[pure]

first of all i am happy to be here, and i dont know what i had done if i wasnt here. as of the time pressure last week. so thanks for your immediate help. there are so many methods and kind users here, i cant keep up in time, trying them and working with them, so please sorry for not answering to all of your help posts and techniques. i really appreciate the help of all people here in the forum.

i dont have a retouching master to learn from so i can read everything here (would be nice to have a translation for my german photoshop tools and techniques maybe somewhere?). i spent a few month at a photographers studio with working for a senior retouching professional, i learnt a lot from her, but not everything.

so back to my belong:
dodge and burn is cool. what do you do with a fully naked skin and a blotchy type of skin and have only a few hours time?

i found out that i can abbreviate the hipass method of kraellin or others a bit:

very nice also to get smooth skin but with pores:

for example 2 legs of a 64,5 MB TIFF from RAW. 46 cm width, 300 dpi.
, i am doing this minute:

1. repairing with repair tool only the most biggest blotches and accidents in the skin
2. creating a selection of the legskin, duplicating it and run gaussian blur on it with a 2 pixels size or less. the bigger blotchy areas i use to overspray with moving "back and forth-mouse" stamp-tool (sorry for my german translations)
3. result is smooth and unbanding skin
4. to get all the nice and sharp pores back, i duplicate the original selection again, run "high pass" filter with anything close to the gaussian size. i took 2 pixels. i didnt write it down as i only judge from my eyes point of view. and drop it one layer above the blurred layer, using blend method "soft light" or "overlay" (german "überlagern"). overlay is even sharper.

enclosed 2 screenshots in big size:
1:1
100%
wihout compression.

i only must confess that the pores are a bit somewhat darker or more red as the original ones. i dont know why.

please correct me if it could work better. this is the fastest method with nice result, so far, for myself.

http://homepage.mac.com/purepeter/Si.../skin1_raw.png
http://homepage.mac.com/purepeter/Si...hpass+blur.png

edit: the pores are somehow too dark. i think it would be better to get lighter ones. i dont know for real.



i must try the dodge and burn method with a blank grey layer above now. never did it. i am curious. like shellby said "The actual dodge and burn tools are destructive to the image (ie The pixels are changed). The other method involves creating a new layer, check Full With 50% Gray, Make the blend mode SOFTLIGHT. Then on that layer paint with a soft brush set at 3 to 5% opacity. White for lightening and Black for darkening (dodging and burning)"

thanks for your attention
peter

[shellby]

I used Surface Blur and High Pass sharpen, Diffuse Glow, then Curves to make the skin look more tanned.

[shellby]

Here is a play with an image used in a previous thread.

I have used Lens Blur, High Pass sharpen, Curves and Diffuse Glow

[Akbar Tahir]

hi guys all of you could see the ture texture of skin and each and every single hair on her hand

[shellby]

What method are u using? Same as mine?

[byRo]

Originally Posted by pure

edit: the pores are somehow too dark. i think it would be better to get lighter ones.

The problem is that the pores are a lot redder than the rest of the skin.

Try this:
- Convert to LAB mode;
- Duplicate the layer;
- On the A and B channels run Surface Blur to get rid of the pore marks;

You now have two layers, one with red pores and one with just darker pores. Vary the opacity of the top layer to put just a shade of red back in.

Rô

[videosean]

I attacked the pores using a channel mixer adjustment layer since they were strongest in the blue channel.
monochrome
red 105%
green 45%
blue -50%
constant 0%
Then added a layer mask and painted so that the channel mixer would not affect the dress.

I then duplicated the original background image, put it above the chanMix layer and set it's blend mode to color to bring back the color. Above that I made a levels adjustment layer and brought the dark/left input level to 63. I also endude up using a hue/saturation adjustment layer to take care of what I thought was an odd stripe of color that had appeared on her leg from my adjustments.

Then I went further by using byRo's De-grunge technique - before and after images of the degrunging attached.

[pure]

Originally Posted by shellby

I used Surface Blur and High Pass sharpen, Diffuse Glow, then Curves to make the skin look more tanned.

that looks good.

surace blur= gaussian yes?
diffuse glow?

[shellby]

Try the other Blur options.

Noise>Median Blur - keeps all the lines where as Gaussian Blur just blurs everything

The lens blur is a nice one. You can make a mask of say the eyes, mouth, hair - anything that you do not want blurred. Save it in the Alpha Channels. Give it a new name, then when you go to the Lens Blur filter you can select the mask and it will apply the filter to everywhere other than what you have masked out.

Surface Blur is a pretty new blur that works well too.

The Diffuse Glow can be found in Distort.

[pure]

Originally Posted by shellby

creating a new layer, check Full With 50% Gray, Make the blend mode SOFTLIGHT. Then on that layer paint with a soft brush set at 3 to 5% opacity. White for lightening and Black for darkening (dodging and burning)

may i ask someth about this method:

i created a new layer with 50% gray blendet to soft light.
this actually makes my main layer more light a bit,

is it possible to change that method in order to affect only the picture when i paint with black or white? or did i make a mistake?
thx

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by pure

may i ask someth about this method:

i created a new layer with 50% gray blendet to soft light.
this actually makes my main layer more light a bit,

is it possible to change that method in order to affect only the picture when i paint with black or white? or did i make a mistake?
thx

easy - dont fill it with grey You can paint on an transparent layer in black and white

[pure]

oh i found out i filled it with a darker grey than 50. thats way.

i used this technique now 1st time. and i can say, wow, very good and fast.

i use to use the dodge and burn mostly but it taskes time and it makes the black a bit light always

buy the way, which blending method is equivalent to the healing brush?
sometimes i cut out skin on nice places and put the pores then on ugly skin places. i only want to blend the pores into. still figuring out how is best and fast...

thanks

[pure]

Originally Posted by shellby

Here is a play with an image used in a previous thread.

I have used Lens Blur, High Pass sharpen, Curves and Diffuse Glow

shellby if you use lens blur or lets say better using "surface blur", which parameters do you use? i dont get it. do you prefer smaller numbers or does the number depend on the image size? i have a raw file of 50MB, 38cm, 300 dpi

thanks

[shellby]

Low resolution images need less blur

High res large images need more

Just keep an eye on the preview and see what looks best.

Blur on another layer, keep the original underneath it - that way to can lower opacity on the blurred layer to lessen the effect.