Too Much Flash

[MargaretM]

Here's a quick try - dupes with multiply mode and lowered opacity. Then painted back on a neutral grey layer only on skin(not sure this did much); then added a layer and painted only skin again with soft light with a flesh tone. Had to do this last step, since as Byro said, not much color left in skin. Levels adjustment.
MargaretM

[Sally Perreten]

Thank you Cas. I'm very encouraged that you approve!

Yes, compressed so much she came out pasty-faced, didn't she.

Sally

[Sally Perreten]

Maybe this is better?

Sally

[johndiablo]

Had a spare 15 mins so thought I'd give this a go. equalized a dup layer, did a few blends over 3 layes. Cloned (argg yes) some real bright spots out. burn and dodged to make more natural and a quick colour balance to end it.

[cygnus]

I am overwhelmed with the responses to help me out. Being a photographer I have been using forums since last few years and I have no hesistation in saying that this forum is way ahead of most. I can feel the welcome and the warmth from each poster.

Thank you so much.

Getting to the business. I find Edgework, byRo and johndiablo technique appealing for mainly 2 reasons. Each have been able to maintain the hair color and texture of the original image and their results are more closer to the skin and tones of the model.

I am at a loss as how to go about doing/replicating their technique as I don’t even know some of the phrases used by them.

Hoping someone will show me the direction I should take.

Thanks once again to all.

[Kraellin]

well, typical for me, i posted this last night and as i looked at it today, i went, 'what in the world was i thinking?' so, here's an updated version. the last had way too much red in it.

i ran the same image but used a hue/sat layer and a color balance layer to adjust the reds down.

(and i'll probably look at it tomorrow and go, 'boy, i must have been out of my mind' )

[dvaught]

Here is what I would do.
Convert to CMYK, duplicate background layer and make a 4c alpha channel to get maximum detail of what the photo has. You do this by command clicking the CMYK channel in the channels pallete which turns all information present into a selection, then click the mask icon at the bottom of the channel pallete. It gives you a grey scale map of your information present. Duplicate that channel and keep it as a "master detail" From there you can isolate natural contours of the face by pushing and pulling curves on the channel and painting in the rest. Once you have your shadow isolated, command click that alpha to convert it into a selection. Now on a new layer set to multiply paint in shadow detail with an appropriate color. Repeat steps for highlights and mids. Then begin color work utilizing adjustment layers with layer masks built from the master detail layer to isolate areas of concentration. After color correction is complete, select all layer except background layer and hit command + option + E. This stamps the layers together above selected layers. Clean up blemishes and save.

Here is a 10 minute quickie.