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New guy here with some advice needed...


Paulie1108

Active Member
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Just wanted to say hello to everyone and jump right in with some pictures to post and get advice. I am self teaching my self Photoshop using books and what ever videos I can find on line. My goal is to become a photo re-toucher for photographers and models. II know I have a long way to go but what do you think of these so far:
(I'm a big boy I can take constructive judgement well) So be honest...

Before
6262331601_bd0cd09e31_z.jpg

After
6262329885_5fb26239f5_z.jpg


My goal here was to try and keep her looking as natural as I can.
Method:
I made multiple layers and mask of her eyes and surrounding area and lighten some areas (pupil, iris) while darken others (eye lashes). I had to pain the makeup on to make the original color pop a little more. I also added some color to her with a variance layer.

My goal for the picture below was the same.
Before
6262856262_50d6648dae_z.jpg


After
6262329849_f6de0af88c_z.jpg
 

RedneckR0nin

Well-Known Member
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Not doing too bad at all man! There are many tools you can use to touch up blemishes and beauty marks! Such as the healing brush, smudge, Clone tool, and others! Start trying to use them all slowly but surrely and you find what works the best in certain situations!
 

Vafann

Guru
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I think you have done a really good job making her skin look natural, but it doesn´t look very flattering. Somehow the skin looks kind of thick and bumpy. The arms are really well done, and look very natural and have a healthy kind of glow, but the face is still a bit too coarse I think. I am no expert myself, and I couldn´t do it better, but I am just giving my initial observations. :)
 

Paulie1108

Active Member
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Not doing too bad at all man! There are many tools you can use to touch up blemishes and beauty marks! Such as the healing brush, smudge, Clone tool, and others! Start trying to use them all slowly but surrely and you find what works the best in certain situations!
Thanks I try not to use the smudge, or blur tools one photographer told me it all in the skin and not to make anything blurry fo when the pictures get blown up. I use the healing tool a lot for now. I'm going to try and learn the dodge and burn method this weekend.

@Vafann Yeah I know what you mean I think I need to adjust the lighting in light room to give the work some depth after retouching.
 

RedneckR0nin

Well-Known Member
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Thanks I try not to use the smudge, or blur tools one photographer told me it all in the skin and not to make anything blurry fo when the pictures get blown up. I use the healing tool a lot for now. I'm going to try and learn the dodge and burn method this weekend.

@Vafann Yeah I know what you mean I think I need to adjust the lighting in light room to give the work some depth after retouching.
I use them sometimes but I also have a ton of plugins and filter that will sharpen up a image pretty well! That is another trick of the trade!
 

Paulie1108

Active Member
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thanks I just noticed I had to darken the back ground on her...

BTW what are you using to calibrate the colors on your screen

6265479721_e2523eedbc_z.jpg
 

Hoogle

Guru
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I would point you to my own tutorials. it covers a lot of techniques and work flow of this work. I am the first to admit that the tutorial work is all over done I was overcompensating for the fact I thought it would not show up on video and as I had a new codec installed it did and B I was against time in making it as to not make the videos to long. However that said with the workflow everything can be adjusted to personal preference siply by lowering layer opacity.
http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/photoshop-tutorial-videos/33329-hoogles-workflow.html
I hope it helps
 

ibclare

Queen Bee
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Hoog's tutorial is good. I would like to add to the basic above comments that In the first touch up, I think her lips look better in the original. Somehow they look patchy and the luster is gone. Also, even though it is the lighting and color, the orangey shadowing, especially on the forehead, is distracting to me. But overall it's pretty good.
 

Hoogle

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If I was to touch this up as a portrait this is what I would do apart from I am assuming you have the default forum layout with white background so the border that is a dirty white would be actualy crisp white as you will see in the psd but it was just so you can see it on the forum. I have also included my psd to show you the steps I would take. It is actually a hard picture to touch up on.
Hoogle touch up.jpgView attachment Hoogle touch up.psd
You would also possibly like to remove some of the highlights from mouth to nose but I left them there as not to alter the original to much
 

Paulie1108

Active Member
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If I was to touch this up as a portrait this is what I would do apart from I am assuming you have the default forum layout with white background so the border that is a dirty white would be actualy crisp white as you will see in the psd but it was just so you can see it on the forum. I have also included my psd to show you the steps I would take. It is actually a hard picture to touch up on.
View attachment 9937View attachment 9938
You would also possibly like to remove some of the highlights from mouth to nose but I left them there as not to alter the original to much

That's really good and a lot better than I can do. If you were to do a models portfolio would you use the liquify filter as it enlarges the eyes and mouth a little, don't model want to stay as natural as possible?
Your work flow are very complicated to me right now but I will enjoy learning them.

Here is a picture i'm practicing on now but having trouble with her left eye as it so dark in that corner.
6267604635_e6bca13990_z.jpg


Your work is great you think you could make a step by step using this picture I'm really interested in how you fix the upper left side of her face.
 

Hoogle

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The Lipstick Fetish Forum • View topic - Fashion Models Closeups to Retouch-:00
Very good images for practise on for future reference.
As to the liquify tool it is probably the most used tool in makeover and model touch up the trick is though to spend some time on it and do it properly so it looks natural you have to remember the people viewing the image will not be flicking from original to make over so they should not notice it being done in fact they should not really notice what photoshop has been done. Yes keep it looking natural btut I have done work that keeps it looking natural but if you put original and after next to each other it looks totally overdone but if it is the first version you see it looks totally natural.

As to my workflow I probably make it look worse than it is because everything is none destructive I am not actually editing the picture I am editing layers above the the picture that way you get a lot more control over the effect you can change the blending modes of the layers and the opacity.and everything I do if I know I am saving the psd thenI can always come back at a later date and change some of my editing if I do not like it later on. If you spend sometimes hours editing a picture you loose track of what looks good and what does not so you have to leave it and come back to it later to double check it before sending it of for publishing or print.

Touch up is 1 of the hardest things to learn you have to do a lot more work to make it look natural . But this is why a lot of photoshoppers can be making $20,000 a week or even a day just touching up celebrity pictures before they go to print. If you really want to get into it on a serious level learn the hard techniques and keep doing it until you get it right. My workflow in the tutorials I did looks complicated and scary at first but I have done 100s of makeovers etc so I know that some of the early touch up stages make the picture look worse but I know that when that is combined with later editing it all comes together. but learn to clone and spot heal on an empty layer sampling all layers box checked that is the best advice I can give once you have edited the original and later on you do not like it you have to start again, If it is on its own layer you can just erase ot with the eraser or lower the layer opacity.
Best tip would be build up your image dont try and do everything in 1 stage use brushes of 10/50% opacity and build up the effects etc. and use the soft brushes rather than hard edges. I will also at some point be doing a tutorial on finishing touches ie fake eyelashes digital makeup and eye\hair colour change.
 

Hoogle

Guru
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That my friend is down to you play around you will soon see the areas you are struggling with then just do as much research and tutorials you can find ie blemish removal have a look at every different technique that you think is available find which method works best for you maybe incorporate 2 or 3 techniques. Spot removal tool is great but is it always the best method. ??????
 

Vafann

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That's really good and a lot better than I can do. If you were to do a models portfolio would you use the liquify filter as it enlarges the eyes and mouth a little, don't model want to stay as natural as possible?
Your work flow are very complicated to me right now but I will enjoy learning them.

Here is a picture i'm practicing on now but having trouble with her left eye as it so dark in that corner.
6267604635_e6bca13990_z.jpg


Your work is great you think you could make a step by step using this picture I'm really interested in how you fix the upper left side of her face.

I think face skin on this one is very good! She looks natural and has a lovely porcelaine type skin thing going on. You are moving in the right direction with this one I think.
 

Hoogle

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go to image>adjustments>levels slide the middle arrow to the left slightly until you can just start to see the eye
then create a new empty layer
go to edit > fill in the drop down menu choose 50% gray
in the layers panel where it says normal at the top change that blending mode to soft light
Now select the dodge tool with these settings
Capture.PNG
with a soft brush paint around the eye you may need 2 or 3 passes.
If it then comes up to bright set your layer opacity to about 65% or to the effect you need
I have applied a photo warming filter adjustment layer to do this go to layer >new adjustment layer> photofilter click ok on the layer name
And with just these steps yu will get this you will however need to touch up the skin around the eye as it does look like she has a bit of a black eye from the shadow
6267604635_e6bca13990_z.png
 
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Great Work Man. I love the touch ups, It is always fun to see how someone can take an image of a person with pimples and other skin problems and then transform them into someone with almost no skin problems at all and it looks real.
 
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it may be a matter of what the model wants or the photographer, but a lot of folks would prefer to leave a beauty mark or two...
nice job on taking them out tho and the eye lines too...
(is that a big whisker on her chin?)... :)
 

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