Skin - my workflow

[jetrim]

Several people have asked for pointers recently on post processing, and one in particular wanted to know about skin. This is *my* typical workflow. It doesn't mean it's 100% correct, and it's certainly not the only way to do it, but I'm pretty content with the results most of the time taking these 7 basic steps in the following order.

This is Patricja, a delightful Polish immigrant who thinks she'd like to try modeling. First let me say that this was shot in the studio using 4 lights configured in a "short lighting" configuration; and that short lighting is often used for male models, but almost never for females because it tends to accentuate every flaw in the face - great for rugged Clint Eastwood types, but not so good for fair maidens. The two main flaws that need to be tended to in this shot are the assorted blemishes and large pores on her skin, and a rather pronounced double chin.

[jetrim]

First attachment shows the photo as shot with no adjustments except for resize.

Step 1) Set White point, Black point, overall brightness and initial sharpening (in PSP this is done via the "smart photo fix" interface, in Lightroom via "Auto tone", "exposure", and "Black point" in the Develope module. (result shown in attachment 2)

Step 2) Color balance. In this case I knew from the digital target, I needed to boost color temp from 5370K to 5600K which makes it just a bit "cooler". (result in attachment 3)

Step 3) Blemish correction - Using either the healing brush or the clone stamp brush (at various sizes and opacity) go through from top to bottom removing blemishes, creases, stray hair, and re-sculpting the chin to remove the double shadow/highlight. (result in attachment 4)

*NOTE* be very careful when using the clone stamp not to introduce patterns in the skin by pushing the brush over the same area you just stamped - it will be very obvious in the final product. Also don't clean all stray hair back to the point where it looks like a plastic hat. leave some hair follicals hanging out a bit away from the head.

Step 4) Duplicate layer - Make a copy of the original image to layer on top. With this upper layer you will erase all the areas you want to stay sharp in the final image: hair, background, eyes, nostrils, lips, and edges of the face. (result in attachment 5)

[gahspidy]

Jet, great article and good tips. You have achieved some nice results with this processing.
In case you have not heard of it, Kodak makes a fantastic PS plug-in called Air brush which does an incredible job of smoothing the skin and somehow does not lose sharpness anywhere.
You have done well without the need for an additional plug-in.

[jetrim]

Step 5) Blur and makeup - Using Gaussian blur (in this case set to 19x) blur out the upper layer. If you are satisfied with the tonality you can skip to the next step, but if you have and harsh shadows or highlights as we do here, it's time to break out the airbrush. On this photo I wanted to de-emphasize the roundness, the deep shadows near the nose and mouth, and the hot right side of her face. I selected 2 colors with the dropper tool from the middle of the cheek closest to the left of the frame, and used the airbrush at very low opacity ( 9% ) to paint the darker areas light and the lighter areas dark, for a more even tone across the face. (result in attachment 1)
*NOTE* You can also use the dodge and burn tools at very low opacity (5-10%) to even out the tonality but I've personally come to prefer the airbrush method in most cases.

Step 6) Final adjustments - Turn on the visibility of the bottom layer again and adjust the opacity of the upper layer lower until it starts not to look so plasticy (in this case 50%). On the bottom layer, use Unsharp mask to sharpen the image overall (settings here were radius 2 / strength 80 / clipping 2). Once complete, use the sharpen brush to add additional sharpening to the eyes and lips - this gives them a wet look. any additional airbrushing or erasing to reveal more detail can now be done on the upper layer. (result in attachment 2)

Step 7) Merge layers and make any final brightness adjustments - that's it...
(attachments 3 & 4)

[OldClicker]

Thank you. We certainly appreciate the PP tips.

"...I needed to boost color temp from 5370K to 5600K which makes it just a bit "cooler". " Cooler?

TF

[jetrim]

Cooler indeed as it is moving closer to the ultra violet end of the spectrum and away from the infra red (warm) end

[GB1]

Excellent post Jim, and the result speaks for itself. Great work. I will have to sit down and walk through it in detail, but very nice.

G

[crashcrash]

man, that is a great lesson. Thanks for taking the time to put this together for us. I'm gonna play around with that technique right now.

[caleb]

Thank you for spending the time to do this, Jetrim.

[BlueRob]

Great tips there Jetrim!

[crashcrash]

I tried your method and I like the results. I am so excited to have learned something new, I just wanted to share this. Any comments and further tips would be nice. These are pictures of my fiance this past halloween. It wasn't the best picture of her to use, but It was there.

[jetrim]

I think the finished image is a great improvement over the original, and you did quite well w/ the hair. Not sure that I can come up with any random tips, but if you have something specific in mind I can try to come up with something useful. Generic tips are difficult because there are so many variables that what works great on one shot may look like crap on another - this is why I've also stopped messing with third party presets for Lightroom, seems most were built with a specific photo in mind, which rarely translates to something useful across the board.

[BlueRob]

Dam! Crashcrash you are a fast learner...that is quite an improvement between the original and modded shots. Great work!