Teen Acne retouch (original pic inside)

[Ankh1]

Hey guys!
First off, i LOVE this place, its so packed with info, its a shame its not as active as it should be!

Anyway, i came across this pic, thought it would be an interesting retouch. The guy has acne, once i cleared all that up, i found his skin was very blotchy and uneven...i really struggled here, even in my final outcome i still feel its blotchy!

Sorry the qulaity isnt that great, its really annoying for a forum where the quality of the pics count, that we are restricted to 100kb

I was going for a very clean, healthy look.

Here is the original pic if any of you care to have a shot at it

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/1...ebeforezw3.jpg

Please give me some crits on the image thankyou

[Maakx]

my take on this
http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ezw3dondq8.jpg

[Juergen D]

Originally Posted by Ankh1

... even in my final outcome i still feel its blotchy!

I don't think so! I feel that the not so perfect look may be more "natural"

Juergen

[CathyH]

Hi Ankh1, nice photo, but I think you went to far, it is very soft skin, almost like a girls face. I agree with Juergen leave some texture to make it more natural.
Here is the start of what I would do to it.
remove large blemishes with the healing tool then Dodge and burn out the dark patches. That will leave the pores and skin texture.
I also removed some of the magenta color and upped the yellow.

[Ankh1]

Cathy, i LOVE your version its very natural. I like allot!

I was going for the mega perfection look, but i can still see how i went too far!

What i still struggle with, is SEEING what im doing, At the time i thought it was okay, now a few hours i look at it again, and it looks way too much! lol.

[brafla6]

Here's my take on the whole thing.

critique/criticism please!

http://i20.tinypic.com/rlcjtu.jpg

[oltenius]

My try.
Dan

[CathyH]

Originally Posted by Ankh1

Cathy, i LOVE your version its very natural. I like allot!

I was going for the mega perfection look, but i can still see how i went too far!

What i still struggle with, is SEEING what im doing, At the time i thought it was okay, now a few hours i look at it again, and it looks way too much! lol.

Thanks.
I have the same problem with SEEING. What I find that helps is to save the file and look at it again the next day, it helps to have fresh eyes.

[madclark]

I personally think your retouch looks great. Levels and sharpness are improved. The colors look realistic and I think the acne retouches work well. I'm one of those people who prefer a more natural look, especially with men, over the grain perfect retouching in beauty ads.

One thing you might try. Do all the acne retouching in a new layer with the healing brush set to "Sample All Layers." That will allow you to keep it separate from the main image. You can then blend the opacity with more control for enhanced realism. You can then even add another layer with even grain over top of all of that to further even the skin tone and you can have opacity control with that as well. I can see some division between skin that has been healed and parts that you've left alone.

Something that may be contributing to the skin seeming more blotchy is your sharpening. It seems to be accentuating it with jpeg artifacts. Use a mask and pull back the areas that are most blotchy.

And one other small thing. I would maybe make a Curves adjustment to bring down the heat on your highlights. Either that or add another layer to tone down the sheen on his forehead and nose.

Hope it helps.

[madclark]

Well I think the skin is still a little overdone but the combination of uneven tone from acne and bad makeup made it tricky. Here's my take on it.

[themusicpoint]

Great job, I like the super perfection look, it reminds me of final fantasy

Show me More!!

Mass :-)

[Daviskw]

One more version just for fun

Butch

[duwayne]

Here's mine - I used a method I've been working on for sometime. Just started a new thread describing it.

[Ankh1]

Guys - If your gonna retouch the picture, at least leave me some crits first, rather than retouching and asking for crits urself lol.

Madclark - You helped allot, thankyou! I will give it another shot useing some of the techniques you mentioned.

Cathy - If im ever on a paid job, i always leave it a day before i send it off as a final.

Duwayne - you did a good job on the acne, but the skin seems to have too much texture for my taste, also the overal picture has this 'hazey/blurry' look to it, which i would tone down.

Daviskw - I really like your version, similar to what i was going for. I would tone down the eyes, and maybe left a lil more shadow.

[Ankh1]

Ok, heres my more 'realistic' retouch.

Madclark - I tried useing the healing tool sampling all layers, but i didnt notice any difference, how does it effect all the layers exactly? I remove the blemishes first, so its right of the bottom of the layer stack.

I used very little smoothing this time, and more stamp tool.

What do you guys think of this one?

[edgework]

Originally Posted by Ankh1

Ok, heres my more 'realistic' retouch.

Madclark - I tried useing the healing tool sampling all layers, but i didnt notice any difference, how does it effect all the layers exactly? I remove the blemishes first, so its right of the bottom of the layer stack.

I used very little smoothing this time, and more stamp tool.

What do you guys think of this one?

Interesting comparison between your first and second tries. Focusing solely on technique, the second is a better job, but I like the contrast in the first, though the highlights are looking a little blown out.

On the other hand, I have to agree with some of the opinions here in favor of a controlled grunge look. Maybe keep some of the two-day whiskers along the chin and upper lip.

In any event, relying less on smoothing and more on the painstaking detail work is a good thing. I'm not one who says never use smoothing, just make sure is stays a secret.

[madclark]

You have to create a new layer right over the original image and that's the layer that you put your healing into rather than a duplicate of the original image or the original image itself. That way you can control the opacity of the healing as well as being able to fix only the healing rather than the whole image. It comes in very handy doing eyes to get a more realistic blend. The "Sample All Layers" option will pull the heal from the original image but it gets applied into the new layer. I've included screenshots as example.

P.S. Make sure that any layers above are turn off when you use this heal to a new layer or the "Sample All Layers" will pull in the effects from those layers as well and really mess things up.

[Ankh1]

Madclark,
Thankyou sooo much, thats a really handy tip! Thats what i was doing wrong, i duplicated the images rather than just creating a new layer hehe.

Thanks again, really appreciate your help

[Koosla]

Here's my try:

Low resolution:
LoRes.JPG

High resolution: here.

I may have overdone it a bit

[Ankh1]

Koosla, Really nice, but you deff need to tone down the red tones, hes very pinky.

[philbach]

It looks to me like your are making progress. However the lighting and perhaps the saturation seemed to have changed some.

To start off this acne retouch I converted to lab mode and then used the healing brush on the luminosity layer which seemed to get the retouch off to a good start.

[Koosla]

Originally Posted by Ankh1

Koosla, Really nice, but you deff need to tone down the red tones, hes very pinky.

You're right.

Maybe by putting my retouch on a layer over the original, then splitting it in luminosity and color blending mode layers, and toning down the opacity of the color one (thus letting some of the original skin color back), a nicer result could be achieved.

[stosh7]

I went for the "clean" look as directed (always listen to the customer).

Acne went with the Healing Brush tool; ByRo's degrunge technique took care of the blotches. Also lightented the eyes and squared the jaw a bit.

Here's a link to the original - it shows far beter here:
http://stosh7.phanfare.com/show/exte...47760/file.jpg

Stosh

[carb]

Here my try, I first got rid of the blemishes with the healing brush. Smooth out the skin with the healing brush with a pattern (took it out of the Katrin Eismann book) reduced the opacity to 60%. Than took healing brush again than tone down the highlights.

I did two attempts, I was not happy with the first.

carb

[Ankh1]

Carb,
Thats a reeaally nice skin retouch! I like it. Could you ellaborate a lil more on the healing brush 'with a pattern'

Maybe you toned down the highlights a little too far though.

Great work

[diggnikon]

Hey All

thought id have a quick go on this since ive not done anything on here for a long time .i spent about 10 mins patching healing and some levels .

[superkoax]

this my attempt...I'm pleased, maybe some adjustments on the color? I'm trying to see coloring now, but I'm a hopeless case when coming to color management...


big file
http://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?i...tt1storml1.jpg


gerry

[Ankh1]

superkoax - I like it, very stylised. But he does look touched up, and its a bit too green for my taste. Nice though, i like it

[Blindv]

Here is my attempt at this, though I must admit by D&B skills are...lacking to say the very least.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...nprogress1.jpg

[carb]

Hi Ankh1,

Thank you for the nice comment. I took it out of the Katrin Eismann book make a new file at 64X64 pixels large. Than fill it with 50% grey select filter>Artistic>film grain setting grain 1, intensity to 5, than select all, than go define pattern. Name it and go the healing brush select the pattern set to screen and than smooth over skin. I did on it own layer, than the opacity down to bring back some of the texture of the skin.

Ankh1 you did a good job too.

carb