Skin Smoothing, C/C

[BeccaJ]

We were bored one day, and fiddling with our two lights that we're still obviously learning about (as in like, i think ive used them 3 times. haha)...Justin took the picture...but...ignore the picture itself and the messy hair, lol...id like to know what you think about the skin smoothing and overall processing.

Decided to try something different with skin, and figured this picture was as good as any to try it on... and the wall wasnt white, so i didnt want to make it white...i really need to get a card for white balance in the future...

[Thorpeland]

I think this is very well done. If you had just posted the picture on the right, I wouldn't have ever known. You left just enough detail in the skin to keep it from looking like a plastic face, but enough smoothing to hide any freckles or blemishes. Nice job.

[dhphoto]

I like the "after" photo. Did you use a program or action?

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Looks great. Nice job.

- Wil

[barP]

great job!

wp.

[J Eddington]

Looks good to me. Nice job

[klynam]

looks very natural at the size/resolution shown

[DeannaD]

Great job! Can you outline your steps?

[BeccaJ]

Thanks y'all! It's very simple...and im sure it's widely/commonly used...lol but it's a new way to me. ill see if i can post up the steps shortly...

here's a zoomed in larger version with some warmness added

[BeccaJ]

Basically:

-healing brush, get rid of blemishes
-clone tool, very low opacity, sometimes darken mode, get rid of shine
-duplicate layer
-remove dust & scratches, settings vary by size of picture, on my medium jpeg i think i used a 5, using layer mask to mask out needed area, merge down
-duplicate layer
-gaussian blur, settings vary by size of pic, i think i used between 4 & 5. Add noise to your liking. Use layer mask, merge layer down
-lower opacity to your liking, and i dont know what mine is, sorry

I used to just use the blur and a bit of noise, and it always looked to glowy fake to me

[klynam]

The only thing I'd add is a little brightness to the eyes, remove a couple more blemishes, straighten the front teeth just a little, and a little more punch overall. Great shot you have there!!!

[toverman]

I think the processed image looks nice.

If it were me, I'd want my freckles left in as I've earned every single one of them. They aren't blemishes, they're my heritage!

[BeccaJ]

Originally Posted by toverman

I think the processed image looks nice.

If it were me, I'd want my freckles left in as I've earned every single one of them. They aren't blemishes, they're my heritage!

.

Lol thanks. Well they are my freckles and I was just practicing. Next time I will practice keeping them more in tact tho for clients in the future :)

[texxter]

Well done, Rebecca!