That Soft Dior Look for Portraits

[Littlecoo]

A skin texture face mask??? I can't visualise in my head how this is done in practice because of the variables mentioned above. Also if you have a rectangular strip of ideal skin texture sample from a third party, how you blend it locally to three-dimensional features of a face in a 2D photo?

I think that is where 3D texture and bump mapping comes in... I have done this a bit in 3D animation apps such as Poser http://www.daz3d.com although I have not used this specifically for Photoshop projects, I have however heard of it being possible and used from a graphic art standpoint at least. I think from this siteGraphics.Com I think I'll look into it further for myself, out of curiosity.

[ray12]

singlo,

I know I didnt go into skin texture masks in the fullest possible detail because of space and other reasons. Maybe I should do another tutorial someday on just that part of it. But... here is some additional information.

Attached is an actual low-resolution version of a hi-resolution skin mask so you can see what one looks like... and actually play with it. There are portrait masks for full and side views. You only need a couple.

Here is how to work it:

1.) Put a portrait on layer 1. (You can smooth the skin out because it wont matter later on. You will be able to totally adjust the final skin texture appearance to suit your own taste.)

2.) Lay the attached mask over the portrait on layer 2. Be sure to Set the layer blend mode to "SOFTLIGHT". The mask itself will mostly disappear... and only the textures will remain!

3.) You use Free Transform to adjust the size of the mask so it overlays on top of your model. Approximately match up the eyes and mouth. You can use the warp function to precisely fit the mask if you like. This isnt going to be perfect... but its close enough to get the general idea of it. My mask isnt going to perfectly fit your model.

4.) Look at the image. All the skin lines are going in the right direction and are in the right place. Now...adjust the opacity slider on the 2nd layer. Notice how you can make the skin texture however weak or strong you want. Try it at 100% strength. It might look better at 36% opacity to you.

5.) If you are somewhat advanced - then use a black (hide all) layer mask on layer two. Now the texture mask will totally disappear for just a short time. Now... paint with a soft, low opacity (30%) WHITE brush on that mask. Where ever you paint with white - the skin texture will begin to show through on your portrait! Paint some skin texture on the cheeks, paint less on the nose, paint medium intensity on just a small corner of the eyes, paint even more on the cheeks again to make it even stronger in this one place. Now you have TOTAL CONTROL over WHERE the skin texture is placed...and exactly how STRONG it will be. If you make a mistake - change back to a Black Brush and paint with it to correct your problem. You can apply and smoothly blend the textures any way you want artisticallywith this technique.


Here are some totally random thoughts:

- You can create your own masks so they face the way you want. You can composite several different mask textures together into one image. There are ways to adjust the lighting direction in Photoshop.

- Skin textures can be strong or subtle, or maybe only hinted at, in other places. You dont have to be biologically perfect to make a good artistic expression. People looking at your photograph will never anayze to see if those skin pores are really from the subject. Pores are pores. People will get the impression just fine.

- There are hundreds of hi-res images a week to choose from on the forums listed.

- The masks -- as well as your portraits -- are of real 3D people shot with a 2D camera - so the 2D/3D issue is not really a problem in my experience...everything is 2D inside of Photoshop anyway...they usually match up very well.

- It takes some time, effort and some interesting experimentation to get the results the magazine artists get.

- You can use one skin mask for the cheek texture, another part of another mask for the eyes, and even a third mask that has only great forehead textures. Use the layer mask technique to paint in the exact textures - exactly where you want them - and as strong as you want them. A little bit from each mask in different places. Some places may be left smooth by choice.

- Use layer masks, shading techniques, and traditional artist techniques to achieve the look of 3D depth that you want. There are techniques to make a 2D image look really nice.

- After a while you eventually end up with a sheet of collected cheek textures, forehead textures, eye creases etc. Build your own library. These accumulated libraries are what add value to a professional.

- You can even make up and use the models very own original skin as a texture mask - and then put that detail back in later - after you have smoothed out the skin tones. This produces a nice controlled balance between smoothing and realism.

Hope this helps some.

Ray

[singlo]

Many thanks Ray for the killer tips Your texture trick is the most useful thing I have ever learnt for ages. I have used your texture mask to try it on a completely different face and it works!!!! I flipped, rotated and free transformed your mask. I cloned the smaller areas of texture not covered by the mask. Here is the results of a quick 15 minutes crude job (no layer mask yet). I could have done a lot more fine tuning with layer mask.

PS. The first photo was before. The second photo was done with 39% texture opacity to exaggerate the effect but I think opacity of 20% will look more natural. BTW, if the texture is not so homogenous, it will look more convincing. For example, eyelid texture tends to be coarser. Maybe it is good to have separate texture samples for arms and legs as well.

[singlo]

Mmmm..further thought on this. For example if you have a small rectangular strip of skin texture specimen, the easier way to "reconstruct" a face mask from ground zero is to clone stamp the specimen expanding it to the shape of a face mask. To make the texture less homogenous, it is good idea to use different specimens on different features of the face ideally as you suggested. You need to uncheck the "sample all layers" box with the clone stamp bush and increase the opacity of the texture mask such that you can see both the texture and the face layer underneath during the cloning.

If you have an existing face mask but the shape like the facial contour, eyes or mouth don't fit to your model, you can also use Liquify-> Forward Warp tool to sculpture the shape.

[ray12]

Singlo,

Nice going. You have some great Ideas there. One very minor point though. The texture mask you used had the best cheek textures on the same side as your model. You might have gotten stronger, and more evenly distributed pores, if you did not flip the mask in this case. I horizontally flip the masks all the time, like you did, to use the best side of each master mask.

I agree with your cloning thoughts. I usually use the clone stamp at 50% hardness and 50% opacity and click several times so that my cloned part blends in better and looks more natural. You can clone an area from the same texture mask - or once you get into it - clone the skin texture from another mask all together. Use the best cheek texture from one image, the best forehead from another. If you have a bad spot, clone in from some other texture map to cover it up and make it look natural. Different masks usually blend together very well because the high-pass process makes them all the same shade of gray. If you spend the hard work time - you only need several of these master masks.

I think I forgot to tell you another trick. Once you have a skin texture overlay created - then sharpen a copied layer version of it 100 -200 % to get more pronounced pores - and then when you use a layer mask to paint with the pores - use a lower opacity brush 30% and below - or use the opacity slider on the layer. This allows you the full range of pores from full strong, to subtle, to none - on exactly where ever you paint on the layer mask with your white brush. With a layer mask - if the texture goes on too heavy - just change the color of the brush to Black and paint the harshness back to an acceptable level. I always sharpen the basic skin texture mask. Id rather have a strong effect and knock it back - rather than not have enough. The one I posted was sharpened at about 90%.

Let me give away a very hard won skin texture process. The most polished way to get that specific Dior looking skin texture is to make that high pass version first - and then - run it through the Menu> Filter> Sketch> Bas Relief filter. Use a detail of 14 and a sharpness of 1 - and here is the best part- light the texture from the Top Left. Now you have the highly accentuated pores that you see in the magazines - with the correct lighting angle to go with it! You can also try other lighting angles to fit your needs. Note: This technique can produce very pronounced yet natural pores - so you have to use a layer mask to control it or a much lower layer opacity setting to look great.

Good luck experimenting. Siglo, thanks for sharing your results. There's always something neat to learn in this forum.

Ray

[singlo]

many thanks Ray once again for sharing the tips I had a play with your suggestion of using Bas Relief filter + lighting render (using spotlight). This Bas Relief filter is pretty strong! I guess the lighting direction should match the lighting direction of the oringinal photo. Maybe this is not needed in flatly lit photos.
I just find it a bit hard to find decent resolution top model photos from web sites of fashion photographers and cosmetic companies with very good, usable skin texture samples. Maybe it is time to invest a scanner for scanning fashion mags....

[ray12]

Singlo,

Yes the Bas Relief filter does seem pretty strong at first glance. However, of all the methods - it re-creates the depth of the pores that is characteristic of the ultra sophisticated Dior look. Balancing the strength of this look is a matter of your taste and the end objectives - but I do agree - this approach has to be coupled with subtle layer mask applications with brushes in the 20% range - or with layer opacities in the low 20-40% range - otherwise they do look strong. Its no problem really, just control it so that it matches your individual tastes.

Here is a site that will end your search for high quality, high resolution glamour images that will fill up your entire monitor screen with images so big that you can count individual eyelashes. The site is simply: skins.be Be sure to go to the FORUM section and then register. It is free - and it is highly worth the effort. There has to be a couple thousand images to pick from. Go to the High Quality thread. This is one of the better places to go for skin pores, eyelash cutouts, eye pupils, jewelry cutouts, hair strands, or shiny lips to add bits of sparkle to your own images.

Ray

[singlo]

Ray, awesome You are my hero

[ray12]

Wouldn't go that far!

Later on - would love seeing any kind of work you do. Its always fun to see other peoples efforts with images.

[singlo]

hi Ray, thanks

here is a 30 min rush job. Texture mask is from Hollywood goddess Keira knightley . First picture is Keira's skin texture. Second picture is my not so Keira lookalike model before applying texture. Third picture is the transformed texture mask to fit her. Fourth is the result with 35% opacity texture with layer mask..sorry it is a bit of rush & crude job but I must go to bed. (I think i need to tune down the texture a bit more in the shadow and mid-tone area.)

[ray12]

I like it Siglo, very nice job.

My own taste is for skin textures a little bit stronger than yours - thats why its so interesting to get a sense for other peoples work and taste here on the forum. So, thanks for being willing to share your work.

Sometimes I will put just a little bit of extra skin texture on the cheeks, or forehead, or chin - It gives the "Impression" to the viewers eye that the rest of the skin must be textured also - even if they dont actually see it. The hint of texture is someimes just enough.

Also, like you suggested a while back - once you get some master masks made up that you like - you can clone in the holes and extend the textures outward so the mask is very easy to use and apply.

Again, thanks for sharing. You created a great mask..

[superfrasky]

Ray12, its possible to get this result with your technique? ....

[ray12]

superfrasky,

Not totally sure how to answer your question. Your own base image is obviously very important to your own end success.

What the tutorial goes into is... shows a way to smooth out the skin, add in highlight glows where you want them, add selective shadow areas to the picture, how to use the models own skin or skin masks to add skin detail back in, and how to adjust the color palette for different looks.

One particular characteristic I notice about the photo you show above are the white highlights.

These can be created in many ways.

- Where to put the highlights...Use a threshold adjustment to see the actual highlight areas in the image to accentuate, or control click the channels RGB thumbnail to get a selection of the highlight areas in the image, or best yet, artistically hand paint them in exactly where you want them - and then - use the softlight layer mode so that they blend in well).

- Making the highlights super soft and easily blended... Use gaussian blur to soften and spread the highlights and to create smooth blended edges.

- Making the highlights glow... Use the diffuse glow filter.

- Finally... Adjust the highlights intensity to suit your needs using the layer opacity sliders.

Hope this helps some.

[Svetilkin]

ray12 , Thank you for great tutorial !

[rnbluvva]

Ray12!

Thank you for this incredible tutorial. I am going to try it soon! Really good of you to take the time to write it all out!