Colorful Photo w/ bad skin and harsh shadows

[SbTalent01]

I have a great picture that I photographed that's very vibrant, colorful and bubble gum feeling. She has very harsh shadows and bumpy skin textures. Any ideas on how to smooth this out and rid her of her shadows. I'm quite new to retouching but have been photographing for quite some time.

Here is my take:

[DCobb]

This is my try. I am not a professional, so my workflow is more of the fiddle nature.

-cloning
-healing brush
-painting on a blank layer at a low opacity 10-20%.

dc

[SbTalent01]

Originally Posted by DCobb

This is my try. I am not a professional, so my workflow is more of the fiddle nature.

-cloning
-healing brush
-painting on a blank layer at a low opacity 10-20%.

dc

Hi DC,

Nice attempt. I used a similar work flow and painted over various portions of her skin but I felt she looked a little clay like. I liked the way you popped her eyes. Anyone else?

[DCobb]

Thank you. After painting I added back to the selected area Noise with two applications of .5. Seemed to take away the brushed looked. Also on the blank layer added a Gaussian blur to smooth out the painting--then added back the noise

dc

[colorexpertsbd]

Originally Posted by SbTalent01

I have a great picture that I photographed that's very vibrant, colorful and bubble gum feeling. She has very harsh shadows and bumpy skin textures. Any ideas on how to smooth this out and rid her of her shadows. I'm quite new to retouching but have been photographing for quite some time.

Here is my take:

1. Copy the image in a new layer.
2. Draw a path around the image with Photoshop pen tool.
3. Select the path.
4. Now in menu bar select->feather
5. Now use Brush/ clone stamp tool from the tool bar to smoothen the skin texture & shadow.
6. In menu bar -> image->adjustment -> use color balance/selective color/hue/saturation to get the desired effect.

I think you can easily get your result in few minutes of serious work..

[SbTalent01]

Great...thanks, I'll try it : )

[Joe M]

Here is a technique that may help. I learned it from a class given by Dan Margulis.

Using Photoshop CS3 (or your own version) convert the image to LAB. Duplicate the background and make a blank layer above that. Using a soft brush change the blend mode of the brush (not the layer) to Darker Color. Using your eyedropper tool sample a good color in the skin so that is now your foreground color. Brush over the area you want to fix with a brush opacity of between 10-30%. Personally I like to use low opacity and build it up.

This can also be used to fix blown highlights.

Once finished flatten the image and convert back to RGB.

[SbTalent01]

Will try this as well. I made another attempt. It looks very different from the first. Let me know your opinions. Anyone else want to give it a try? I'd like to see some interpretations of it.

[TommyO]

Your second attempt is certainly better. (The eyes look a bit unsymetrical though.)

Once you get the contrast the way you like it, here is another rather simple method of smoothing skin that is often overlooked. It has been around quite a while and is a good starting point for anyone, especially in the beginning stages of learning retouch.

Merge your image up to a new layer (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E).
Use Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. Use a higher strength setting, and a low preserve details setting. You'll be surprised that the eyes, lashes, etc. stay in good detail, while the skin is softened nicely.
Later you can add a mask to avoid the effect on other areas of the image.
You can alter the overall effect by changing the layer opacity, or again, painting on the mask with a soft black low opacity brush.