Skin tone

[princeofdark]

Hi, this is my first post - glad to be part of this forum, really like to learn from it and appreciate the help of the members Learned a lot from you, thank you everyone!

So, this is the picture:
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/image95680.html

I would like to know how the skin tone was done or if there is better way to do it. I do like the skin color, but as I tried in photoshop, only the saturation was decreased and maybe somehow corrected at the shadows(???).

I tried to do the same, but dont like how I achieved almost the same:
http://leteckaposta.cz/342701478

(click on the try to download the psd file)

So the way I done it was silckforce technique - which is blurring and as we know the blurring is "not allowed" for retouching. I used clone tool with 20opacity and did the cloning. The result is almost the same, but without skin texture. I would like to know how can be the same effect achieved with no disappearing texture. I tried different blending modes, but was not working. Also heard about gradient maps for skin tones, do you think this can be done with it?

Thank you very much for ideas!

[mistermonday]

You have achieved very similar results. Unfortunately your result looks like smoothed skin - a step up from blurred skin. Depending on the end use, that may be acceptable. If you are looking for a high end result, you will need to use Dodge & Burn and various other techniques that are time consuming. You need to make a time vs look trade-off.
Regards, Murray

[fraiseap]

You will hear over and over again that D&B is the best way to go. That is true as it achieves good skin but retains texture. But there is a long way between a several hour retouch using D&B and a blurred mess.

One of my favourite quick methods is to use a bandstop method or inverted high pass or one of the many variations of this theme. The bandstop method involves using a high pass layer (high frequency) a blurred layer (low frequency) and a layer which has been blurred and filtered using high pass (the middle frequencies).

By using the slickforce technique you are getting rid of the middle and high frequencies. The middle frequencies are often called the grunge and can be removed (although I personally like to keep them but reduce their opacity as this avoids the skin looking too artificial).

You can reintroduce the high frequencies by taking the original, do a high pass and blend using linear light. You may need to reduce the opacity of the high pass layer.

Oh yes, major warning - this is not suitable for magazine publishing or anything that requires so called "high end" retouching. It is however very quick and perfectly good for model portfolios and the like.

[princeofdark]

Thank you! This is why I asked you, because I did silckforce, but dont like it, because its kind of blurring and the texture is disappearing. The high pass idea is really good! Im using it often, but dont know why during this retouching I somehow forgot I can use it.

Yes, I know always DB, first at local areas and then for lightning and darkening, but I really doubt - must be wrong - that with DB you can create such gradient, I mean the gradiation from the shadows to highlights and from h. to shadows is soo smooth, but also contrasty and not flat. Simply love that look of it.

So if I dont want to blur the texture how can I do it? If I want that high end retouching and not only the silckforce with high pass?