How's my ps-ing?

[adina]

You know how you can buy Hodgy's actions? Well, I've been considering the softening one, because I think it would be nice for wedding stuff (and, who am I kidding trying to justify it, playing with).

But I don't want a magic button that is going to Hodgify my photos. I love his photos, but they are his, and I don't want mine to look like Hodgy knockoffs. So I've spent that last few months scouring the books trying to find some tips on softening skin, finally found something I sorta like. So I've been playing, adjusting settings, so forth, trying to get something that I like.

Anyway.

adina

[JK_Photo]

There's tons of sites out there that give actions away for free. In fact if you purchased PS you can go on Adobe where they have gobs of them for free.
This shot looks nice. Does someone with skin that lovely really need softening? I do know what you're trying to acheive though as I've done it myself.
I'm going to have a look for an article with a really good technique for softening. I'll get back to you when I find it.

[JK_Photo]

Don't know if I'll be able to find that article. It's in a mountain of magazines somewhere.
I would like to recommend a book by Katrin Eismann called "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching.
Very well laid out and simple to follow with tons of photos and screen grabs. You can download the tutorial images from the website, etc, etc. This book is well worth the money ( I sound like a shill!).
Go here to check it, lots of samples from the book:
www.digitalretouch.org
There are also tutorials in PS help which guide you through making your own actions. Once you've done it a few times you'll see just how easy it really is.
All that said, feelfree togo buy the action if you wish

About the image here. It is kind of hard to see what you've done. Perhaps if you posted a before and after we could compare the two.

[Peter_AUS]

Link doesn't work, you need to cut and past it in a new browser window.

[Dzerzhinski46]

Adina--

Have you tried just plain blurring? You would have to make sure the eyes didn't get hit with it though. Gaussian blur works nicely but I am not sure that that is what you are looking for. Maybe value propogation. I shall have to work on that one.

Dzerzhinski

[JK_Photo]

Adina--

Have you tried just plain blurring? You would have to make sure the eyes didn't get hit with it though. Gaussian blur works nicely but I am not sure that that is what you are looking for. Maybe value propogation. I shall have to work on that one.

Dzerzhinski

For soft effect here's one method:

- Duplicate background layer(ctrl-J on PC)

- Run a Gaussian blur set at between 1.5 and 3.0 to soften the dupe layer. Make sure you don't go too heavy on the blur or it will be too obvious.

- Add a layer mask to the blurred layer(layer --> add layer mask)

- Paint on the mask with black using the airbrush tool(use a fuzzy edged tip) set to 50% opacity, but only in the areas you want to bring back sharpness. Do it over and over until you get the desired sharpness.

Hope this helps.

[Dzerzhinski46]

For soft effect here's one method:

- Duplicate background layer(ctrl-J on PC)

- Run a Gaussian blur set at between 1.5 and 3.0 to soften the dupe layer. Make sure you don't go too heavy on the blur or it will be too obvious.

- Add a layer mask to the blurred layer(layer --> add layer mask)

I'm with you up to here Jon. I must point out, however, that I am using Gimp (though the functions of Gimp seem the same as PS so never mind!).

- Paint on the mask with black using the airbrush tool(use a fuzzy edged tip) set to 50% opacity, but only in the areas you want to bring back sharpness. Do it over and over until you get the desired sharpness.

Hope this helps.

So the paint is on the areas you want sharp, correct? I think I understand.

Dzerzhinski

[JK_Photo]

Yeah, areas such as the lips, eyes, etc.
The black on the mask will take away theblur to reveal the sharp image below, but in varying degrees depending how many times you brush over it.

Here's a before and after example of what can be done. I've done the softening and re-sharpening of certain areas. I've also done extensive "glamourization" of her eyes. Added catchlights and cleaned up the veins.
I did this for experiments sake. It was my first try. I may have overdone the eyes a bit.

Top one is the original.

[CarbonTerry]

I just did a search for:
"soft focus photoshop tutorials"
and came up with 597 pages. Should be some good info there.

[CarbonTerry]

When I do any effect on its own layer I WAY over work it and then I can change it's opacity to suit my needs. If you just do enough to suit your taste (at that moment anyway) and then decide you want more, you will have to redo that effect.

[gahspidy]

Lots of different ways to tackle the same job, just go with what you feel you would like to keep as "your style" This image looks very good and seems you have done fine

[adina]

Thanks.

I think this is the technique I am going to go with. I touched up a bit around the eyes, and then did the softening. If you can't see what I did, then I got the effect I wanted.

I don't intend to buy an action to do this. I don't want to try to get photos like someone else's, no matter how good they are. I want it still to look like me.

Thanks

adina

[CarbonTerry]

Adina,
You can use an action for a base and modify every step to make it "your vision"
or write your own that you can change for whatever look you want. Actions are a very powerful tool that you should consider using. I studied several tutorials about writing actions. Once you get the hang of it, writing an action becomes easy. I have a folder in the Actions menu that is titled "Terry's Actions" (brain surgery...not). There are 45 actions contained therein. Simple stuff like bringing up the G Blur, opening a new document with guides in place, reducing sizes (1,2.5,5,10,25%), enlarging in the same increments up to 200%(done in a 7 step increment to retain sharpness) and other elemnts that I often do are assigned keyboard commands. I have at least 8 different ways of reducing contrast and 4 ways of sharpening that doesn't use the USM option. Actions can save a lot of time and best of all they will repeat exactly the same way everytime giving you the option of tweaking the results.

[adina]

a clarification...

I do use actions, I love them. I use them for converting to B&W (consistancy, never had that before ) and resizing, and a few other things. My point about not buying an action for something like this was that some of them really give someone else's look to your photo. Which isn't a bad think, necessarily, depending on what you are doing. For me, what I am working towards, is something I recognize as mine.

As I'm starting to shoot for other people, I am trying to develop a consistancy in the "look" of the photos. I want them to be the same style, or with the a thread of consistancy throughout them.

So I love actions, but I prefer to muddle thru and figure out my own, as opposed to buying someone elses. Sort of like teach a man to fish....

One of the downsides of digital, to me, is the ease of altering, or adding. If I were film, I would need to find a lab who would work with me and all my quirks. With digital, I can surf the web, find something I like, download it, and presto! My photo with someone else's effects. So I'm learning to fish, so to speak.

adina

[CarbonTerry]

Sure, I was trying to say that it doesnt hurt anything to look at different approaches that others have to offer pick, choose, or discard their ideas then add your own vision. Kind of like going to a bait and Tackle store, looking at all the equipment, lures, etc, and then choosing what set up would be best for you. You might even decide to use some tackle that you have built yourself to catch fish.

[CarbonTerry]

I was a commercial shooter for 30 years and developed (no pun) relationships with different labs that would work with my quirks also. Some labs wanted nothing to do with special processing. Others were happy to take my money. One of my favorite requests was for a 2 minute pre bath and a minus 25% developement for my 4X5 Tri-X sheet film. I used this technique when having black and white objects in the same pic (shoes clothing were especially troublesome) This kept detail in the blacks and whites allowing me to use split printing techniques for a "normal" looking print. This was hardly my idea. I "stole" it from Ansel Adams book series "The Negative".
I had this process down to a science and could make great prints very consistently. I had essentially made my own "Action." It took a lot longer to complete than digital but the end result was similar.
Maybe my point here is that it is very difficult to come up with a techique or style that hasn't been done by someone previously and to take advantage of the existing information to create a "style".
Wow, I din't mean to go on forever about that, but stuff just kept oozing out onto the keyboard.