Critique First attempt at retouching skin

Noah_

Noah_

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Ashly
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Had a rare day off of work & thought it'd be an opportunity to do something creative & a decent excuse to play with my recently purchased Canon 85mm f/1.2L II!

For a few years I've done the odd retouching to my own satisfaction but for a while I've been eager to master retouching skin. After reading about a variety of techniques I figured I might just attempt all the different ones. Today was my first ever attempt to properly focus on retouching skin & I chose to experiment with the Surface Blur filter in Photoshop.

This is what I produced. What do you honestly think?

View attachment 8356

For anyone who may ask:
ISO 100, f/1.2, 1/200, Neutral, WB 7200K.
Canon 5D MKII & Canon 85mm f/1.2L II
Photoshop CS4
 
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Original photograph:
View attachment 8357

I find my own skin a challenge & so thought the best person to practise different techniques on would be myself.

Oh & please note the shallow DOF is due to my being over excited by my new f/1.2 lens! I barely registered whether this was correctly exposed or not before I began shooting. Please critique on the retouching only!
 
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Not sure if you have Lightroom? If you have I would look at the brushing technique & it's drop down menu which included skin softening.

Also I would in LR use the heal brush to improve various marks.

I used the above ways to retouch hundreds of shots from my daughters wedding after searching YouTube with tutorials.

I find your attempt leaves me thinking that it looks like a mask & very unnatural. Forgive me I feel so guilty talking about your face.

It is so long I tried doing this in PS I can't remember off hand but it would never have been surface blur as I am a believer in brushing whatever programme.

Good luck (y)
 
DayDreamer said:
Not sure if you have Lightroom? If you have I would look at the brushing technique & it's drop down menu which included skin softening.
Also I would in LR use the heal brush to improve various marks.
I used the above ways to retouch hundreds of shots from my daughters wedding after searching YouTube with tutorials.
I find your attempt leaves me thinking that it looks like a mask & very unnatural. Forgive me I feel so guilty talking about your face.
It is so long I tried doing this in PS I can't remember off hand but it would never have been surface blur as I am a believer in brushing whatever programme.
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Thanks for the honest critique, it does look like a mask!
I'm going to attempt different techniques for retouching skin & I quite agree with the comment, I found it with the tutorials on Surface Blur before I attempted it but always thought that perhaps it had been overdone, it seems that this is just the resultant effect by that filter. I'd take on board that advice but I paid for Photoshop (when CS4 was still the current version haha) & can't afford Lightroom... Luckily for me though, I just do this for a hobby & don't ever need to batch process!

Don't worry about feeling guilty about any comments on my face haha I purposely selected this photograph to practise on.

I'll probably just post all my experiments in here so let me know if any later retouching attempts are improved :coffee:
 
I'll take a look tomorrow at my CS4 to see if I can remember how I would have done it before Lightroom.

Good luck with your research :)
 
Kieron Nevison said:
Just too heavy with the technique. Try to reduce the opacity on the layer with the softening on.
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I took that on board, cheers.

I've tried again with only a little dabbling with the Surface Blur applied to the out of focus area's. I introduced a different technique this time as well.

Firstly, I used the healing & spot healing brushes to remove redness in the skin tone. I then applied the surface blur filter to a new layer at 62% opacity on the out of focus areas of the face. I then referred to a tutorial & created an overlay layer with 50% opacity. Using the dodge tool at 4% exposure I went over the uneven skin in this layer. I found it smoothed visible pores altho I'm yet to decide if I prefer the results.

I'll add the new image as I think it's improved a little but it just still doesn't look right to me, especially that area on the chin. I'll keep experimenting.

View attachment 8368
 
daugirdas said:
It is hardly worth retouching an out of focus portrait. Right eye out is out of focus, and the light is not the best for her either.
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This photograph was taken to be a challenge for me to retouch skin on, purposely taken to be, honestly, rather unflattering for learning purposes. The girl is me in 100% natural light wearing no make up & what I hope is a neutral expression. I aforementioned my overexcitement with my new lens too, this is hardly portfolio worthy work. I could practise on a different photograph but this one showed the most imperfections. I'm here to ask critique on the retouching, not light & focus.

Thanks for your interest regardless. :coffee:
 
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I still think the skin retouching is overdone on this one.

I can see your (flawed) logic choosing a photo with exaggerated imperfections to practice on, but it's flawed because the end result isn't pleasing. So has the retouching worked?

You don't know. It's certainly smoothed the skin, but none of us can tell if it's right because of your choice of image.

To be honest, skin smoothing in this way is 99% always overdone! once photographers learn how to make skin 'perfect' they forget how human beings look. They often start aiming for perfect eyes teeth and skin and lose the ability to show an image of a human being.
 
Phil V said:
I still think the skin retouching is overdone on this one.

I can see your (flawed) logic choosing a photo with exaggerated imperfections to practice on, but it's flawed because the end result isn't pleasing. So has the retouching worked?

You don't know. It's certainly smoothed the skin, but none of us can tell if it's right because of your choice of image.

To be honest, skin smoothing in this way is 99% always overdone! once photographers learn how to make skin 'perfect' they forget how human beings look. They often start aiming for perfect eyes teeth and skin and lose the ability to show an image of a human being.
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I'm going to agree with Phil on this one; It's difficult to isolate the retouching from the image as you can only really judge whether it works or not in the context of the overall picture. What's 'overdone' for one, might be just right for another. For example, portrait lit with strong directional harsh lighting would look 'odd' if the skin was too smooth, where as a high key portrait could perhaps withstand a little more smoothing.

That said, I'd pull it back even further on this one and err on the side of under processing, keeping some of both the texture and colour of the original.
 
I think you should try opening in PS & use the retouch tools to get rid of the obvious blemishes, close & save, then open again as a RAW in Photoshop using the brush tool with clarity right to the far left -100, trying differing settings for flow & density. I don't have CS4 but have a trial of CS6 & assume there are similar tools in version 4.
 
Thanks for your time everyone, I'll take the suggestions on board.

I'd just like to state I'm not necessarily looking to acheive perfect skin, but blemish (spots, redness, etc) free skin would be wonderfu! I have never attempted to retouch skin properly before so every photograph I post in this thread is an experiment & a learning curve. I could re-edit a thousand photographs with no feedback & improve only a little. I've never asked for critique on Talk Photography before & have done so for this new challenge because I'm aware I look like a DOLL.

I think it's safe to assume the surface blur techniques are #!@?& hahaha. It's a shame that most tutorials suggest it. I'll research a few different techniques & try again when I haven't just crawled in from a 12 hour shift & I'll take a new photograph this time. I understand that this is an undesirable photograph & therefore probably unretouchable.. I'll keep my make up off again tho.. nothing to be learnt if all my natural blemishes are covered in the first place. If anyone has any suggestions or techniques they'd care to share I'd be pleased to hear them.. especially from someone experienced.
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DayDreamer said:
I think you should try opening in PS & use the retouch tools to get rid of the obvious blemishes, close & save, then open again as a RAW in Photoshop using the brush tool with clarity right to the far left -100, trying differing settings for flow & density. I don't have CS4 but have a trial of CS6 & assume there are similar tools in version 4.
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I'm unfamiliar with CS6 unfortunately but I have most of the tools the later versions of photoshop have. That's an idea I'll try next time, thanks!
 
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Perfect skin just doesn't exist so making someone look like that digitally makes the image look fake and lack character and charm. The edit is far better than the original version you tried, but I still think you've pushed it too far. Also trying to use blemish removing techniques on areas that have small shadows makes the image look quite flat, which again goes back to my original point of trying to keep the original charm of the portrait.
 
James J said:
Perfect skin just doesn't exist so making someone look like that digitally makes the image look fake and lack character and charm. The edit is far better than the original version you tried, but I still think you've pushed it too far. Also trying to use blemish removing techniques on areas that have small shadows makes the image look quite flat, which again goes back to my original point of trying to keep the original charm of the portrait.
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Of course, charm in a photograph is essential & I'm not looking to create perfect skin, only to retouch blemishes in the skin. I feel my lack of skill has resulted in comments based on the idea I'm trying to acheive doll-like skin.. I'm not. I just don't know what I'm doing when it comes to this. I hoped someone could shed a little light on how they tweak & retouch portraits with subjects bearing less than immaculate skin.

Thanks for the feedback, I definitely have still gone a little overboard with the edit! Last night was the first time I'd ever attempted to use those tools for that purpose. I hope to master the correct balance with the correct tools with practise. I'll re-shoot as soon as work commitments permit.
 
Vettahead said:
It's common when first doing this to overdo it and make the subject look like a doll, for a first go its well done just too much of it. Try using G the patch tool in photoshop. It keeps detail but can have help loads with skin.
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Thank you for the kind words. I've no experience working with the patch tool so that's something that I'll definitely look into!
 
Vettahead said:
It's pretty Easy, just draw around the are once the patch hope it selected, then drag the shape to a price if skin that's unblemished. That's it.
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Okay, I'll give it a try next time & I'll post the retouched photograph in here, see if I make any improvements haha.

I'm no professional so I have no clients but I know that I, the subject in this thread, much prefer the edit to the original! Just need to refine a technique that doesn't make me look like Barbie reincarnated haha.
 
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Noah_ said:
Of course, charm in a photograph is essential & I'm not looking to create perfect skin, only to retouch blemishes in the skin. I feel my lack of skill has resulted in comments based on the idea I'm trying to acheive doll-like skin.. I'm not. I just don't know what I'm doing when it comes to this. I hoped someone could shed a little light on how they tweak & retouch portraits with subjects bearing less than immaculate skin.

Thanks for the feedback, I definitely have still gone a little overboard with the edit! Last night was the first time I'd ever attempted to use those tools for that purpose. I hope to master the correct balance with the correct tools with practise. I'll re-shoot as soon as work commitments permit.
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Ah that makes more sense then! Sadly I've got no experience with photoshop so can't offer guidance with that as I only use lightroom and try to keep my editing to an absolute bare minimum! Looks like Vettahead has already sorted you out though! Goodluck mate.
 
Ashly,

My honest critique (I'm not massively experienced so I apologise if any of my advice sounds patronising). Personally speaking, it's too smooth, I can see others saying the same, try techniques with cloning & also split frequencies which I find help preserve the texture, I'd be interested to see a crop on the cheek in particular. Think, if you can't see pores or texture in the skin then in reality it's slightly overdone.

I'm not a massive fan of blurring for skin retouching, removing blemishes is one thing, but I find blurring techniques can give too much of a plastic or artificial look, that's why I prefer taking good bits & cloning them very delicately over the bad bits. You top it off then with a bit of dodge & burn to balance things out and that's how I'd do it.

To your credit I think the shading is spot on and you're on the right track. If there was texture and skin detail in the image I think it'd work a lot better.

Hope that's helpful.
 
Vettahead said:
Another good way is to cut out the face onto another layer overdo it then blend it by using the alpha channel.
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You can do a layer of the whole image, because the alterations you're making are local, you don't need to cut the face out.

My method; treat the blemishes as one job (usually clone tool). Then the wrinkles or bags under the eyes if necessary (patch tool) as the second job. Then finally the skin smoothing (I use an action for this, but the blur tool is really not appropriate). If you're going OTT you can finish off with the eye whitening/ sharpening. But all of it has to 'enhance' not obliterate. All of these done on new layers one at a time.

The trick is for the subject to not realise any thing has been done. You're just capturing the best version of them, not creating a plastic caricature.

But I'd be remiss not to mention that it starts with lighting posing and camera angle / focal length. Too many people believe you can shoot any old rubbish and then fix it in photoshop, or that using a top of the range camera and awesome lens will get them a 'great' image that needs photoshop to 'make it perfect'.
 
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