How does this photoghrapher make skin gothic white, vivid and like porcelain?

bells

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Bella
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Hello all,
I hope this is the right place to post this. I've been trying for a long time to figure out how to edit my portraits like this photographer (who is also the model). It's not so much about the airbrushing as the brightening of the skin to a gothic-porcelain white while keeping the whole image vivid, bright and completely even - there's no evidence of mismatched or blurred edges, it's almost like they've been painted rather than photographed! I know she starts with a stunning model and light makeup/pale skin (I also use white makeup). She uses natural light I believe. But the processing seems far superior to anything I've managed myself, and as editing is my weak point anyway I was hoping for some guidance i.e. relevant tutorials, tips or programs that might help me get this kind of result.
Thanks
Bels


http://auriethepixie.deviantart.com/art/Whisper-106650233

http://auriethepixie.deviantart.com/art/Lifelines-of-Depths-83201771

http://auriethepixie.deviantart.com/art/Storm-Born-98553718
 
It's a self portrait, so an email to her, saying you think she looks stunning. might do the trick ;)
 
They look very pp'd to me, they've had some form of blur run over them, especially around the eyes and lips. That may be due to deviantart compressing / resizing the image, but it looks like blur to me.

Anyhow,

She may well be naturally pale. In CS4 you can relatively easily pull out certain tones with the hue / sat to make the skin much paler, and then mask accordingly.

Then using colour select tool, select a skin tone, and use that mask for a solid colour layer which you set really pale (e.g 250,250,250) and adjust opacity to suit.

I'll dig out an extreme example of this later, right now I'm stuck in an airport waiting for a flight :(
 
On the first one you can see at the side of the nose there is powder. I'd say the same as Hopkin, part makeup, part curves adjustment. She does have beautiful eyes :)
 
A little diffuse glow on the face will have a similar-ish effect
 
You could also use the local adjustment tool in Lightroom and ACR to desaturated the skin tones. I think it is part complexion, make up and a bit of PP.

Also you could do it layer masks as well. Come to think of it there are several ways to achieve the same result.
 
i would say thay she has whited her skin out slightly with makeup, curves adjustment to make the skin pop, but i definately think there is a lot of blurring on the 2nd in particular, either a blur filter or something similar.
 
On the edit she actually states she has brightened it.
She does have pale skin tones, curves adjustment again and yes, beautiful eyes.
 
Thanks everyone,
Yes, she is pale and red headed naturally. I'm also very pale, but my skin and all the surrounding colour never 'pops' like that in photos, with or without makeup. I've also notived that all her other models when in closeup have equally pale skin, which they don't in real life. It's so seamless it's really impressive, I'll have to keep working on it. Thanks especialy for the skin tone tips JasonRS I'll try those on my portraits.
Bels
 
Even with quite a tanned skintone you can lift it to very pale with a dodge & burn technique, a little hue / sat and then the solid colour layer

e.g.

from this



to this (ignoring the obvious background swap)



You can click the links above and go see them much bigger too.

There's a video demo / tutorial of a D&B technique here.

It's a variation of the method I now use, but there are so many different techniques that you just need to find one that suits.
 
levels work the red and the luminace channels for the skin then just paint tone back in with a layer mask
 
lotta make up, the right skin, the right other stuff (cloths BG ect) and curves.

If you look nothing else is a skin tone in the image so the tone can be selected and made whiter without interfering with anything else, though it looks like it was close already

what editing software do you use

could you post a similar pic of yourself so we could explain that way

also an element of this is lighting
 
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