Lingerie shoot, retouch and skin issues

[annaphoto]

Hello Retouchers!

This is my first post on the forum.
First of all, many thanks for reading, opinions and for any reply I might get.

Im a photographer, I've been doing it for couple of years and I'm my own retoucher. I love retouching as much as I love photographing.
Recently I started to explore more into lingerie photography, and I have few bookings coming in february and Im getting ready for that.

I' did a really extensive research of all means I could think of before coming here, I respect all of you, because other than talent, I know that a good retoucher most likely spent infinity hours learning and practising.

One of my future clients sent me a link of a lingerie website and asked for similar results, which I've been trying to achieve. She specified that she would like those skin tones and texture. At first it seemed to be a easy one, since it doesnt even look like it retained much skin texture. The model's skin are just seamless and spotless. For me it didnt look like high end magazine retouch, but maybe Im wrong... I've tried all the techniques I could find on the internet. I've spent loads of money on books, ebooks and even DVD's... Now my head is so messed up with all the techniques that I simple don't know what to do.

I'd like to ask you guys, what do you think about the retouch on these photos. Is it something over the top, pro magazine retouch? Or is it just some of those quick techniques that we all have heard of and I'm not getting it right? Would anyone guess/know how these results could be achieved?


I hope I expressed myself clearly.

This is the link for the lingerie website:
http://www.helen.gr/eshop/products_new.php

I just found out the photographer:
http://www.agencjakubik.com.pl/realizacje_en.html


Thank you for reading!
Anna

[franko60]

Yuk, the plastic store dummy look. It's everywhere these days, overworked photos to compensate for a lack of vision, training or experience. Personally I'd try and talk the client out of copying everyone else and establishing a look that is their own. That's what every successful company in the marketplace has done, eg Victoria's Secret are the masters at reinventing themselves in this way.

I would also strongly recommend Gry Garness' eBook Digital Retouching for fashion, beauty & portrait photography. Gry is a fixture here and there is a wealth of information for a very small price in this book.

[annaphoto]

Hello Franko60,

Thank you for your reply!

Unfortunately I've tried to talk to this client, and she's too bossy almost rude, and I just can't miss this job... I've got to get it done, if I do it well I'll become their regular photographer... Things are too hard, I can't miss this opportunity... =(

I agree, its avery plastic look... And I can't do it! I'm more used to do retouching on face for beauty shots and portraits, it's freaking me out that something apparently easy is something that I can't do. I use techniques like pixel dodge and burning, sometimes degrunge, etc for my beauty shots, I'm not an expert like you guys, but I quiet like the results.
But when I came across something so plastic I actually didn't have an idea how it was done. I know its quiet fake and all, but I've tried all these famous quick techniques that I thought it could be and honestly I got much worse results than that. I can't deliver that to my client, if I can't to what she wants at least I have to do better, and my better will include hours and hours in each image and considering that we have 60 pieces to work on, thats just not a realistic option... I myself, always admired retaining some of natural characteristics to make it unique and real. But this time I think Ill have to surrender...

For example, how did they get the skin colours to be so smooth and absolutely without a patch of skin tone variation? It looks like they've been painted. I actually tried to paint my tests... I know it looks fake and because I never had to do it, I don't have an idea how to do it... I can't figure that out... I would not expect something so complex...


Regards Gry, even tho I'm in a budget now, Ill squeeze in her ebook at least... I'd love to have her DVD too... soon!

Thanks!!

Anna

[marex]

Hi
Have you tryed the folloving:
This is an easy one. copy the original layer, use the "healing brush tool" and remove all imperfections and bumps in the skin. Take your time, preferably 1 hour. - Copy this layer, go to Gaussian Blur, then over 10px, to all the patterns in the skin is gone, and the picture is VERY vague. Add Layer Mask to this layer, make this mask black.
Now you can paint in this guassina Blur in the layer mask you just made​​, but stay away from sharp edges, lips and eyes. Set the Fill to ca 35 % Here you have to play around a bit. But in the end create a new layer, 50% gray, 5px noise, and simply about 0.2 guassian Blur, and then select this one to be Overlay.
tell how it goes

[franko60]

You might also want to try Imagenomic Portraiture and/or Portrait Professional. They give a nice plasticky look quickly and automatically and you do have quite a lot of control over how much. Yes they cost money, but I've never yet had a client reject a picture that I've quickly run through these filters and they are very, very quick.

[Steve13]

I think you need to realize that the sample website is a lingerie sales site, not a glamour site. The whole purpose of the model is to hold the lingerie, it is the star. The model is purposely made flat/generic looking so as not to distract from their product. The whole idea with these pics is to show good contrast between the product and skin to show the detail in the lace and the design. In this regard, it serves the purpose well. I've always read on RP not to use a mask with surface blur on the skin, because it looks too plastic. Maybe that's whats needed here? (I'm not a retoucher)

[Aladdin]

This is a simple plug-in, like Portraiture, get an evaluation copy, it is under one minute process. No, it is not high end retouch, magazines and such are cheap to spend upwards of $5000~$8000 per one image on quality retouch, this is a quick and dirty job.