Dodge and Burn to Smooth Skin?

[Godmother]

Originally Posted by kmcamera

I'll supply the pics if Godmother is still willing.

sure... I have a lot of work to get done... and I'm wanting to do a video tutorial just for fun... but yes

Send it to me at ntaffarel at ciudad.com.ar

High quality I prefer .nef

[CJ Swartz]

While waiting for a dodge/burn skin-so-soft tutorial, let's also look at other techniques used in the pursuit of good skin --
Kiska, a past member here, and a member at Innographx.com forum located a smooth skin tutorial that uses the healing brush with a grain pattern to retain some skin texture.

http://leonsandoval.com/tutorials/sm.../Part%20I.html

Part two contains the explanation about defining the pattern to use with the healing brush -- I'll look for an appropriate image and post it to show how nicely his technique works.

As for dodging/burning, I attended a seminar a few years ago that taught dodging on an overlay blend layer to reduce the wrinkles on a face (when appropriate). The instructor explained that we need to start at the end of the wrinkle and work BACK towards the beginning -- reducing the effects of age in increments and not necessarily taking all the wrinkle away. She explained that those wrinkles that move across the face (forehead) should often be left, or only reduced (for non-fashion/glamour situations, anyway), but that those wrinkles that move diagonally across the face from top towards the bottom are the ones that really add age to a face -- literally pulling the shape of the face away from its original form. These lines are the ones that we would often want to address in retouching where we want to show renewed energy and youth to a person. Again, we start at the bottom, the end of the wrinkle, and move backwards (through time) towards the beginning and stop where we think appropriate for the customer, the situation. On the overlay blend layer, using a brush that fits within the width of the wrinkle line, at low opacity, we dodge the layer beneath -- then we can use the layer opacity to reduce the effect even further if necessary and build up the effect gently and gradually so that it is (hopefully) not seen -- we just see the skin renewed.

Found this image on stock.xchng (no usage restrictions) - we can use her to show some techniques while we wait for a tutorial on dodge/burn for skin smoothing.

Here she is -- Original and after a "scrubbing" with a healing brush set to the noise pattern created according to the tutorial link above (set healing brush mode to "multiply", clicked on "aligned", and just painted over her skin in sections at a time. I think there is a skin texture appearance left, and it certainly took out most of the wrinkles. I made no effort to be discreet about which wrinkles should be smoothed -- I just swabbed her face/neck all over and tried to take out everything that I could. I could have lowered the opacity of the layer to reduce the effect, but I didn't -- it may look like a "blur job" except I think there is some texture -- see cropped area.

Now I'll try to show the dodge on the overlay layer method in my next post.

[CJ Swartz]

Okay, this is only a little start, but here's a before/after of a wrinkle line that is being reduced by dodging on the layer above.

This is what some folks do, I guess, with a younger face that has irregularities and little rough patches, to smooth and soften it to look regular all over. Godmother can do it with curves instead of needing a brush. (I have trouble doing it with a brush.) The healing brush with a texture pattern seems "easier", but does it do the needed job?

[Godmother]

Originally Posted by CJ Swartz

Okay, this is only a little start, but here's a before/after of a wrinkle line that is being reduced by dodging on the layer above.

This is what some folks do, I guess, with a younger face that has irregularities and little rough patches, to smooth and soften it to look regular all over. Godmother can do it with curves instead of needing a brush. (I have trouble doing it with a brush.) The healing brush with a texture pattern seems "easier", but does it do the needed job?

Ok this is almost the same (With curves you have more control and the colors are better when extreme touch up)

The ther one I don't like because it's not skin texture it's grain and you can tell. Skin texture doesn't look like that

I actually like to mix: Patch or Heal + Degrunge + D&B and that gives me the result I want.

[aaRonology101]

i believe dodge and burn is the best method of retouching. its mainly what i do when i retouch my photos. i dont really mess with anything else but that.

dont get me wrong, cloning and healing is essential as well, but only for certain areas ... like solid areas. but when you are talking about skin and texture, its all about dodge and burn.

you can take a look at my some of my before and afters at www.xanga.com/aaronology101 . all those images were about 80% dodge and burn, 20% everything else.

enjoy!

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

Hi! I've been reading a lot here about people using Dodge and Burn to retouch skin. I was just wondering if there is a tutorial that talks more about this? ...Can you really get very smooth and clean looking skin using Dodge and Burn?

Here's a short tutorial with photos and a dodge/burn layer shown from Digital Grin (while you're waiting for Godmother's tutorial).
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1170442/1

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1169397 -- use of other techniques

[solitear]

CJ..... thank you so much for another great link !!! You've given some really different and interesting links ..... I had to settle down and pay attention to the part about a curve adjustment layer and setting midpoints in the color channels but.... I think I've got it and can't wait to try this.....

oxoxo
Beth

[pure]

how do you do exactly 50% grey in RGB?

thx

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by pure

how do you do exactly 50% grey in RGB?thx

In Photoshop 7, you add a blank layer, select that layer, choose Edit --> Fill, a box pops up that lets you choose what you want to Fill that layer with -- includes Foreground color, Background color, Black, White, AND 50% gray -- choose the 50% gray and set the layer blending mode for that layer to Overlay -- it will look like the layer is invisible when set to Overlay.

[pure]

thanks

in another topic they say "soft light" instead of overlay.
i tried both. there is a little difference but i cant say which....

[Cassidy]

Originally Posted by pure

thanks

in another topic they say "soft light" instead of overlay.
i tried both. there is a little difference but i cant say which....

Overlay is much stronger than soft light, playing tonght in hard light tone, even stronger relationship

Patience is a gift, not a reward

[CMS]

Originally Posted by Godmother

Actually... he never sent the pics... I have one interesting pic, but it's going to take some time, because I have a lot of work to do for the hollydays

So sorry

I have moved my studio in a different location with no web connection.Now everything is solved !!! An idiot excuse i know !!!Now i can send high resolution photos (raw files from Canon 5D) but i need someone to explain me step by step how to send it or use a FTP connection.