Photo Retouching - - To BLUR or not to BLUR - Page 2

JayNads · #16 12-06-2007, 11:25 AM

Chris - excellent explanation. Most of what I have learned has been gleamed from books and the occasional lecture. Meaning that I get 80% misinformation and 20% fact, making sorting the truth from the fiction a tough job. It's great that you take the time to demystify the reality for those of us confused by the hype. Thanks!

Looking forward to Vegas!

MartinBabies · #17 12-07-2007, 03:22 PM

If the model needs smoother skin the make-up artist will fix it and not the retoucher (hopefully). Make-up keeps the skin texture and looks a lot better in the end.

cricket1961 · #18 12-07-2007, 04:20 PM

Martin

I have worked with some of the best makeup artists in the world. They can only do so much for shots that are within 8 inches of the face. At that point the makeup would need to be caked on. Thickly.
Smoother skin is not the same as seeing the natural texture of the skin, something that makeup can and usually does disguise.

Chris

MartinBabies · #19 12-07-2007, 05:03 PM

Really? Didn't know that, thanks for letting me know.

KR1156 · #20 12-07-2007, 06:07 PM

yea it's great for quick fixes also....like doing apply image...in a localized kind of way.

comes in handy on vacation pics!

keiserjohn · #21 12-09-2007, 02:57 PM

Chris T.

I have a question about your dodge and burn post.

I also use a 50 % grey softlight layer for dodge and burn, on the image. But this is usually when i doing it on biggere areas, to enhance the highlights and shadow.

But for pores/wrinkles close up to the skin, i find using a 4 x adjustments layers(lighter,darker,b&w, high contrast) with a low opacity and flow on my pen
a much easier way to retouch the skin.

This way when i need to go back, i can always paint with black, hit the d button, instead of changing the brush to 50 % gray.

transoptic · #22 12-10-2007, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keiserjohn

Chris T.

I have a question about your dodge and burn post.

I also use a 50 % grey softlight layer for dodge and burn, on the image. But this is usually when i doing it on biggere areas, to enhance the highlights and shadow.

But for pores/wrinkles close up to the skin, i find using a 4 x adjustments layers(lighter,darker,b&w, high contrast) with a low opacity and flow on my pen
a much easier way to retouch the skin.

This way when i need to go back, i can always paint with black, hit the d button, instead of changing the brush to 50 % gray.

But why would you switch back and forth between a light and dark layer? It's a lot easier to just do it on one layer and hit "X" to switch between brushes.

keiserjohn · #23 12-10-2007, 03:06 AM

But its much harder to see the variations on a gray layer.
And also when you seperate it out on 2 different layers, i find it easyer to hold control, especially when you have to go back.

edgework · #24 12-10-2007, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keiserjohn

But its much harder to see the variations on a gray layer.
And also when you seperate it out on 2 different layers, i find it easier to hold control, especially when you have to go back.

It's a preference for workflow, is all. I find that dual layers can get in each others' way, with both inadvertently acting on the same pixels. With a single layer, my lightening and/or darkening strokes do just that. It's all located in one layer.

cricket1961 · #25 12-10-2007, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keiserjohn

Chris T.

I have a question about your dodge and burn post.

I also use a 50 % grey softlight layer for dodge and burn, on the image. But this is usually when i doing it on biggere areas, to enhance the highlights and shadow.

But for pores/wrinkles close up to the skin, i find using a 4 x adjustments layers(lighter,darker,b&w, high contrast) with a low opacity and flow on my pen
a much easier way to retouch the skin.

This way when i need to go back, i can always paint with black, hit the d button, instead of changing the brush to 50 % gray.

Hello Keiser

I'm sorry. But what is the question? Or is there no question and you are just letting us know what your workflow is?

Technically what you are doing for your wrinkles/pores closeup of the skin is not the same as using the softlight layer. A curve layer hiding behind a mask is a good way to do local color corrections, but when you are doing it to achieve the same effect as brushing through a softlight layer it is different. The curve introduces a disproportionate amount of correction in the midtones than it does in shadows and hilights. You just need to look at the curve to see that this is true. Also, take a reading at various areas of the curve by placing eyedroppers down. Set the info palette to show before and after readings. You will see that for example, the cyan moved a lot further in the midtone than other spots, same being true for other colors. It can even happen that something like the magenta moved 20% in the midtone and not at all in the shadows and only 3% in the quarter tones.
Just another example. But when this happens you are introducing various tonal imbalances all over the place and depending on how much you are opening the mask with your brushing it can turn into a nightmare and even more work when you notice and need to fix. ONe of the benefits of using the supplied blend mode to do your arithmetic is that it is hard to make a mistake. All you need to know is how far to push it with the brush you have chosen to use.

Whether you use two or three or more filled softlight layers is totally dependent on your own workflow and work history. I tend to use one layer for both my lightening and darkening. If I can't push something far enough it usually means one of two things. I need to create another softlight layer, or it was something that I should not have used a softlight layer to begin with.

I will, for simplicity sake, even blend more than one softlight layer together using apply image, or calculations depending on whether it is a color image or a b/w.

For color images I rarely use pure black on a softlight layer. I tend to pick up darker colors from the image. I use pure white a lot but again sometimes it is better to pick up a color that is from the image.

Chris

keiserjohn · #26 12-10-2007, 08:17 AM

Hehe.. I see now that i forgot my question. But anyway you gave me a good answer, i was wondering about the difference. Of my workflow, and the softlight layers.

I use softlight layers but on bigger partions of the image, I only use the curve adjustment on wrinkles and pores.

Thanks for the info tough, it helped me understand more about the difference.

abdul10000 · #27 01-02-2008, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cricket1961

Hello Keiser

For color images I rarely use pure black on a softlight layer. I tend to pick up darker colors from the image. I use pure white a lot but again sometimes it is better to pick up a color that is from the image.

Chris

Why is it that you do not use pure black or some times pure white? Is it because pure colors would cause color shifts where as dark and light colors from the picture would maintain the overall colors ratio of the picture?

Thanks in advance