retaining skin detail

rockfall

rockfall

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Name
Tony
Edit My Images
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Hi, whenever i retouch an image i use the healing/patch/clone tools but i always lose the detail in the skin.

what techniques do people use? i noticed a dodge and burn method but im not quite sure how it works.

any expert photoshoppers out there?
 
First question is what are you trying to achieve.

I'm not a great fan of the healing tool and tend to prefer different techniques depending on the desired effect.

If you could post a sample of the images you are tying to correct and what it is you are trying to do that would help
 
rockfall said:
what techniques do people use? i noticed a dodge and burn method but im not quite sure how it works.
Click to expand...

Step into my office...

D&B is an umbrella term for retouching methods that lighten / darken areas of the skin, to blend the skin tones and eliminate the blemishes. It's not easy, or quick, and is very suited to working with a tablet.

It takes time, practice and patience, but once you've cracked it, you'll never look back.

Lots of methods, examples of what you can use are:


2 Curve layers, one lighten, one darken, mask them out then reveal as needed. Favoured by Carrie Beene, Amy Mann, Gry Garness

http://everythingsmagic.deviantart.com/art/Dodge-and-burn-tutorial-124450837

Or

New layer, blend to soft light, set to 50% grey. then paint on with white or black as needed. Used by Amy Mann, Gry Garness


Or

New layer, blend to soft light, set to 50% grey, then paint on with light or dark skin tones. Got this from Chris Tarantino, don't know who else uses it.

( I actually use all 3 of these)

Or

New layer, blend to soft light, set to 50% grey, then dodge and burn

Cloning and healing is always on a new layer, with the tool set to current & below.

I avoid the healing tool as much as possible, but do use the clone tool. However, when I use these tool they're set up to take advantage of pen pressure, set to airbrush, and usually at about 10% flow.

On skin, with either clone stamp, or heal tool I'll set them to clone on either lighten or darken (never on normal), this only replaced the pixels I want replaced. Got this from Carrie Beene.


Results of the above methods

Before

20080526_IMGP2819_1.jpg


After

20080526_IMGP2819_Edit_1.jpg


Buy this book just for the last chapter.

Or get this ebook
 
thank you, that is just what i am looking for.

i just had a quick go at the curve layers and ended up with a face load of white dots.

to get rid of spots, moles etc am i still supposed to use the clone tool or is the curve layer method able to do this?

thanks again for the help and links.
 
Go gently with the curves, don't be too aggresive you're only trying to lighten the skin tone to match the overall level.

Also set your brush to a low opacity ( 10%) if you're using a mouse as flow is only relevant to tablets. You can go back over it repeatedly if needed.

If I get time in the next few days I'll try recording a basic 101 tutorial to show the settings etc. Busy travelling at the moment.
 
thank you for that

one other question, does anyone know if there is a website where i can use high res portrait images to practice on?
 
JasonRS

your examples and resources are really helpful and exactly the area I was looking at.
Typically on a D&B headshot like the one you posted above how long is spent on the actual D&B?
Also can you recommend brush size and opacity settings for both Dodging and Burning? (Presuming you have a size for each step)

one other question is the curves for each... do you have set values you normally use or is this based on the exposure of the image only.

Thanks!
 
The only real way is to do it pixel by pixel and it takes hours. I zoom in to pixel-grid level, and I darken every highlight and lighten every shadow until everything is 50/50
 
oli said:
JasonRS

your examples and resources are really helpful and exactly the area I was looking at.
Typically on a D&B headshot like the one you posted above how long is spent on the actual D&B?
Also can you recommend brush size and opacity settings for both Dodging and Burning? (Presuming you have a size for each step)

one other question is the curves for each... do you have set values you normally use or is this based on the exposure of the image only.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The whole of the image above took about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. D&B probably took an hour of that.

Brushes...
No fixed size, I'll work with the screen at 100-200% and adjust the brush size as I work.
I use a tablet, so work with flow set at 10%, if you're using a mouse leave flow at 100% and set opacity to 10% and brush away the mask gently.

Curves for each are done for each image. I'll just pull the curve enough to lighten out the dark areas.

I've recorded 3 short demo / tutorials to cover my initial 3 step process, just the like what I've done on the image above, but with a new image.
They're not the best production quality (I need to redub them!) but I'll get them onto YouTube sometime today, and worry about redoing the video another time.

I quickly cover:

Colour adjustment
Cloning
Dodge & Burn with curves

It would be good to get some feedback on them, so I can refine the tutorial, and also see if I've missed explaining anything!!
 
My demo's are currently uploading to YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/JasonShootsPeople

I've converted them to HD movies, so they'll take a while, but they'll appear here.
I will redub them when I get time, and find the right tool for the job!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/JasonShootsPeople

This is the image I worked on. It's only had a quick treatment, probably totalling an hour. If this were being printed, I'd spend much more time on it.
It's certainly far from perfect, the brow needs more work to even the tones, and it needs localised colour correction in areas such as under the eyes.

Before

tutorial%20-%20before.jpg


After

tutorial%20-%20after.jpg


I've also provided a smaller version of the .psd files, so you can see the layers involved in this for yourselves.

http://gallery.jasonsouthern.com/RT/tutorial.psd

There is a Group / Layer called Finish which needs to be turned off so you can see the effect of each layer. The finish layer is a flattened layer which contains a whole series of finishes, which take about 10-20 minutes, but take up huge amounts of space!! If you don't turn the layer off, you'll not see anything happen when you toggle the other layers!!
 
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