Soft Metallic Look on People

[Shortpantz]

I have a client who is looking to replicate a look on a photo of a model that has been seen in a lot of fashion magazines of late. The look gives the model a kind of soft, shiny metallic feel. I would like to know if there is anyone out there who might have any knowledge as to whether this is a Photoshop effect and how it's done or is it just lighting and makeup?

Thanks

[Ant]

example...?

[DannyRaphael]

As Ant suggested, pics worth 1K words on this kind of thing...

If you could either name specific mags, dates of publication, page # with ad in question and/or shoot a decent digital pic and upload it for visual assessment, that would help a lot.

[Andy Bird]

hey Shpantz, i've actually just posted an article in Retouching that gives this type of look, however…

Again, makeup and lighting is the key to these looks.

If i'm shooting digitally i'll always angle lights a fair bit more than I would with film, this gives us more definition.

If you've no make Up Artist, experiment using small amounts of Bronzer or even (if you've not much dosh) some girlie body butter type product from "Lush" or "Body Shop" which will give a lot of sparkle. If you need to go even cheaper then get some "baby oil" but then you might get odd looks at Tesco's or worse…

You need to control the highlights so a large softbox or dish would be best then maybe even shoot to underexpose or RAW.

In Pshop:
Basic Retouch/ Skin Smoothing
Copy your original layer to the top of your finished retouched layer
Use Filter/Other/High Pass and Luminance to add the sharp definition back (I tend to do a few passes at this to have much control)
Comp that when you're satisfied
Duplicate the comp
Set the comp to Soft Light and use opacity to adjust the amount of 'shinyness/contrast' in the image.
Mask off the areas you want to keep shadow definition.

… phew… plenty of other ways i'm sure. Can't wait to hear some more.
Sorry I dont have ny example images with me today.

[superkoax]

andy: your tut doesn't make sense to me...adding hp and add luminosity on blend mode? That only gives the skin a very red colour and every dark area is greyish/white...even when I flatten it it only get's red in skin!

maybe I've done somethign wrong here....


Gerry