Some C&C requested

[4personnen]

Thanks to all at first...
This is nearly my 1st attempt at a man's face retouching...
I find it quite hard because of facial hair, of the forehead texture that needs to stay there...I assume that man's face got to stay a man's face and not a pre-teenager face (But I may be wrong)...
I am still worried about the collar shadows and it's surely not finished in the point of view of the colour correction, but now I'm a bit stuck...Can't see nothing else to do that is at my reach... Any Ideas, any advices?
Cheers!

man

[eraanexact]

Men don't get retouched as much. Aside from obvious pimples and unsightly scars or moles, I'd say the most common thing to be done is too slightly remove bags under the eyes. The dude in your picture has nice skin to begin with, and no bags under the eyes, so you're good there. I think you went too far on the forehead. There's weird color casts going on. I would lighten it a bit, but I wouldn't do any cloning or any other technique that results in splotches.

You could, however, fill in some of those lighter gaps in his mustache so his facial hair isn't so patchy.

[4personnen]

OK, I've done a lot of tiny D&B in order to get rid of the texture and controlling for not going too far but, I got some issues with the colour anyway....


The problem is also I'm no use with Asian skin, looks like I lighten him too much to my taste...
Thanks!

[Boneappetit]

I haven't done many men retouches, but IMHO men retouching needs to be contrary to women, what I mean is that, if you smoothen a guy's face it won't look manly, it could also look blury, if you know what I mean. <---- (Just in case, I got nothing against gay people). You need to boost his expression in order to make him look like it has to. This is just my opinion, I could be wrong thou...

I did this one, in case you want to take a look: http://boneappetit.deviantart.com/ga...t=120#/d32ouc4

[4personnen]

@Bonappetit

Do you suggest that mine is too "soft"? I usually soften the skin more than that for a woman (but I tend to smooth less and less now). But it's hard to find the thin line.


And now the more I look him, the more I find some problems (I thing the worst part of it is deciding when it's finished )

BTW: Your photo is very nicely done... (added some noise?)

[Boneappetit]

4, I'm afraid you took away all the texture there...
The guy already has good clean skin, there is no need to soften it any further... Concentrate in boosting it, so it'll look more tough not softer. Less is more in this case... I'm going to quote Natalia here: Don't fix it if it ain't broken...

I can't recall what i did exactly, but I don't think I used noise on my work, I sure did some dodge and burn, note that the burning dominates on the wrinkles etc, because the original looked too flat, even a bit blury, and I used a lot of contrast and sharpening, also used split frequencies, and clipped brightness and contrast to high frequencies, also color correction and boost, with Lab color, and photo filters. I wish I have my PSD for that one, but I deleted it...

[4personnen]

I think I will give a try with just micro D&B, avoiding Split frequencies, probably a bit too much for this one. Maybe I will try to make 2 colour correction in Raw: one for the forehead and one for the rest (maybe another for the collar) in ACR and then merge them together, It'll probably make things easier...

I'll be back in 7 days guys > Note to myself> need more coffee...

Cheers!

PS: Do you have any hints for typical RGB values on Asian skins? Probably more differences between R vs B vs G...Than "real" values...

[W.Smith]

Originally Posted by 4personnen

This is nearly my 1st attempt at a man's face retouching...

So where is it then?

[Boneappetit]

Originally Posted by 4personnen

I think I will give a try with just micro D&B, avoiding Split frequencies, probably a bit too much for this one. Maybe I will try to make 2 colour correction in Raw: one for the forehead and one for the rest (maybe another for the collar) in ACR and then merge them together, It'll probably make things easier...

I'll be back in 7 days guys > Note to myself> need more coffee...

Cheers!

PS: Do you have any hints for typical RGB values on Asian skins? Probably more differences between R vs B vs G...Than "real" values...

Working from ACR is a good thing... You can get nice results...

"also used split frequencies, and clipped brightness and contrast to high frequencies" ... I used this step at the end of the job, in order to sharpen it, i didn't use it for the D&B or healing.

[women'sdesk]

I think the original file was out of focus, do you have access to sharp photos taken with a good camera/lens?

[4personnen]

Originally Posted by women'sdesk

I think the original file was out of focus, do you have access to sharp photos taken with a good camera/lens?

No unfortunately, this is the only one I've got. I have to deal with that...
To be honest, the post is quite old now, I left it a bit aside. I promise I'll have go, when I'll be a bit less busy and my mind will be clear.

[women'sdesk]

No if you're focusing on other projects, don't bother with this image. If you're having trouble finding high quality images try renting a camera and lens and taking your own pictures! Good luck xo

[4personnen]

Well,
I've never heard of anybody having trouble to find images to be retouched for free... Quality is another concern, and photos of men of quality double the hassle
In addition, I have a studio photography background (long time ago though) I just may add that making a good photo worth working on is not a question of renting a camera to make the images on focus. The photographer whose images I am working on, is still better than me. Even, if in this case there's a focus problem. (every man to his own trade)...

thanks for the advice anyway!

[women'sdesk]

LOL don't be so hard on yourself!! I guarantee you can take a better photo!