Newborn editing help

[Cooriedoon]

Well my first post is about editing for babies like this image. I always struggle to get the skin looking like the right colour. I tend to end up with the skin looking way too peachy. I remove the rash with the patch tool then gently remove others with the spot remove tool. Any advice would be very helpful.

[klev]

Re: Newborn editing help

Removing the rash with the patch tool is probably too heavy-handed. A little color correction and possibly some minor burn and dodge would suffice. Infant skin can be all over the place.

While you don't necessarily want it to feel retouched, you're probably trying to get something more even than what you have here. You will need to mask off the skin to avoid tinting that background. From there use curves or levels (if levels, use the middle slider on individual channels) to color correct the skin. You should color correct first based on the face. Add additional layers to tweak arms, chest, hands, and his leg. I like channel mixer, but learning to use it without any weird results can take some time.

This really doesn't take much, but the mention of the patch tool suggests that you may be a little heavy handed, based on past examples where people mentioned similar things. Click retouching layers on and off as you go. Check whether you made anything look weird. If that happens, undo that part.

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

Thank you and yes you are right! I am heavy handed and It took me over an hour playing with this image only to see it was so wrong. I want my newborn image to look as natural as I can. Mum asked if I could remove his rash but I failed doing it my way. I am now going to try your way and see how I get on.I use colour correct on things like maybe the foot if it looks a little purple but that is all so far. klev thank you for this and I am off to try it now.

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

I have had a go and the skin colour changes are good. What would you use to get rid of the rash after finding a good skin tone.Is the spot removal too harsh?
Cathy

[skoobey]

Re: Newborn editing help

First you want those rash areas to have the same texture as the rest of the surrounding skin, and you also want them to be the same tone and color as the rest.

So you go by that. Clone and heal the texture, dodge and burn the tone, and change the hue/saturation for the color.

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

Thanks skoobey!

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

Not perfect but so much better than I did before.

[klev]

Re: Newborn editing help

Not perfect but so much better than I did before.

It is better, but I believe you took out too much saturation overall. You're starting to get that grey monotone look. It's also a bit dark.

I have had a go and the skin colour changes are good. What would you use to get rid of the rash after finding a good skin tone.Is the spot removal too harsh?
Cathy

It's not really the tool itself. When people mention the photoshop tools as their strategy, it makes me wonder if they're focusing on the choice of tools as their overall strategy. Tools like spot removal and patch work best on very small areas. Some of those rash areas are not very small.

I would probably remove them via burn and dodge methods. My personal inclination here would be a curves or levels layer that provides a reasonable match in color balance and overall brightness to the surrounding skin. You figure out the balance by testing on a small region. You can make it somewhat overdone (emphasis on somewhat) at full opacity, then use a lower brush opacity or flow.

That strategy might be more difficult if you're using a mouse rather than a graphics tablet or even if you are using a graphics tablet. It's also less than ideal for the really small areas. I would deal with small stuff by cloning. I usually set brush hardness around 20-30% and work on small areas. I don't go over the same spot a bunch of times or "scribble." It should be precise work. It's also sometimes possible to clone in color mode if something is just a bit off color.

I try to minimize the complexity of this stuff. It helps avoid weird side effects.

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

klev thank you again. I will try again tomorrow to see if I can improve it.I do need the practice so dont mind. I like to hear it as it is and for that I thank you. I do use a graphic pad and will try the layers again and drop the strengh of my brush too.

[klev]

Re: Newborn editing help

klev thank you again. I will try again tomorrow to see if I can improve it.I do need the practice so dont mind. I like to hear it as it is and for that I thank you.

I try to tell it as I perceive it. Sometimes I highlight particular positives. You seem to have reasonable judgement, but some people have terrible judgement. On the upside, if their work is that horrendous due to absent mindedness, they have the potential to see an enormous level of improvement.

I do use a graphic pad and will try the layers again and drop the strengh of my brush too.

You're welcome. The strength of your brush is somewhat dependent on personal taste and the task itself. For example I wouldn't use a low opacity brush on basic cloning. Take a look at your masks from time to time. If they look really messy and random, it's often an indicator that you should adjust your technique.

[0lBaldy]

Re: Newborn editing help

This technique, found in the RetouchPro Tutorial section ( http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=198 ), seemed to work pretty well to provide a good starting point on your sample

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

Skin getting there but still finding I need to use the healing brush for rash areas. I don't know the correct procedure for fading them out using dodge and burn tools as this is very new to me.
I think I need to look up some you tube tutorials and learn that way of removing blemishes .I am reired now so have the tme to learn

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

Olbaldy thank you for this link.I am off to give it a try now.
Cathy

[klev]

Re: Newborn editing help

Skin getting there but still finding I need to use the healing brush for rash areas. I don't know the correct procedure for fading them out using dodge and burn tools as this is very new to me.
I think I need to look up some you tube tutorials and learn that way of removing blemishes .I am reired now so have the tme to learn

This is better. I don't use dodge and burn on really tiny stuff. Overall I rarely zoom past 100%. If it's tiny at 100%, I just clone it. The tools don't matter as much as the results. When you click retouching layers on and off, it should look like the rash just disappears without interrupting anything else.

It's hard to narrow this down to an exact recipe, because a lot of things don't generalize in a precise manner. I usually describe how I would approach something. When I post a partially done example, it's typically done in that manner, although I cut a few corners.

[Cooriedoon]

Re: Newborn editing help

Klev thank you! I have learrned from this information and that is good I will continue to practice and hopefully get better