Photoshop question concerning Skin Tones

[jchooper12]

I am really wanting to figure out how to recreate this particular style of skin tones. Do you photoshop guru's have a clue to how this can be accomplished in Photoshop?
Please post directions if you know.

Here is the photographers site
http://www.tjweddings.com/placeholder.html
Go to the Galleries/Weddings or Portraits link and look at the various photos, the photos I like ar ethe ones where the face is kinda pastel looking and really smooth. Please please help, I would like to do this to some photos I will be taking soon.


Thanks

[cnoise]

from the Photogragher:
Q: Your images have a very unique look--the composition and lighting is great--but I have never seen that glowing feel or the ethereal colors...how do you capture that?

A: I wish there was a really simple answer that I could give you, but it is a combination of 18 years of lighting, camera technique and digital imaging that go into my images. To help you develop your own style, let me tell you about my image philosophy first. What I am doing is trying to reproduce what I felt at the wedding, not just what was seen by everyone. The literal documenting of the wedding doesn't take radically uncommon talent given today's camera technology. The energy, the love and the connections between people, the smallest detail are all very important but easily missed if the photographer is not dedicated to going beyond reproducing, but finding and creating images that tell the complete story. The point is no camera/software/plugin/printer maker is going to know your vision better than you, so why take their version of a look or feel, after all, they are engineers first, not story tellers or image makers.

I guess this goes without saying, but like to start with an image that has an interesting composition and lighting. For me, a small light source close to the lens is my least favorite, so I really try to avoid on camera or bracket flash. I use a combination of filtering at the lens and custom white balance so that I capture a file that is close to infra-red but still has the full spectrum of visible light and color so I can make a "normal" looking image. The next step goes into the 3D world of animation. Maya and some others can work directly with HDRI files (high dynamic range images, which will be used in the next generation of digital cameras instead of RAW) , where you break an image down to it's elements, the image is separated into its lighting information, reflection, color shaders and density. I apply this principal to work on the image in black and white, get the image the way I want by creating a series of channels and layers to reduce contrast in some areas and increase it in others to direct the eye through the image. Then I bring very selective elements of the color back on a series of layers where I think it is important.

A lot of people ask about plug-ins, I started doing digital imaging on a $1.2 million quantel paintbox in the 1980s, the software was very limited and there were no plug-ins or actions, which really taught me to think like a painter, I had to rely on my "inner plug-in" which is still my preference. It is fun to look at all the plug-ins and actions today, but the only one I use is quantum mechanics, a huge time saver for reducing digital noise (or film grain if you are scanning) info can be found at http://www.camerabits.com/pages/QM2.html

Hope this helps

[jchooper12]

I saw that but was hoping somone with photoshop could show me a way to replicate this look and feel.

[Duffy Pratt]

The photographer is awfully full of himself. What is it that you admire so much about the skin tones? Is it the near total loss of detail?, or the selective blown portions to exaggerate lighting that wasn't really there? There are some fine pictures on the website, but personally the one thing I wouldn't emulate from here is the skin treatment.

Duffy

[jchooper12]

I like what the overall photos look like with the editing style. I don't really care who the photographer is but I do like the style. My preference, so if you would read the original post and provide some positive feedback and maybe a solution to how this can be done in photoshop that would be great, otherwise I don't care about comments like this. Stick to the topic at hand. Thanks!!!

[Michelle Allmon]

wow, there are some really nice pictures on there. i had to bookmark it.
sorry i can't answer your question but thank you for pointing me to that website!

[jchooper12]

So has anyone figured out how to do this in Photoshop?

[adirty1]

no need to be rude.

I agree that the highlights are blown or very lacking in details. Now is that what you want to try and recreate? Or are you trying to capture the feeling of the image. If your looking to capture the feeling of the image no PS trick is going to do that. the shooter needs to get the image right in camera.

Now for the lighting do just what the photographer was talking about. go into the channels and play around. I dont want tell you everything because i have spent 20 years doing it and it's my style... dah.

If you desat the image to where it's almost black and white that brings in the the whole dream like feeling. He doesnt use it on all the images just the ones that will work. the asian girl has great skin to start with there are a couple brides that he did his almost cross over process with ill effect. the brides skin turned way cyan.

One last thing that will give his almost 3d effect that he threw in Maya about. It's sharpning on multi levels and channels. Play around with the red channel and you will see that you can sharpen just about all the image and most of the facial effects will not be over sharpened. now if you go to the green channel and do the same thing then your going to sharpen all the facial effects. after that channel sharpning you can flatten the image and sharpen with unsharp mask and than you might want to sharpen with smart sharpen. all in all you can get the image so sharp that it looks like it was shot with film... I know I shot with a tripod or i have the best L glass. Dah. try it and you will see that your images are not that sharp. If you want very detailed directions on how to do the layer and channel sharpening i can get those to ya later this week. thats one thing i noticed is that his image is sharp but then he blurs selective.

now if you want to smooth out skin then photographer tells you what he uses. or you could use any other noise reduction software.

[Alyson]

The other day I was playing and when I desaturated the yellow channel I found my skin tones got pastel. Just something to play with.

[jchooper12]

Great ideas.

[Jezebel]

I could definitely replicate his style - but I wouldn't know how to explain to someone how to do it themselves. He's using a lot of the same techniques that I use in some of my own imagery. I think that subtle vignetting combined with level adjustments, saturation adjustments, and filters like "diffuse glow" are a part of the formula. But there is probably a dozen ways to arrive at the same end result.