Yet another entry into my deluge of amateurish photography attemps...

[gmonkeh]

I'm trying my amateurish best to find the best way to process skin. What do you guys think of this one? I used the degrunge technique (HighPass + Blur) with a little added twist of my own.

http://www.pbase.com/gmonkeh/image/77607487.jpg


:barb:barb:barb

[gefillmore]

I like it, but I'm no expert re skin/tone-

like the composition too-

and she's very pretty-

[Scott_Quier]

I am no expert on this stuff, but I do know a problem when I see it. In the PPed image, her skin has the texture I associate with orange peels. And, the texture is not uniform, but not in a way I would expect. It's strong in some places where I would expect to see it much smoother. Also, I see some color blotchiness in her skin tones, especially long her right cheek.

Overall, the texturing needs to be diminished quite a bit.

On the plus side, you did a really nice job of maintaining the light/shadow features, especially along her right cheekbone.

I think you have a really good start, it just needs some refinement.

[urbanaries]

i agree with scott, the pebbly texture is strange, and the blur edges along the forehead are too obvious. other than that I think the colors are better in the edited shot. you're pretty close. I love the shot!!! another successful shot of the "one eye love" :D

[gavin]

The best way i find to do skin, is apply an airbrush overlay of some kind. Doesn;t need to be much it just smoothes the skin out a tiny bit. Apply some noise, gives skin some texture, then apply some sepia to make it look more nateral.

There are manys ways to do it, this is just one way i do mine.

Gavin

[evoryware]

My only suggestion, I just feel like that diamond ring should be as sharp as her eye because it stands out in the picture.

[gmonkeh]

lol I did go overboard didn't I.

I like the texture though but I'm thinking I should do my dodging and burning "after" I do the skin smoothing so the parts of the skin that are supposed to be smooth remains smooth.

Thanks for the feedback guys/gals, really appreciate it.....

Lex

[dogwood]

Check out the book "Skin" by Lee Varis. It's all about this topic. He outlines one technique that you can create a PS action for and it's very subtle but also very good for smoothing skin. The catch is you'll need CS2 at least since it relies on smart blur, I believe.

[Ted Szukalski]

Skin is a tough subject. I view 100s of photographs a day. Many of them from top fashion and art photographers. The skin usually gets an airbrush like treatment and looses all texture. They usually nail the coulour 100% of the time. The end result - perhaps pleasing but never natural.

In this case I have to say both the colour and the texture are still off. Having said that I also have to say my Photoshop technique is not that great I'd probably end up with a plastic looking skin.

[dogwood]

Skin is a tough subject. I view 100s of photographs a day. Many of them from top fashion and art photographers. The skin usually gets an airbrush like treatment and looses all texture. They usually nail the coulour 100% of the time. The end result - perhaps pleasing but never natural.


Ted:

See my post above. The best trick I've seen is to use the emboss filter to add texture to help with the plastic look-- and I learned that trick from the book 'Skin'.

Here's a sample using one of the techniques from that book and the emboss filter (I don't have access to the original right now, or I'd post a before and after shot). Maybe I'm a little biased, but I think the post-processing work here looks fairly natural:
http://www.pbase.com/dogwood_digital/image/73495015.jpg