Skin Red Blemish Removal

[leuallen]

Using Photoshop 7

This technique is useful for removal of red skin blemishes. It does not remove blemishes of other colors. If you try traditional healing or cloning on the red blemishes, the blemish is removed but the blemish often turns into a red area which is time consuming to blend. This method removes the blemish and the red cast in one step while keeping the skin texture. After this technique is used, the healing or cloning brush should be used to remove blemishes that were not red and not removed by this technique. [details]

[Panpan]

Thank you very much for sharing this valuable technique, leuallen. I learned a lot I didn't know about the healing brush from your clear explanations.

In the specific case of your grandmother, some of the redness aside of the spots may also be a medication side-effect. In that case, it may be simpler to put the red channel skin on a luminosity layer and adjust the gamma. I append an example (I didn't correct the shine to keep this simple).

Pierre

[Cassidy]

Me too leuallen as I get such unpredictable results and am sure it is to do with direction/radius and numerous other facets, so only use for 1-3px fixes and still avoid

[leuallen]

Panpan,

What do mean by adjust the gamma? Exact steps, I want to try it.

Larry

[nebgranny]

OK, I am not sure what you were trying to do for her picture. I decided to try the mask tutorial that vicki posted. I had no idea if it would work to take some of the red spots out , but it did . It seemed to smooth out her face color. You must forgive me if this is not what you all were trying to do. I am just trying to learn little things and decided to work on your grandma , she has a wonderful smile about her. Thanks Neb

[nebgranny]

RE Post...
Sorry, hope this is better?

[Panpan]

Originally Posted by leuallen

Panpan,

What do mean by adjust the gamma? Exact steps, I want to try it.

Larry

I mean the middle slider in the levels window. I used it to adjust the curve to match the luminosity around the selection.

Pierre

[leuallen]

Nebgranny,

Hey its my MOM! Guess I am an old fart.

I was simply removing the red blemishes. This technique does it very well. As a bonus it removes areas of red discolorization. Of course there are other methods which may be used, but I find this one to be quite easy. Note that this method almost completely removes the big red blemish on her chin. The other methods I've seen leave traces. Besides some of the other methods are global and may effect areas of the image I don't want touched. With this method I choose were the corrections are taking place.

Maybe I went on too long about about correcting for healing brush color bleed and that confused some of you. If you are going to work in an area where you don't run into this problem, you could skip this step. On the other hand, this is a very useful technique for other situations. I talked about color bleed but there is also density bleed where the contrast areas are of density rather than color. I have not tried this yet but I imagine that by setting the mode to Luminosity you could correct for that.

Larry

Ps Thankd Panpan. Got it. Don't use Levels much but know what to do with curves.

[Cassidy]

Leuallan, great stuff there, wonderful there are so many ways to skin a cat
.....metaphorically speaking of course

[nebgranny]

So sorry , I thought I read grand mother. I apologize. I also want to say I am sorry for posting my results with another method!! I did not mean to overlook all of your hard work , but it just seemed long for me to read and do so thought I would try using Viki's mask tutorial. I did not mean to be rude seeming to disreguard your tutorial. Please forgive me. I was excited to see the results when using the other method. Please excuse me if I seemed rude, I wish to assure you I am not that kind of person!! I am even worse LOL

[leuallen]

Nebgranny,

Did not take it that way at all. I am always open for different ways of doing things. Who knows, maybe one day I'll strike a PS goldmine.

Larry

[Klaatu Baradda]

Originally Posted by leuallen

Using Photoshop 7. This technique is useful for removal of red skin blemishes. It does not remove blemishes of other colors. If you try traditional healing or cloning on the red blemishes, the blemish is removed but the blemish often turns into a red area which is time consuming to blend. This method removes the blemish and the red cast in one step while keeping the skin texture. After this technique is used, the healing or cloning brush should be used to remove blemishes that were not red and not removed by this technique. [details]

Interesting technique Larry.

Another method is to just use the Patch Tool and a Hue/Sat Adjustment Layer that slightly lowers the saturation of the Reds? The Patch Tool also blends color and tone while keeping the skin texture.

Many people avoid the Patch Tool because it works very differently (almost counter-intuitively) than the Clone Stamp Tool or the Healing Brush.

Instead of setting a reference point (as you would in the others), you use it like the Lasso Tool and surround the area you want to "patch." Then you place the tool inside the selection and click 'n' drag the selection to an area that contains clear skin. The skintone, color and texture are all blended into the ones of the area being patched. When using a graphics tablet, this is so fast; you just circle the blemish and pull it to a non-blemished area. As you get used to doing this, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. It's both fast and simple.

The Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer will quickly reduce the ruddiness (redness) of large areas of skin. Just choose the color to affect from the pull-down menu and change the Saturation slider. To limit the adjustment to a specific area, just make a selection of the area to be affected with the Lasso or any other selection method you choose then choose the layer adjustment.

This took less than 5 minutes.

[leuallen]

Thanks Klaatu,

I've used the patch method you described. It is very quick and gives good results. You're right, it is not intuitive. I had to study some before I mastered it.

I've also use the H/S layer like you mentioned. I usually use it with a layer mask set to Hide All and then paint back the desat in the desired areas and amounts.

The method I've shown is not ment to be a general method. I'd reach for it, though, if I had an acne prone youngster in front of me.

Larry

[vidanse]

Wow your technique leuallen works great. I work for a local studio and they returned this job to me that I did of an acne high school senior. Said it was too blotchy so I'm starting all over. I have never used snapshots or the history brush so your tutorial was a new experience for me. I have used the hue saturation before but sometimes the results aren't quite what I need. Here is the origian retouch job I did for the studio. If anyone has any more helpful tips for acne please feel free to leave them. I will post my redo later when I'm done. Thanks Vicki

[bigkidjr]

vicky -- i'm not sure why they felt your retouch was blotchy. doesn't look blotchy to me, just maybe a little flat.

I took a stab at this. Mine is probably more "blotchy" than yours, but this is for a yearbook photo, right? Not a magazine or something...

I adjusted levels and sharpened up a bit. brought out his eyes, cleaned his teeth a bit, and used the healing brush to get rid of some of the acne. I also airbrushed a little, using a color I sampled from his clear skin.

I know this is not perfect, but at what point is perfect a little too "fake"?

[vidanse]

Here is my first step results with just removing the red. I'm amazed. I have so many kids with these red blemishes. This is going to make my job of removing red much easier. I like it better than hue sat which I usualy do.
thanks for the great tutorial leuallen!!

I didn't feel my first attempt was too blotchy, but it did give me the opportunity to research and finding a new technique. That's what I love about this site. There is always a reason for everything.

Vicki

[vidanse]

Here is my second version. Hopefully they will like it so I can get on with the rest of my seniors. Around 150 to go.

[leuallen]

Vicki,

Glad you found the tutorial useful.

I have worked out a variation that is for general skin retouching. I am still fine tuning it. When I am done i will post that.

The new method gives a much more natual look than the usual Gaussian blur and punt method. It is a little more complex, but not horribly so. It gives results near the high-end method of using a 50% softlight gray dodge and burn layer, but is much faster and less work.

Larry

[vidanse]

Larry,

Will look forward to your tutorial. Could you please post it here or PM.

Thanks,
Vicki

[vidanse]

I just received an email from ShootSmarter.com for a tutorial on erasing acne with the replace color adjustment by Suzette Allen.

http://www.shootsmarter.com/infocenter/sa027.html

It works pretty good, but not for the image I posted here because his overall skin tone is red. I tried it on some of my other images and it worked great.

Suzette Allen has some good tutorials that you can find on ShootSmarter.

Ciao Vicki