and got her book. She said in a recent interview that she could spend up 6 months to retouch one photo:

http://www.lorettalux.de/

BTW nobody knows her real name and her prints sold as high as $19,000 each. She hand-painted her some of the backgrounds and the skin as well. The closest i can get to emulate her skin tone is putting a red channel layer on the top of the original playing different bending mode (luminosity or screen). and opacity. Can some experts here suggest a better method????

Her photographic backgrounds have a kind of creamy yellow or pale rose red tinting to me. I have tried using a layer filled cream colour set to very low opacity and putting it on top, masking the areas where i don't want. In addition, I have tried using diffuser glow filter setting the foreground and background colours in two shades of creamy colour with layer mask for selective areas. But it doesn't get close to her style. Finally I am thinking of handpainting the different shades of creamy colour all over the areas with a low opacity brush.....I wonder if there is cleverer way of getting that creamy pastel colour on the clothes and background????

I got the feelings that she achieves that skin tone and tinting through sheer patience of hand painting and super painting skills. (she was a trained painter).

singlo · #2 03-01-2006, 07:35 AM

sorry stupid me i posted this in the wrong part of the forum..i can't delete the post and re-post it to the main forum.

Cassidy · #3 03-01-2006, 09:13 AM

unreal, to be well contacted and eccentric whilst valued at the same time is an art form

snook305 · #4 03-01-2006, 05:28 PM

I have Posted this on Many Forums.
Would be nice if anybody could help on Finding out how to achieve those pastel washed out "White" skintones!!
Will be watching this thread.

Snook

singlo · #5 03-02-2006, 02:59 PM

Snook

The more I study her photos, the more fascinating it gets. She is enigmatic. There are several variations of skin tone she used. From very pale complexion to pinky rose colour. I would describe the skin as translucent, painterly and creamy. She often put the backgrounds, like the walls, sky and clothes in the very close shade of colour; a good example is the "Rose Garden". She got some of the vintage clothes from e-bay and used hair stylist BTW. All she said her techniques are very complex and time consuming.
I start to believe she creates that skin tone by very slow and labourous handpainting; there is no short cut for that.
Check out this painting of Bronzino I found by chance:

http://www.micromediaups.it/estetica/Maria08A.jpg

The child reminds me of the "Drummer"

. The hair style is the same. She emulated the skin tone of the old masters.

dkcoats · #6 03-02-2006, 04:39 PM

This reminds me a little of some of Joyce Tenneson's work. Except I don't think Tenneson did it in Photoshop.

http://www.tenneson.com/index_tr.html
(some artful nudity)

dc

maureeno · #7 03-02-2006, 04:42 PM

I've a question about her style---why does it appear the heads are larger than the bodies in some images?

Or is it that the bodies are elongated?

Maureen

singlo · #8 03-02-2006, 05:25 PM

Quote:

I've a question about her style---why does it appear the heads are larger than the bodies in some images?

In some of the photos, she enlarged the heads with Transform tool, the eyes with Liquidfy, Spherize or whatever...adding colour and details to the iris. The hair in some cases is being retouched to give that silky look, everything is meticulously painted with precise colour matching.

snook305 · #9 03-15-2006, 06:56 AM

Nothing New on the Loretta front?
Just thought I'd bump this thread up as I am really interested aswell.
I do know 2 things about her. Her Backgrounds are put in seperately and as she states they are from her different worldy trips. And yes she does emlarge slightly heads ,eyes limbs etc...
I am more interested personally in how she get's those White, slightly colorless skintones. Anybody have any suggestions?? Also she has kind of a pastel look to her colors and ofcourse she uses really FLAT lighting.
Hope that may help someone..
Snook

snook305 · #10 04-09-2006, 10:17 AM

Still Nothing on this thread???
Strange...

Snook

NancyJ · #11 04-09-2006, 10:35 AM

Why strange?
Theres really nothing new to be said on the topic that hasnt already been said. How she does it? Well you'd have to ask her. Can it be done a number of ways - yes. Personally I'd use curves and colour layers. Is there anything special about her retouching? No. In fact if she posted here for critique we could have a thread several pages long listing her mistakes.
If you just take her retouching at face value, a lot of isnt very good.

The 'appeal' of her work is not the retouching she does, its the image as a whole - thats everything from the model, the expression the costume, the lighting, backdrop, the choice of colours, everything. People dont pay ludicrious amounts of money for her work, or go to a gallery to see it to say 'oooh look at that retouching, its amazing'. They do those things because something about it appeals to them as an artistic piece not an example of technical wizardry.

singlo · #12 04-11-2006, 05:26 PM

Well she won't tell you how she did it, becuase she even doesn't tell you her real names. According to a fashion magazine, some german guy tried to de-code the photoshop techniques of her retouching in a forum. MAybe the way she got the skin tone was very simple.
If she made lots of mistakes, I would imagine they are very good mistakes. At least she makes an art form of combining photgraphy and retouching.

I suppose there are no rules; right or wrong things to do in photography/retouching. She is just very good at expressing her artistic vision in her head (imaginery world) and throwing the viewers' perception off balance, provoking both negative and positive emotions from people. This distinguishs her style from commercial glossy stuff, Dior look or whatever. If she followed the "rules", her stuff would look like everybody's else and nobody would pay mega $$$$ to buy her works.

imsireal · #13 04-12-2006, 02:06 AM

I am fairly new here and I saw this discussion on Loretta Lux's skin. I have attached two files and while it may not be exactly the same as Loretta Lux's images, it might help in giving you some hints as to how to get voluminous, pastel/porcelain skin.

This tecchnique is my own, so I am not going to give a full play-by-play. Most of you are smart enough to figure out what's missing anyway.

Firstly, for this effect, you need a well-lit subject. You can try it on a high-con, or dark, moody image, but your mileage may vary.

Open the image in Photoshop, do you basic adjustments and retouch the image to fix the skin etc.

At this point I would do a batch of capture sharpening. If you don't know what I am talking about, then google it.

Next, I create a new blurred, layer with an alpha layer mask. I then paint in the layer mask wherever the skin is, being careful to leave in important details like eyes, lips, etc. This gives the skin an overall consistency. Adjust the opacity of this layer until you like it and it still look convincing.

Next step is to create a merged layer and convert it to black and white (I use a Deep Red Contrast filter). This layer is the key really. You can copy the layer mask from the blurred layer, but then you will want to make some adjustments to the layer to get everything looking right. Play with opacity to taste.

Next you can finish sharpening and then make any other adjustments as you like.

That's it in a nutshell.

I have no idea if this is anything close to LL's technique. I imagine her's is more involved, but while I admire what she does, I don't really find her work all that compelling. It has a 'Children of the Corn' effect to it, and I am always expecting their eyes to start glowing.

This technique of mine is just a simple way to get a nice soft, porcelain skin effect. Please do not ask me for more details. My instructions are a bit vague so that you have room to experiment and take it further, so do just that. If you come up with something new or easier or better, then let me know.

Bryon Paul McCartney
www.atelier-mccartney.com

singlo · #14 04-12-2006, 04:48 PM

Thank you very much for your input.

Quote:

Next, I create a new blurred, layer with an alpha layer mask. I then paint in the layer mask wherever the skin is, being careful to leave in important details like eyes, lips, etc. This gives the skin an overall consistency. Adjust the opacity of this layer until you like it and it still look convincing.

I got the idea of it. You blur the skin texture and blemish, masking out the details and edges.This sounds like the same idea used in Edge Sharpening technique using alpha channel which I use all the time--EXCEPT they are reversed: you blur the skin areas masking the edges and details like eyes, lips and hair-while Edge Sharpening selectively sharpens only the "large scale" edges of the eyes, lips..etc leaving out the "small scale " pores and digital sensor nosies...something similar but not quite the same steps.

Quote:

Next step is to create a merged layer and convert it to black and white (I use a Deep Red Contrast filter). This layer is the key really. You can copy the layer mask from the blurred layer, but then you will want to make some adjustments to the layer to get everything looking right. Play with opacity to taste.

I think this has very similar effect as the red channel technique I mentioned above. The red filter on BW layer emulates the effect of red filter on BW film or the red sensitivity of very old 30-40s BW tungsten film that produced silky skin tones, brilliant highlights, and soft contrast shadows. YOu can also use channel mixer instead of red filter in Photoshop.

imsireal · #15 04-13-2006, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by singlo

Thank you very much for your input.

I think this has very similar effect as the red channel technique I mentioned above. The red filter on BW layer emulates the effect of red filter on BW film or the red sensitivity of very old 30-40s BW tungsten film that produced silky skin tones, brilliant highlights, and soft contrast shadows. YOu can also use channel mixer instead of red filter in Photoshop.

I use PhotoKit for the Deep Red Contrast, mainly because it automatically creates a new layer. You could use Channel Mixer as well, I suppose, as most of the work is done in the layer mask. In these images, I am using this BW layer to control the amount of color in the skin, more painting in the layer mask means more color in the final image, etc. You have to do a lot of painting in the layer masks to get this look right, in these images you have to separate the hair, eyes, lips, etc and convincing blend the skin tones to look right. How much opacity you give to the layers also affects the end result quite a bit.