Legs nightmare.

[xnoiz]

Hi there guys! I sure need your opinion\help on something I run into often.
Most of the times I have to deal with awful legs full of red spots, bumps all sort of things. An example is this link: http://www.mediafire.com/?0w0xgyvgutl. What can you do about it, I mean yes you can dodge and burn to some extend but it's crazy if you have like 20 pics like that. I want to keep them as natural as possible, with every pore and stuff but nothing so far gives me perfect results. Pros out there, your opinion would be valuable too if it is possible. In the link above you'll find a high res jpg to play with. Thanks a lot!

[Frank Lopes]

Something like this?

Originally Posted by xnoiz

Hi there guys! I sure need your opinion\help on something I run into often.
...
above you'll find a high res jpg to play with. Thanks a lot!

[xnoiz]

Hi Frank, thanks a lot for trying this out. Well I can still see some red spots and I can't tell if there is a texture or not. So what did you do?

[Frank Lopes]

Very, very light touch dodging the shadows
Slight color correction to warm up the flesh.

Regarding still being able to see red spots:
It is a manner of how much do you want to compromise detail versus blotches.

Originally Posted by xnoiz

Hi Frank, thanks a lot for trying this out. Well I can still see some red spots and I can't tell if there is a texture or not. So what did you do?

[Lynda99]

I'm not the pro you're looking for, but have you tried using blur? It's sooo fast. I use blur and a tiny bit of final cleanup with 10-15% opacity brush.

[Nanls]

There is a tutorial here for removing red blemishes. You might try it: http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=198
Hope this helps.
~Nancy

[xnoiz]

Blur? I almost never use blur for anything, that is the whole point.
Blur gives the plastic\fake look, you don't need that. My goal is always
make it look natural but perfect.

[xnoiz]

Thanks a lot Nancy for the tutorial, I'll try that out.

[0lBaldy]

Found this for blotchy skin.. http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?%20t=23233
Scroll down to the Dan Margulis reference at post#8, it looks interesting

[xnoiz]

OlBaldy the link doesn't work, it leads to the forum but gives me this message

No Thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

[Lynda99]

I *almost* never use blur, either, and I wouldn't use blur anywhere else on the body, but on the big areas on the legs, it seems to work OK. Everybody hates blur because they don't know when to stop.

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by xnoiz

OlBaldy the link doesn't work, it leads to the forum but gives me this message

No Thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

Fixed it there and Fixed it here also

[bd-in-pdx]

Used Calculations to swap the preferable (non-blemished) red channel with the offensive blue channel, then followed up with some light Healing in a few spots.

I think it's a pretty decent blemish remover while keeping the legs looking natural and not Barbie-plastic-perfect. =)

[Panpan]

The skin seems to be too transparent (it shows on the back of the hand too).

Maybe change the lights or get a camera with a sensor less sensitive to uv or ir, or ask the model to get a tan.

I know you don't like blurring, but degrunge at 51/17 seems to help.

[xnoiz]

Hey PanPan, this is a snapshot type of shoot so more imperfections
appear. But I run into the same problem of blotchy skin in all kinds of lighting.
I'm still experimenting though to find the best technique for making perfect
legs and natural at the same time. Thanks to all of you that tried to help me so far!