Problematic skin - Retouching

Barks

Barks

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Name
Paul
Edit My Images
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I did a TF shoot with a local model last Friday, the shoot went well and she was a really good, experienced and easy to work with model, who I'd like to work with again. The only problem is that she's not got the best skin in the world and I've struggled to get it to a point where she's happy with the look. I'll add the original and edit to where I'm up to so far with the retouching below.

I usually only really retouch with frequency separation and only resort to airbrushing as a last resort, and usually to deal with uneven skin tones/colours that frequency separation has not quite been able to sort out but with this photo I've had to basically airbrush in an whole new skin for her, as in Freq Sep there really wasn't any clear patches of texture to work with and although she is now happy with the results I still think it looks too "plasticky" so I'm wondering if any of you guys can give me any tips, tricks or inspiration to help make PP on this girls images any quicker easier.

I will say that this was shot at around 1pm, in probably the worst light possible so that hasn't helped the poor girls skin. I shouldn't have shot her really but both she and the MUA were both available at the same time and on a day where it wasn't lashing it down so I decided to shoot and make the best of it. Lesson learned, won't be doing that again.

Lastly, what do you think of my "end result", is it as unrealistic as I think it is or am I just being too harsh on the end result and my retouching skills?

Original:

Original by Paul Barker Photography, on Flickr

Edited:

Edited by Paul Barker Photography, on Flickr
 
^^ what she said. You could also try adding skin texture back in, (not necessarily hers), but at this res its hard to tell.

There's a section near her nose which could do with some work.

Overrall it looks pretty good, but as Kerioak said its hard to tell at this level
 
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Have you tried the gaussian blur/layer mask thing?
 
Kerioak said:
It is difficult to see clearly at this size, I cannot think of any fast options that will not leave you with a plastic like skin - although you could try adding grain after to mimic pores as that "might" give a less plastic effect

To do a thorough skin retouch - pore by pore - can take me hours
Click to expand...

I think that's pretty much the answer I was looking for really, I just wanted to check that nobody had any other tips or anything that might help me get there a bit quicker. If this was a paid job where I was charging for the retouch I'd gladly put the time in to get it looking as I'd like it but at the moment I just don't have the time to do a 2 day retouch on each photo she wants and I'm not about to pay for a retoucher to do it for me.

This may be a case of getting the models' approval and settling for that.
 
TheDrift- said:
^^ what she said. You could also try adding skin texture back in, (not necessarily hers), but at this res its hard to tell.

There's a section near her nose which could do with some work.

Overrall it looks pretty good, but as Kerioak said its hard to tell at this level
Click to expand...

This still a work in progress, there's several issues yet to be addressed. The skin layer I made up consists of a dust and scratches filter, gaussian blur filter and an add noise filter. I might try making up another one with a bit more noise added to it and see how that looks.

In all honesty I'm thing of contacting the model and MUA and seeing we can arrange a reshoot in more flattering light. As an overall process I think that might be quicker.

Just trying to thing of a better way of putting it than can we reshoot because your skin looks bad, that might not go down too well ;)

As for the resolution of the images I put on Flickr, these are the agreed sizes and res (1200px long edge and 72dpi) for supplying her digital copies.
 
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I quite like your end result. I don't think it looks bad at all at this res.

Coincidentally, the free tutorial on Creative Live this week is all about skin. You might find something in there for you.
 
Thanks for that, I guess it's not too bad in the grand scheme of things and it's quite possible that I'm a bit down on it as it goes against the grain in terms of how far I'd go in terms of the whole "flawless skin" look by my personal taste.
 
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