Beauty Retouching Help

[kiltacticon]

Originally Posted by djslyda

i would love some comments or advice on my attempt at this being as it is my first beauty retouch, much appreciated thanx.

I am starting to love this woman because of those eyes!! ha ha

From what I have learned. It looks like you used the sharpen filter on more accurate. This is generally not advised on people's skin because it brings out unflattering details. other than that looks pretty dope. If you want to step your game up - checkout all of edgework's, ant's and cainam's post and give it another try. Same for me and Ankh1. I mean it's our responsibility because that's where this thread went and we are all apart of it now.

muy bueno,

~Lan Man

[edgework]

Originally Posted by jacknick

here's my final version.

There's still something odd about your color. The retouching is coming along nicely (I like that you kept the mole). But somehow there's a lack of the kind of color variation that makes an image really pop. And it's still feeling a bit heavy to me.

Here's an extreme move in LAB, designed to pull the colors apart. It's clearly way to much, but it's instructive in that it shows a few areas of discoloration, one, a curved shape running from the middle of her chin, up between the mole and the corner of her mouth, then up into her cheek, another along the side of her nose and the last the heavy shadow on the right side of her face (that you would expect, since RGB and CMYK shadows, by definition, tend to push neutral). I also ran shadow/highlight on the lightness channel to ease the overall heaviness, and you can see a good bit of hair remains on the side of her face.

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/jacknick1.jpg

In this next version, I reduced the shadow/highlight and pulled the color shift back to a believable 15% — 20%. Compared with your original, there's just enough color variation to make a difference.

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/jacknick2.jpg

Suggested retouch moves: The hairs are looking too obvious. Don't be afraid to hit them one by one with a small diameter healing brush. It sounds like a lot of work, but we're talking maybe 15 minutes. Come on, that's a small price to pay for perfection, don't you think?

[edgework]

Originally Posted by djslyda

i would love some comments or advice on my attempt at this being as it is my first beauty retouch, much appreciated thanx.

I think this is moving in the right direction. Two things jump out on first viewing: the pores on her cheek and right along the side of her nose are looking too obvious. They could be softened. And the edge of the main shadow, while soft, still has too small an area of transition. It could also be lightened. And there are a lot of hairs along the cheek that need to be removed. (See my previous post).

Color looks hot. A tad more cyan into the shadows might help.

[djslyda]

Originally Posted by edgework

I think this is moving in the right direction. Two things jump out on first viewing: the pores on her cheek and right along the side of her nose are looking too obvious. They could be softened. And the edge of the main shadow, while soft, still has too small an area of transition. It could also be lightened. And there are a lot of hairs along the cheek that need to be removed. (See my previous post).

Color looks hot. A tad more cyan into the shadows might help.

thanx for the advice, i'll get right on it

[jacknick]

Originally Posted by edgework

one, a curved shape running from the middle of her chin, up between the mole and the corner of her mouth, then up into her cheek, another along the side of her nose and the last the heavy shadow on the right side of her face (that you would expect, since RGB and CMYK shadows, by definition, tend to push neutral).

would love to keep working on this file but i'm quite embarassed to say that i've accidentally lost my layers when saving the last jpeg to post. luckily, i didn't spend too much time on it and it was just a practice file. but still..DAMN!

as far as that discoloration, i think it must've been the d&b layer in combination with a curves contrast layer that started to bring that out. how would you avoid or fix that? i use a neutral gray layer @ soft light for DnB.

[djslyda]

i have smoothed the skin a little more so the pores on her cheek and nose are less obvious, also i have tried to make the transition of the main shadow bigger across her cheek (only my second go at dodging and burning, i find it quite difficult) as for the hairs i don't really know where to start lol, first i tried using the healing brush on the most visible ones but after half an hour of trying to make it look half decent i scrapped the idea. Comments would be appreciated thanx!

[edgework]

Originally Posted by djslyda

i have smoothed the skin a little more so the pores on her cheek and nose are less obvious, also i have tried to make the transition of the main shadow bigger across her cheek (only my second go at dodging and burning, i find it quite difficult) as for the hairs i don't really know where to start lol, first i tried using the healing brush on the most visible ones but after half an hour of trying to make it look half decent i scrapped the idea. Comments would be appreciated thanx!

What is your procedure for using the healing brush, and for dodging/burning?

[edgework]

Originally Posted by jacknick

would love to keep working on this file but i'm quite embarassed to say that i've accidentally lost my layers when saving the last jpeg to post. luckily, i didn't spend too much time on it and it was just a practice file. but still..DAMN!

as far as that discoloration, i think it must've been the d&b layer in combination with a curves contrast layer that started to bring that out. how would you avoid or fix that? i use a neutral gray layer @ soft light for DnB.

I don't use dodging and burning for large areas or for major shifts in value. The healing brush is far more effective at those types of gross moves. If there is a really harsh move called for, (like removing a dark piece of jewelry against pale skin) I'll bring in the cloning tool and slather some useful pixels over the offending area, until the colors are more or less in range with the surrounding area, then I'll work with the healing brush to bring in texture and create smooth transitions. That's your shovel and your sword. Dodging and burning is the scalpel. Small brush, low opacity carefully building up the effect, stroke by stroke.

[djslyda]

Originally Posted by edgework

What is your procedure for using the healing brush, and for dodging/burning?

-For the healing brush i use a brush that is a similar diameter as what i want to remove, for moles/freckles and things like that where i just hover over the area and click it seems to work ok but on the hairs where i have to click then drag over the hair it doesn't seem to work so good.

-For dodge and burn i only learnt how to do this the other day from the dave hill thread here, i create a new layer and set it to overlay and click the "fill with overlay-color (50% gray)", then i use the dodge and burn tool on 5% exposure with the airbrush selected (i don't know what having the airbrush selected does as i can't notice any difference whether it's on or off , i don't know if this is a good way to dodge and burn but it seems to work ok.
Thanx for help

[djslyda]

still trying to get better at dodge and burn but i suppose that's where the magic is, having a tablet sure helps tho

[edgework]

Originally Posted by djslyda

-For the healing brush i use a brush that is a similar diameter as what i want to remove, for moles/freckles and things like that where i just hover over the area and click it seems to work ok but on the hairs where i have to click then drag over the hair it doesn't seem to work so good.

-For dodge and burn i only learnt how to do this the other day from the dave hill thread here, i create a new layer and set it to overlay and click the "fill with overlay-color (50% gray)", then i use the dodge and burn tool on 5% exposure with the airbrush selected (i don't know what having the airbrush selected does as i can't notice any difference whether it's on or off , i don't know if this is a good way to dodge and burn but it seems to work ok.
Thanx for help

Using the actual dodge and burn tools are only about half as effective.

There are a lot of different approaches. I'll tell you how mine differs from yours and why.

I use a transparent Hard Light layer, no grey necessary, and simply paint my lights and darks into that single layer. Dodging and burning into a grey layer will pretty much duplicate the effect of painting white and black, but sometimes it works better to use actual tones sampled from the image: a highlight that hasn't blown out, and a shadow that nice and dark, but still showing tone. This is useful if white and black are creating discoloration, and impossible with the dodge and burn tools.

I set the opacity of my brush to 5%, and i make sure my brush is pressure sensitive. Why Hard Light as opposed to Overlay, or Soft Light, as some suggest? All three of those modes will both lighten and darken based on the applied strokes, but both Overlay and Soft Light drop off in intensity as the underlying pixels approach light and dark, which is a good thing if you are using an Overlay layer to add noise or grain: you don't want to muddy up your shadows and highlight. But for Dodging and Burning, I like the evenness of the effect across the range. It's never good for plugged up shadows or blown out highlights, of course, but sometimes you need to modify pale tones or dark areas, and Overlay will necessarily be less effective there.

I like the fact that I can switch from dodging to burning and back again simply by pressing the "X" key, rather than selecting a different tool each time, and I like that it all takes place in a single layer. Some approaches suggest two curve layers, one to lighten, one to darken, or perhaps a layer set to multiply and one set to screen, but then you not only have to select a new layer each time, you usually end up working on at least some pixels with each layer at once as you try to first darken then lighten to get things balanced. With a single layer, if you lighten too much, your darken strokes will simply reverse the effect. Clean, straightforward, one layer, one keystroke to switch. It works for me.

As for the Healing Brush: you need to give it another chance. You should be able to remove all the hairs without botching the texture with the healing brush. It's your number one weapon with a problem like this. Dodge and Burn later, to balance tones.

[Markzebra]

Folks! you can set a keyboard shortcut to switch your dodge and burn Curve layers. F1 for activating Dodge layer and Command F1 for Burn - set up actions. Your Curve Layers need to be named the same in each document.

I've used all the methods at one time or another, and like to vary them to keep my life intersting. The advantage with the dual curve method is that its the most editable and flexible. lightening and darkening moves can be later adjusted separately or boosted. Also, and heres a tip, you can group adjustment layers (clipping groups I mean) especially hue/sat layers to desaturate or colorise, whatever you want.

methods .. all useful, none rubbish
• Dual curves, explained above. Also Levels, Channel mixer, etc etc can be used in the same way

• Dodge and burn on flat pixel layers! in my humble experience, still used by many of the most experienced, years on the job retouchers, for reasons mainly to do with superstition.. and practiced years of doing it that way.

• Overlay/S-light/H-light layers filled with grey, or not, doesn't make much difference to result. This method enables you to brush in Colour as well as tone.

• Solid colour layers, filed with carefully chosen warmer colors can have blend modes applied (usually Overlay and S-Light) and these can be brushed in in the same way as the curves. This allows easy modification of the color at a later stage.

There you go dodge and burn 101. Actually doesn't matter too much how you do it, its more about spade work, and whether it works or not depends mainly on judgement, and whether you had a bad night

[Markzebra]

Oh yeah, and dodge and burn is not just for skin

[alex.justino]

that's my 1º post ever
hope u like it ^^
i'd love to read some comments about my attempt =)

[nevie]

I thought that I would take a stab at it too. Any feedback would be appreciated.