How to get this look

[Ziaphra]

Thank you...

Originally Posted by fpellerin

Nice one Ziaphra!!!

[bart_hickman]

I might as well jump in.

-Shadow/highlight--mostly turning down the highlights and only slightly turning up the shadows. Adjust tone width and radius to taste, but I left them at the defaults of 50 and 30.
-Desaturated all hues *except* blue using an HSL adjustment layer.
-USM 1 pix radius and about 50 strength
-USM 50 pix radius and 20 strength
-lens blur using a radial gradient for the map. Sort of imitates the narrow DOF in one of the examples.
-color balance to add a tiny bit of yellow and green--just to mimick the samples.

Bart

[Syd]

Excellent work all of you. Everyone here is so talented. I like Nancy's first one in the series of four. I like Verywierd's too and I love Bart's. Bart you have that sharpening spot on. I see you used two passes at different radius. I will give that a try. Here is my version.

[shellby]

Here is my take in this one...

[crex]

Amazing Subject
Hi-Res : http://www.retratista.com.br/fotos/t...s.php?album=31

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by GerardHenninger

Thanks Nancy!

I used your technique and created the following (with some additional things I wanted to try).

Still not really the effect I am looking for, it's still too blurry, but I hope I am getting close.

BTW, I used a different photo just to see if it was a universal technique.

thanks again Nancy, learning alot today.

Nicely Done, if its too blurry, adjust the sharpening or dont smooth the skin as much.

[OnAir]

Channel composing is a very good field for experiment, when you need an unusual appearence of your picture. This one is Red with multiply option and green with soft light, sharp, dodge/burn. Very quick

[GerardHenninger]

@shellby
YOU'RE GREAT
That's what I am looking for, although the eyes might be a bit to white. I love the skin, the sharpness. Perfect!
Willing to share your technique?

@crex
I don't know if that's a public gallery or something, but if you are going to use my photo please add my name. I don't really mind people using my photos as long as I get the credit for taking the shot.
So something like : Photography : Gerard Henninger (link to website) Retouching : <your name>

Hope you understand.

[steve21]

Here's my go at it...

Thanks for the great picture to play with Gerard!

[GerardHenninger]

Originally Posted by steve21

Here's my go at it...

Thanks for the great picture to play with Gerard!

And thanks for your great edit. Now, how did you do that?

BTW, I have more samples of Lisette if anyone wants to try to achieve this effect on a different photo. Just in case you guys/gals get bored with this one.

UPDATE :
It's the Dragan/Jim Ficus effect I am looking for. More the Ficus effect. Been reading posts on other forums and searched this forum again and found out that those photographers/retouchers's style is wat I am looking for.

Tried another time with the new tips I found (see attached image).
What do you think? Oversharpened? To much contrast?
Oh and in real-life I am not that scary

[steve21]

I used 2 green channels and 1 blue channel in Luminosity mode. Then I used another Channel Mixer adjustment layer to create a black & white version of the image that I liked. Then I lowered the opacity of that layer to about 45%.

After that it was just some healing, cloning, selective blurring, etc. I also used the High Radius Low Amount technique to sharpen it.

Hope that helps!

[bart_hickman]

Originally Posted by Syd

Excellent work all of you. Everyone here is so talented. I like Nancy's first one in the series of four. I like Verywierd's too and I love Bart's. Bart you have that sharpening spot on. I see you used two passes at different radius. I will give that a try. Here is my version.

FYI, The small radius USM is for sharpening. The large radius USM is for clarification/local contrast enhancement. It's similar to the clarify filter in Paintshop Pro.

Bart

[lkroll]

Color Inverse Blur Overlay and USM.

Here's a result.

[shellby]

I used the Blur / Sharpen method outlined here, and discussed in a previous thread:

http://tutorials.smugmug.com/gallery/1169397/1

I also changed the background colour to match the sample image you provided. I coloured her skin using a gold colour with the pain brush set to COLOUR. Whites of eyes done with curves (you could back that off a bit)

[Gigadals]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for...
here's my take..
ciao!

Giga