How to recreate this matte effect

[iwander]

It looks like very simple lighting, however playing around with the tone curves I'm unable to come anywhere near this effect.




These are not my photos, they can be found at: http://jeffreymosierphotography.com/

Im going a roadtrip soon so I'm really trying to reverse engineer these (and learn a buttload along the way).

I have a few raw files that I've taken with different lighting in order to work on them but I can't seem to upload CR2 files here.

 

[Tom Mann]

Reducing imperfections in a subject's skin, ie, one aspect of "retouching a photo" is an art that demands years of experience to do well.

I'm not sure why one might think that adjusting the tonal curves should give you the desired smoothing effect. Photoshop tools like "curves", as well as "levels", "contrast / brightness", "vibrance", "hue / saturation", and all the others found in the "adjustment layer" menu only derive the new value of the pixel from the old value of the same pixel, with no regard whatsoever to the RGB value of neighboring pixels. On the other hand, all the blurring, healing, cloning, patching, high pass filtering, and related tools determine the new value of each pixel by considering the values of other pixels in the image. This is what is needed is needed to "fix" skin, and you will likely see skin "smoothing" tutorials based on each of the tools I just mentioned.

Probably the most frequently suggested automated approach is to make a copy of the image, blur it, and then add in a part of the blurred version to the original using various blending modes as well as the opacity and Blend_IF sliders. Unfortunately, while simple, this approach is one of the worst because to get enough of a smoothing effect, one almost always makes the skin look like plastic.

At the other end of the spectrum of automated approaches are the "frequency separation" methods. The theory behind these is complicated, but the results are well worth it. To read more about this family of methods, Google {chrisdesign frequency separation sitehotoshopgurus.com}, but I suggest you not start with these unless you are already quite familiar with PS.

Professional, high-end retouchers almost always use a combination of methods -- manual removal of major skin problems followed by an automatic method like frequency separation to give the pores just the right level of visibility.

I'm sure other folks will chime in with their thoughts on the subject.

The best of luck,

Tom M

 

[iwander]

Reducing imperfections in a subject's skin, ie, one aspect of "retouching a photo" is an art that demands years of experience to do well.

I'm not sure why one might think that adjusting the tonal curves should give you the desired smoothing effect. Photoshop tools like "curves", as well as "levels", "contrast / brightness", "vibrance", "hue / saturation", and all the others found in the "adjustment layer" menu only derive the new value of the pixel from the old value of the same pixel, with no regard whatsoever to the RGB value of neighboring pixels. On the other hand, all the blurring, healing, cloning, patching, high pass filtering, and related tools determine the new value of each pixel by considering the values of other pixels in the image. This is what is needed is needed to "fix" skin, and you will likely see skin "smoothing" tutorials based on each of the tools I just mentioned.

Probably the most frequently suggested automated approach is to make a copy of the image, blur it, and then add in a part of the blurred version to the original using various blending modes as well as the opacity and Blend_IF sliders. Unfortunately, while simple, this approach is one of the worst because to get enough of a smoothing effect, one almost always makes the skin look like plastic.

At the other end of the spectrum of automated approaches are the "frequency separation" methods. The theory behind these is complicated, but the results are well worth it. To read more about this family of methods, Google {chrisdesign frequency separation sitehotoshopgurus.com}, but I suggest you not start with these unless you are already quite familiar with PS.

Professional, high-end retouchers almost always use a combination of methods -- manual removal of major skin problems followed by an automatic method like frequency separation to give the pores just the right level of visibility.

I'm sure other folks will chime in with their thoughts on the subject.

The best of luck,

Tom M

I'm a little confused - I'm aware of retouching skin and frequency seperation. I'm more interested in the matte effect - the color correction here.

 

[Tom Mann]

Ahh ... we obviously have a major difference in terminology.

Google defines "matte" as meaning without a shine, and that's also how I use the term, including the reduction of oily, near specular reflections from skin while preserving the texture and color, certainly not any aspect of changing the color of an area.

WRT post processing, I will often try to achieve a "matte" look by using the patch (and possibly, the clone / stamp) tool to blend the area with the surrounding skin, as these tools best preserve texture and color. This is why I regard such work as part of retouching, not just simple color correction, or even color grading, and certainly not a tonal adjustment.

Tom M

 

[Paul]

Smooth a little (skin) then play with sliders, quick fix is a new layer with a picked colour from the image you wish to make look matte then adjust opacity maybe?

 

[mdyusuf]

If you need matte look by using the patch (and possibly, the clone / stamp) too there are no other way to achieve matte looks.