Portrait Processing

Marc

Marc

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The photo on the left is after simple processing in Elements from the RAW file. The one on the right was put through Portrait Professional. I know I've posted similar before, but that was an extreme example, this is more subtle. Does it work?

DSC06454.jpg
DSC06454_pp.jpg


TFL
 
Yes apart from her INCISORS, .......narrr whats up Doc?
 
Well she is a lot less shiny in the right hand shot... but her face looks rather like its made of rubber. :shrug:
 
fabs said:
Hmm, I just did a comparison at 160% and cant really see a difference. :thinking: :shrug:
Click to expand...

look at the bottom lip to bottom of teeth gap ---- the teeth have grown.

The skin is glamour style and thats what this software does.
 
I think you may be better off using the Photoshop technique of layer masks and Gaussian blur. The skin tone looks to fake to me on this model, let alone the teeth / lips anomalies
 
Marc, I think the problem with this is that the lighting/makeup has already resulted in a shiney skin and this software is just making it even more so.:)

I'd tend to stick to Elements for more control (as the previous poster mentioned) for this particular image .

I'm not a big fan of the plastic fantastic look and like to keep some skin texture.

This was done in Elements using just its own features.

Orig
74736238.jpg


After Elements
74736237.jpg
 
Chappers said:
I think you may be better off using the Photoshop technique of layer masks and Gaussian blur. The skin tone looks to fake to me on this model, let alone the teeth / lips anomalies
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I use Elements which doesn't have Layer Masks.

Paul-S said:
Marc, I think the problem with this is that the lighting/makeup has already resulted in a shiney skin and this software is just making it even more so.:)

I'd tend to stick to Elements for more control (as the previous poster mentioned) for this particular image .

I'm not a big fan of the plastic fantastic look and like to keep some skin texture.
Click to expand...

Can you tell me what you did in Elements? I used Portrait Professional because of the automated features and slide adjusters. I have very unsteady hands and often struggle with mouse control on these images.
 
DiddyDave said:
I use PPro quite a lot, it's ace when used subtly - and fun when used OTT sometimes too

The lighting on the image is the problem in your first attempt, not the PP IMO

DD
Click to expand...

Thanks DD. The lighting was set up by the chairman of the club and, as it was my first time with studio lighting, I assumed he knew best. the light was reflected using an umbrella on the right hand side, but on the left it was direct using a diffuser. Do you think it would have been better if the lighting had been reflected on the left hand side as well?
 
I'm not a fan of using 2 lights unless it really adds to the image, and here it doesn't

It's hard to see which was supposed to be the Key light, or if they were supposed to be balanced. I'm guessing the light on the right should have been the key, in which case the left one is far too bright (and frankly unnecessary)

I wouldn't let our club President carry the lights in let alone set them up :lol:

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
I'm not a fan of using 2 lights unless it really adds to the image, and here it doesn't

It's hard to see which was supposed to be the Key light, or if they were supposed to be balanced. I'm guessing the light on the right should have been the key, in which case the left one is far too bright (and frankly unnecessary)

I wouldn't let our club President carry the lights in let alone set them up :lol:

DD
Click to expand...

Unfortunately they were his lights! :D

There were no other lights on in the hall, so would it not have been a bit too dark on the left with no lighting there at all?
 
Not necessarily, if the key light had been large & close enough it would 'wrap' light around the subject nicely with some light falling onto the background too

It's not a bad idea to use a fill light, but it's supposed to add a hint of light not blast the side of the subject's face off!

DD
 
Marc, first of do yourself a big favour and download and install the layer mask facility into your elements program, you can get it here.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/layermasktool.htm

Have you thought of using a tracker/rollerball mouse, as someone who has arthritus I find it inavalubale as it only needs your thumb to operate.:)

I also use the Kodak Digital Gem airbrush plugin sometimes but here is a link to a tut I did for that image using Elements.

http://www.pbase.com/paulsilkphotography/easy_basic_beauty_retouching_in_elements

Paul
 
Thanks for the link Paul. I didn't realise there was a Layer Mask plugin for Elements. :thumbs: Unfortunately I've just never got on with Trackerball mouse. My problem is that I have MS and have limited sensation in hands and fingers with the occasional spasm. It's just very fortunate that it doesn't affect the use of a camera. I will have a look at the Layer Masks and see how I go. For the moment I've decided to give Alex a print of the original.
 
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