Smooth skin!

Gary Bagshawe · 25-08-2006, 16:40

One of the problems I have had when photographing models is that they don't always have perfect skin, this also goes for portraits of people, I have tried different methods of achieving nice smooth skin, one method is to use gaussian blur but I have never been really satisfied with the results.
For this shot I used MEDIAN.

First of all I copied the entire layer and pasted onto a new one.
I then masked off the eyes.
Then from the drop down menu I selected filters-noise-median,
I used a value of 2 pixels on this shot.
Next I chose layers-blending options-soft light.
Flattened the image and cleaned up any blemishes.

Not perfect but I find it works better than GBlur.

***Dave*** · 25-08-2006, 17:45

How do you find any of the Noiseware plugins for this Gary ?

Gary Bagshawe · 25-08-2006, 17:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave

How do you find any of the Noiseware plugins for this Gary ?

Never used them, ive only just got round to shooting in Raw.

Also only using cs not cs2

***Steve*** · 25-08-2006, 21:57

Another useful tutorial, thanks Gary

I like the fact that this is not overdone and the model has not been left looking as though she is made of plastic, thats the problem with some of the other methods I have seen.

This method also seems short and simple.
Thanks again.

I have added some reputation points for your trouble

Gary Bagshawe · 26-08-2006, 00:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve

Another useful tutorial, thanks Gary

I like the fact that this is not overdone and the model has not been left looking as though she is made of plastic, thats the problem with some of the other methods I have seen.

This method also seems short and simple.
Thanks again.

I have added some reputation points for your trouble

Foxesbrew · 27-08-2006, 12:17

Why bother with all this . It is so artificial. Photographic Botox or surgery without the knife.Afew wrinkles and blemishes are better than an artificial mask

***Steve*** · 27-08-2006, 12:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foxesbrew

Why bother with all this . It is so artificial. Photographic Botox or surgery without the knife.Afew wrinkles and blemishes are better than an artificial mask

Thats a question better suited to the discussion taking place here. This thread is for discussing the ins and outs of the tutorial kindly provided by Gary not why it should or should not be used. Only you can decide that

Foxesbrew · 27-08-2006, 13:55

I apologise this was not the right place for my remarks. Iam grateful for and interested in theese tutorials.

***Dave*** · 27-08-2006, 16:12

No need to apologise Foxesbrew, all things are open for debate on here

skipper954 · 14-02-2007, 19:55

Bags

I am kindof a bug on this but why do you flatten images? If you do that you can never go back.

On the other hand, I still can't figure out the layer stack at times, why some changes take, and others have no effect until moved or other layers trashed.

skip

j sotelo · 16-02-2007, 07:16

how about a little Dreamy Effect and mask some areas, heres an example.

Rob Barron · 16-02-2007, 17:12

The problem with this 'dreamy effect' is that it is exactly the plastic effect I try to avoid as it really does look artificial, like you are trying to hide something. I like Gary's method of smoothing out blemishes but keeping the natural look at the same time.

Skip, when I do an image that I might want to go back to, I always save a psd version but I make a flattened version as well. The simplest way is this:

Save as a psd and do all your work. When finished, save.
Now just 'Save as' a jpeg. This will save a flattened version as a .jpg file without touching the .psd file at all. Indeed, you won't even see the jpeg file unless you open it. It will just leave the psd file opened and the jpg file stored wherever you saved it.

So you get two pictures for the price of one and all your layers and things neatly stored away for future changes.

I am not sure what you mean about the layers not showing the changes. I can only assume that you have got a layer underneath a full layer and have been working on that so you won't see the changes unless you hide the layers above by clicking on the eye next to those layers.

If you work using layer masks, you can always go back and change those adjustments as much as you want but if you have a layer above them, you won't see those adjustments until that layer is turned off. Basically the way to think of layers is like overhead projector transparencies. If you had lots of acetates with little pictures on, when you stack the acetates together, the pictures will all show as one picture on the screen. However, if you put a single black acetate on top, you won't see anything that is underneath.

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers,
Rob