Beginner's IHP Skin Smoothing Guide

[dmeadows]

This one's a technique that'll be more than familiar to most of you, but I've started writing up a beginner series of tutorials that cover not just the 'how' but the 'why and when'. I know when I was starting out I wanted a trustworthy resource that explained the best way to use the myriad 'click this then select this' tutorials, so I've begun to write my own ideal beginners articles.

http://www.dmd-digital-retouching.com/tutorial-2/inverted-high-pass-ihp-retouching-tutorial/

I'd really appreciate your own thoughts on any retouching pitfalls you encountered so I can make this the best free resource possible.

Thanks guys!

[dmeadows]

Re: Beginner's IHP Skin Smoothing Guide

I'm also writing up a similar Frequency Separation tutorial with the same 'please, please understand that this isn't a replacement for D&B' caveats.

[skoobey]

Re: Beginner's IHP Skin Smoothing Guide

What I always ask is why? Skin isn't smooth, so why should a photo of it be? I keep things the way they are and make sure all distractions are reduced, but going further is just not necessary.

In that light, I would much rather see a result that doesn't affect the entire skin, but only the areas where it actually does some good.

[dmeadows]

Re: Beginner's IHP Skin Smoothing Guide

I agree but I think it depends on intent. A lot of fashion/editorial shoots would benefit from much less work but an advertorial for a beauty product has that 'look'.

I think it's always been the case that in the race to achieve that look a lot of beginners stumble over the 'quick fixes' and absorb them as the foundation of their workflow, and it looks bloody awful. I've wanted to write more articles for years, but I've seen so much poor implementation of technique that I'm going to lay each one out with enough caveats for the reader to know I will beat them with a hefty stick if they cut corners

[JoeyO]

Re: Beginner's IHP Skin Smoothing Guide

I agree with dmeadows; smoothing skin is a long processes. I typically use about 20 different layers. Also when I was in high school I also used a gausant blur with a massive radios. I never used masks and it was so damaging to my photo. But I'm not so naive now.