Retouching skin tone without losing "pores"??

[grafx]

Heya,
I have a question. Has anyone developed a way to retouch skin without losing the "pores" My clients want photos retouched without looking like they have been. I'm talking reworking eyebrows, circles under the eyes, mouth lines the whole works. It is not a photograph after getting finished. It is a representation of the individual, lol. I know photoshop 7 has that heal feature, but I'm not happy with how it works. I'm an old fashion airbrush tool user. Anyways, I like how photoshop 6 responds to my tablet better.

Thanks

[DannyRaphael]

Welcome, Grafx...

Sounds like we're talking digital plastic surgery here. What an interesting challenge.

While this area isn't my specialty by any means, maybe it will get the ball rollin' for some really useful advice.

Would the liquify tool be of any use? It can transform shapes every which way but loose, and (if not overused) would retain skin textures.

~DannyR~

[Flora]

Hi Grafx!

For skin retouching without completely eliminating texture, I usually use the technique I described in my submission in this Thread, adjusting the Opacity until satisfied with the result.

As for digital 'lifting', liposuction.... etc. , as DannyR has already pointed out, I find that a careful usage of the Liquify Filter gives excellent results.

[TheTexan]

The patch tool. The single greatest invention since applesause.

Tex

[Philip Tulin]

This photoshop technique will help you regarding the hair and eyes.

http://www.outdooreyes.com/photo47.php3

Philip

[roger_ele]

Hi Gafx

Once you have gotten the retouching done the way you like, keeping all skin texture without any blurring, flatten and duplicate the background twice.

-turn off the visibility of the top layer, make the middle layer active
-blur the middle layer alot, mask the layer so that you only affect the areas you want to soften, bumps that blur and then look larger for it, can be smudged
-make the top layer active and visible, reduce opacity until you get the mix you like, I am usually between 50 + 70 percent.

This is my current favorite way of doing this. A lot of folks use different methods for getting a natural blend of skin texture and softness, blurring and adding back noise, or duplicate layer, blur then mask, or snapshot, blur, then use history brush.

Hope this helps, Roger

[roger_ele]

Sorry, I skipped ahead a little

To get the retouched skin without losing texture -

-Patch tool, you can pull the selection to different spots until it looks right, you can also fade or use history brush
-Healing brush for isolated spots, like pimples
-Clone tool in lighten or darken mode, work from adjacent areas that are slightly lighter or darker so that the it is not overdone, you can work back and forth over a spot to acheive a natural transition between a light area and a darker area switching between lighten and darken modes.

Roger

[Mig]

This is one of the best methods I know - check it out... click on the woman's face at the bottom of the tutorial to see if this is what you're after.

http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/grain/index.html

[Qstudios]

Here is one solution that works well.

First retouch out all the big blemishes, then use the healing brush to fix bigger problems. That part you already know and will work for most images but if you want to make the skin look like a babies bottom you need to do this:

add a new layer
set the mode to softlight
set your brush to black and white
use the softest brush at an opacity of 1 to 10
add an adjustment layer/curves
make the curve into an extreme S curve and remove some red
all the imperfection should pop out
now go back to the softlight layer keeping the curve layer on and start brushing in white to lighten and black to darken the imperfection in the skin
this takes some practice but the results are beautiful
you will need to adjust the curve for softlighting in the highlights, mids and shadows

[Flora]

Hi Qstudios!

Welcome to RP!

Thank you very, very much for your Tip .... I just tried it and WOW ... it really works wonders!!!

[grafx]

I just wanted to drop a note thanking for all the excellent suggestions. I absolutely love the texturizer +grain technique. I think I actually have been combining a few of your suggestions all together. Good stuff.

Thanks So Very Much!

grafx

[backygirly]

Oh Q Studios, I love your tip! I wish I knew more about curves, everytime I try to read the tutorial I get bored and my mind wanders. Can someone help me out with the "extreme S curve" step? Everytime I do it, the picture ends up with a really high contrast and looks yucky! This is because of the soft light layer too. What can I do to reduce the contrast while still using the soft light and curves adjustment layer?

Thanks in advance, hope this wasn't confusing!

Edited to add some things I forgot!

[Qstudios]

first the images should look "yucky" what you are trying to do is make the subtel impertection of the skin show up more, so that is OK.

Second make sure you are doing the Curve on an adjustment layer.

Third you can still use the softlight layer while the Curve Adjustment layer is on because all you are doing it painting with white or black.

Hope this helps.

[backygirly]

Thank you! Your post made me realize that I wasn't changing the curve after I was finished painting in with the brush on the soft light layer. I was leaving the curves adjustment layer with a really high contrast as opposed to changing it.

You are amazing and so is your work!!