How to retouch the tiny hairs like this

[bysui]

Hi, I been learning alot about retouching from various places, i.e: Natalia Taffarel, Krunoslav-Stifter, nienna1990.deviantart.com (d and b technique), Gry Garness, Amy Dresser and I still dont know how to retouch skin like the ones I want to achieve.


http://s17.postimg.org/5loyeo4zj/1_luafta1_8.jpg

Lulie Lens

http://s14.postimg.org/e45uge45d/olga_new_5.jpg

Olga Gogoleva

http://s17.postimg.org/rwcten29r/503ecc7fbeb56.jpg

N_G (modelmayhem)

I understand about the dodge and burn technique but the result are different from these images, I really wish to retouch skin the way they did. I noticed that they all seem to have a similar style, and wondering if there is this tutorial around?

[kav]

Re: How to retouch the tiny hairs like this

Are you trying to get rid of facial hair? If so it's tedious. The hairs themselves can be more or less defined, and they cast shadows. You will probably have to clone a number of them. Start with the largest most obnoxious stuff. Stop before it looks overdone. You can soften the shadows cast by these hairs with a bit of DB work. Just don't zoom into 400% and go at it for hours on the false pretense that you can eliminate every one of them without any side effects. The stuff you linked appears to have a lot of masking and shading. The lips are so obviously masked. They went for an extremely defined line rather than a natural one, and the lips are obviously adjusted. You can tell because the reflections are unnaturally saturated. The nostrils are blackened, as they wouldn't fall off that fast given the soft shadows in that area. Lashes appear o be fixed up in parts and possibly sharpened. I'm mostly referring to the one labeled olga_new_5. You may find yourself moving catchlights around. They may have emphasized some of that iris detail.

When it gets past smoothing things out and you want some amount of control over the final appearance of lighting and palette, that requires more than an awareness of how to use a burn or dodge tool in photoshop. Everyone knows how to use those. They're self explanatory. I don't like some of the obvious reshaping on some of these or some of the shading choices, but that is me. On the hairs they did exactly what I described. They stopped going before it looked like someone applied a sandblaster to the model's face. Some areas still look overdone, but part of that is the coloring. Paler parts tend to look that way.

[bysui]

Re: How to retouch the tiny hairs like this

Hi Kav

thanks for helping me, i am bad at explaining but i mean I like the tiny hairs and wondered how it got retouched so neatly and sharply and soft at the same time?

I like the tiny hairs, I feel it looks perfect, but I get how you feel. I like how silky the skin is too

what do you mean by catchlights? how do i move them around?

[TheTog]

Re: How to retouch the tiny hairs like this

The answer is sharpness.

D and B does part of the job... but in the end you need to add sharpness with low radius...

[Mike Needham]

Re: How to retouch the tiny hairs like this

but in the end you need to add sharpness with low radius...

Examine that statement from the OP's point of view; do you think it makes sense to them?

Share?

[kav]

Re: How to retouch the tiny hairs like this

Hi Kav

thanks for helping me, i am bad at explaining but i mean I like the tiny hairs and wondered how it got retouched so neatly and sharply and soft at the same time?

I like the tiny hairs, I feel it looks perfect, but I get how you feel. I like how silky the skin is too

what do you mean by catchlights? how do i move them around?

I never liked the tiny hairs, but at the same time it's not always feasible to remove every one of them without it looking weird. In the images you linked they may have removed some. If there were any larger or distracting ones, they're gone now. The sharpness is mostly a function of how much detail was initially captured, fine detail brought out by the lighting, the amount of sharpening applied, and fine details that give the feeling of sharpness. By that I mean defined lashes and lighting detail in the eyes.

Catchlights can be moved if you mask and cut them out, then move them. It's not like you would move them very far. You can do that with lots of stuff if you can ensure it's believable. You can resize them slightly too. The way they're captured initially doesn't always look perfect. Don't get too hung up on that though. I was just picking out details. The important thing is starting images that contain enough fine detail and getting the level of sharpening just right. Realistically that stuff starts in camera.

[bysui]

Re: How to retouch the tiny hairs like this

Okay

Thanks TheTog, Mike Needham and thanks Kav for the help

I'll try experiment around then and yeah I think good photo starts with the camera, but also retouchers can make it better too