Can't Figure This Out!!!

[KR1156]

I'am a Mechanical Artist at an Ad AGency in NYC, and am trying to get into retouching, so i'm trying to take images and replicate them for practice. I found this shot on this site, and thought the "beard" was done very nicely. I tried to replicate the shot on my own (using only stamp, healing, softlght layer) to maintain skin texture, but just can't figure this one out. As you can see, my shot has lost that fine detail in the beard area. Just curious on peoples comments and techniques....how you would approach this job.

Thanks so much for any feedback.

[byRo]

Originally Posted by KR1156

stamp, healing, softlght layer

No, maybe, yes.

Translating:
- Unless you're stamping at 100% opacity with a hard-edged brush then this will not preserve the texture. But if you do so, the stamp is going to be pretty obvious;
- The Healing tool is a great little miracle worker, used well it can solve a whole load of problems;
- The Soft-light layer is the perfectionist way to go, but it can take a long time to paint every pixel.

Here's a quick way...
- Duplicate to a new layer;
- Run High-pass filter, radius 10;
- Run Gaussian blur, radius 3.3;
- Invert
- Set blending to Linear Light, opacity to 50%;
- Add a hide-all mask and paint white where you want to "de-grunge"
(2 minutes)

Rô
(nuff said, time for bed)

[KR1156]

Applied your technique to the original image and came up with a pretty close match. That was right on the money, i'm curious if that's a well known "industry secret" to fix damaged skin or did you come up with that just playing around. I amdefiknitely impressed!

whole thing took less than 5 min if even.

[mistermonday]

Ro, Brilliant! That's a lot faster way to a better result than I've been used to. Thanks.
Regards, Murray

[KR1156]

I applied the same technique to other shots with poor skin texture, and it one of the best techniques i've seen in a while....i'm just curious how you would figure out what settings to use on different dpi images.

example, that workedfine on an image that was 72dpi...but I couldn't figureout how to set it for a high or med rez image like 300dpi or 150dpi etc.

Would truly appreciate it if you could help me with that.

Thank you

-Mike

[NancyJ]

Ro, where've you been hiding this little secret?! All discussions on this topic have pretty much revolved around variations on dodging and burning every flaw - this is amazing.
This took two minutes to go from the first picture to the second, its not perfect but its a huge leap in the right direction.
I hope Shelly (www.retouchme.co.uk) doesnt mind me using one of her pics, I just remembered it as one that had really bad skin.

[byRo]

No secret, it's just a consequence of playing with the different "frequencies" in an image (ih, sounds like Zen and the art of Retouching).

Don't know if you've had a chance to read the tutorials about the Gaussian Blur and High-Pass filter and Choosing the Radius (heavy reading, needs revision), but there you'll see that some features lie in different "bandwidths".

Applied to this image: The pores and beard are at a radius of less than 3.3 pixels, while the facial features are at a radius of over 10. The "grunge" is in between these numbers and can be eliminated using the method above.

....hey, why did everybody run away?

Thinks....this ought to be in a tutorial

Rô

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by byRo

Thinks....this ought to be in a tutorial

Rô

...my thoughts exactly - cos if you dont I will!
Now if I could just figure out how to do this in GIMP -> really try to convert so I can go 100% linux but its just no match for photoshop.

[KR1156]

I am def looking forward to reading a tutorial on this technique if you guys put one out there...by far one of the best techniques i've read in a while.

Thanks Ro, Nancy.

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by KR1156

I am def looking forward to reading a tutorial on this technique if you guys put one out there...by far one of the best techniques i've read in a while.

Thanks Ro, Nancy.

Certainly is an amazing technique - now if there was just a similar solution for hair...

[1STLITE]

Ro, seriously, Thank You! I have reset my homepage to THIS POST, just so I can be sure not to lose it - lol.

Tutorial? - YES PLEASE!!!!

Dawn

[dkcoats]

You astound me, sir. That is way cool.


dc

[Kraellin]

for those of us working in paint shop pro, here's a screenshot of a fairly close equivalent to Ro's. you can see the workflow on the right in the layers palette. it's pretty similar. notice that i used 'soft light' for the blend mode instead of Ro's linear light, but it's close.

there is also a bit of a difference in the glossiness and highlighting. i think this may be from the differences in the high pass of the respective programs used.

you may also notice that i put a contrast/brightness adjustment layer up there just to test something, but that it's turned off in the screenshot. so, disregard that for approximating the shot.

you may also notice another layer turned off. this is just because of how i work. i made the high pass first, then duped it and turned off the original layer and then ran the gausian on the duped layer. this is the same as running both processes on one layer if that's how you prefer to work.

notice also that i put the soft light blend on the mask group as a whole and not on one of the individual layers within the group.

very nice, Ro.

craig

[Kraellin]

i'm just curious how you would figure out what settings to use on different dpi images.

example, that workedfine on an image that was 72dpi...but I couldn't figureout how to set it for a high or med rez image like 300dpi or 150dpi etc.

i havent tried this yet, but theoretically all you'd have to do is change the radii used in the processes depending on the dpi and image size. remember, a radius is half the diameter of a given something. so, figure the dimensions of whatever it is you're working with...get it's diameter and halve it for the necessary radius setting. ....theoretically

craig

[KR1156]

Having a little trouble figuring out the settings for much larger images...

Just curious how everyone else would figure out how to setup their settings.

Ex. If the image was 10 x 12" @72dpi and the settings were as: HP:10 GB:3.3

How would figure out how to apply that same setting (effect) to an image that was:

30 x 36" @ 300dpi?

[byRo]

Woah there folks! Those radii aren't set in stone, they're just what worked here. It's going to depend on the image - each one is a little different.

Basically you try to find a point (radius setting) that divides the pores from the grunge, and another point that divides the grunge from the facial features.

In general, yes, a bigger image is going to need a higher radius.

I'm going to write the tutorial tomorrow (got a couple of beers in my head now ) but basically I do this:

- Run a high-pass and look for the point that the grunge doesn't appear any more but the pores are still intact: remember this number (~3px) and cancel the filter.
- Run a Gaussian blur and find the point that the grunge is blurred away but the face is still there: remember this number (~9px) and cancel the filter.
- Obs: For this to work well the second number should be about 3 times the first (I had used 3,3 and 10 before but doing this again it appears that maybe 3 and 9 would be even better choices);
- Now do the method described which uses the filters inverted, 9 for the high-pass, 3 for the blur.

Tomorrow I'll explain it better in the tutorial, OK?

Rô

[KR1156]

Thanks Ro, you explained that pretty clearly, I have a much better understanding now of what details to pay attention to when eyeballing the filter preview.

[megl]

Ro - this technique is awesome!! I owe you one man!!

Here's a skin correction I did in another forum using this technique among others:

http://www.sendefladen.dk/dpreview/smooth_skin.jpg

/megl

[byRo]

megl, glad you liked it. That came out real nice.

Sometimes I'll lower the opacity a touch from the 50% mark, to leave just a hint of grunge. Otherwise the skin can end up looking too perfect!
But this is going to depend on what the image wil be used for.

Rô
(too perfect?)

[OnAir]

ByRo, thank you very much So simple and elegant, amazing, I would say!

[megl]

Originally Posted by byRo

megl, glad you liked it. That came out real nice.

Sometimes I'll lower the opacity a touch from the 50% mark, to leave just a hint of grunge. Otherwise the skin can end up looking too perfect!
But this is going to depend on what the image wil be used for.

Yeah - we were trying to achieve really plastic looking skin, so I went a little more overboard than I normally would. Here's an even more extreme try:

http://www.sendefladen.dk/dpreview/smooth_skin2.jpg

Originally Posted by byRo

Rô
(too perfect?)

Hahaha ;-)

[byRo]

Originally Posted by megl

Here's an even more extreme try:

Now, that's real orange peel skin for ya'

Rô