An example of amateur blurring are the magazines we have here in the Philippines, I'm really sorry i had to post this, but i hope they find this constructive.
Have you seen Uno Mag lately? Or Mega? The covers are just very amateurly retouched!

One thing is they surfaced blurred it too much, even someone who doesn't know photoshop would say it was retouched! I'm not sure if it's their photographers or their in-house artist who did that, but i can say is, very poorly done.

Just my two cents.
Stan

The trick is to even out the skin tones and leave texture. We are talking editing down to the pixel level here.

sir can you elaborate on this one? :) thanks!

sir can you elaborate on this one? :) thanks!

zooming in at 100% and greater when editing. i think that this is what he's talking about.

I moved Stanley's post to a new thread since it interesting and deserves a thread on its own. Hope we can continue conversation from here.

Nick Tuason

An example of amateur blurring are the magazines we have here in the Philippines, I'm really sorry i had to post this, but i hope they find this constructive.
Have you seen Uno Mag lately? Or Mega? The covers are just very amateurly retouched!

One thing is they surfaced blurred it too much, even someone who doesn't know photoshop would say it was retouched! I'm not sure if it's their photographers or their in-house artist who did that, but i can say is, very poorly done.

Just my two cents.
Stan

sir can you elaborate on this one? :) thanks!


Joey Magbanua is partly correct. You need to zoom in to 100 percent or greater to edit at the pixel level. It is not easy and very time consuming. I have to agree with Stanley's observations. There is some very poor portrait retouching out there. Gaussian Blur or other Blur tools are big No No's in the world of high-end retouching. Gaussian Blur has its purposes but for skin smoothing it can make really ugly prints.

I still have not perfected fashion retouching but I'm getting better and better every day. You need to go in close and get rid of skin blotchiness. You want a smooth transition from highlights to shadows wiithout any blotch. The best way to do this would be the healing brush and the clone tool at low opacities. You should also dodge and burn any imperfections to make sure that there are no shadow spots in the highlights nor any highlight spots in the shadows. You will see this when you zoom in closely.

I believe Stanley does D&B by using a Soft Light Layer with a 50% grey fill and a soft black/white brush. I use an empty layer blended to Soft Light at a low opacity and use a soft white/black brush. There are many other ways to do this. You just have to be patient and take your time. Editing a face perfectly can take me over three hours sometimes.

nice tips sir nick. will follow your procedure and see the results. i always want to leave some skin texture in my portraits. i visited a recent gallery by an international photographer and saw no skin texture left in his photos. the people looked like they were marble and dead. i want to avoid my photos looking like that. too photoshoped.

Joey Magbanua is partly correct. You need to zoom in to 100 percent or greater to edit at the pixel level. It is not easy and very time consuming. I have to agree with Stanley's observations. There is some very poor portrait retouching out there. Gaussian Blur or other Blur tools are big No No's in the world of high-end retouching. Gaussian Blur has its purposes but for skin smoothing it can make really ugly prints.

I still have not perfected fashion retouching but I'm getting better and better every day. You need to go in close and get rid of skin blotchiness. You want a smooth transition from highlights to shadows wiithout any blotch. The best way to do this would be the healing brush and the clone tool at low opacities. You should also dodge and burn any imperfections to make sure that there are no shadow spots in the highlights nor any highlight spots in the shadows. You will see this when you zoom in closely.

I believe Stanley does D&B by using a Soft Light Layer with a 50% grey fill and a soft black/white brush. I use an empty layer blended to Soft Light at a low opacity and use a soft white/black brush. There are many other ways to do this. You just have to be patient and take your time. Editing a face perfectly can take me over three hours sometimes.
thank you for moving this to a new thread nick!

i think 100% zoom is a bit low, i think 200-400% is about right.

that is exactly how i d&b nick! of course this is on two separate layers, to provide maximum flexiblity. sometimes, i even have to create a neutral gray on soft light, run high pass to bring back some pores.

i think what they do in our magazines, they clone and heal the blemishes, then blur to their content. creating a very polished skin that looks very artificial.
even their masking is not done quite right, sometimes i would find some jagged edges that came from their original files. fhm does that a lot.

well i know i am nagging about them, i just hope this thread makes an eye opener for them, that we notice. That we see those minor errors they make.

Kudos!
Stan

sir stanley and sir nick.. can you guys teach us the basics of how you guys edit skin....pls...

Hi Francis,

For me there are basically two methods, BLUR or NO BLUR. I believe your choices depends on the workflow.

Ill give two scenarios:

1) Editing wedding pictures for album- you may have to edit over 100 photos for an album. Multiply that with all the albums you have to do and you can see why the blur filters become your best friend.

Method: Not talking about soft focus effects here. I suggest you work with Surface Blur on PS CS2.
Duplicate Background Layer
Filter>Surface Blur--use settings strong enough to hide blemishes and where skin
is even.
Hide All Layer Mask- Alt + Layer Mask icon at bottom of Layers palette.
White Brush- paint on the mask and with soft white brush at low opacities. Make
sure you zoom in to go over the blemishes and to make sure that skin looks even.

2) A Special Portrait- you shoot a portrait for someone. You choose one or two photos. You edit this with more detail. Your probably have the time to go over this pore by pore, pixel by pixel. This method provides the best and most natural results.

Method:
Healing brush and low opacity clone stamp to take out blemishes. This can take
some time. Make sure you use a soft brush.

Then Dodge and Burn to even out skin. When you zoom to 100% or 200% you
will see that skin is usually inconsistent in shading and many tmes the transitions
from shadow to highlight is splothcy. You want to dodge and burn to even all this
out. I don't normally use the Dodge and Burn tools because you can't really go
back to correct mistakes. I much prefer layers.

Neutral Gray Method
Layer > New > Layer--Mode Overlay--Check Fill with 50% grey
Paint with Low Opacity (3-7%) brush. Black to Burn and White to dodge.

There are actually no secrets here. Its just a matter of editing enough pictures for experience.

I'm sure Stanley will respond to this. His specialty is retouching.

Nice professional retouching, Stanley Diongco...

http://www.geocities.com/kewllet/index.html

Nice professional retouching, Stanley Diongco...

http://www.geocities.com/kewllet/index.html
Thank you Dys, i'm still in the learning stage, hopefully i could make it a profession soon.


Nick,
I would love to share some tips on this one, I would post it as soon as I finish it, maybe tonight.

Stan

Hi Stanley,

From your website looks like you are getting close to the US standard of magazine retouching. All our readers would love to hear any tips. Good job!

Nice professional retouching, Stanley Diongco...

http://www.geocities.com/kewllet/index.html
Please don't call me sir.

Nick,
wow, such honor to hear that from someone like you. thank you so much. of course I still have a lot to learn from you.

the surface blur is a nice tool, in makeup terms, it is your foundation. but you have to conceal your pimples first before you apply your foundation.

we use clone, heal, patch tools to remove them, but sometimes we won't be able to find a good sample to clone. what to do? here is a tip i've learned that you may find useful.

1. duplicate the background layer
2. create a new custom file in RGB and 64x64 pixels large. then select Edit>Fill and use 50% gray
3. select Filter>Artistic>Film Grain and use a grain setting of 1 and intensity of 5. this should vary on your images. use higher settings for grainier images.
4. select all and choose Edit>Define Pattern
5. Activate healing brush and set source to pattern, choose screen blending mode and select the film grain pattern you created.
6. Use a large brush and paint over the skin areas, you may overdo it. Reduce layer opacity to bring back original skin texture.
7. Duplicate the retouched layer, change the healing brush to multiply blending mode and use the same pattern to refine the face.

this is a very easy and effective way to smooth skin. you will find this useful when deadlines are tight.

stanley, your ps tips are awesome bro! i'm really learning a lot from them... more! :)

I suggest if you have other questions about Photoshop, start a new thread. I'm sure our local hero, Stanley will jump all over them! Thanks Stanley!:)

Yeah, local retouch hero! :D

yikes! i knew i shouldn't have posted that, now i'm being called a hero, i'm far from being one, and i don't want to be one, but i sure love to help:Dum:

how about mr. nick share us some tips??:) i know i'm still far from the level you're at /gg... :BlackEye:

goodness gracious stanley! your GOOOOD, VERY GOOOOD. just saw your site and im stucked for like 5 minutes on each pic haha. im so amazed. can you critique my first retouch on ps?

goodness gracious stanley! your GOOOOD, VERY GOOOOD. just saw your site and im stucked for like 5 minutes on each pic haha. im so amazed. can you critique my first retouch on ps?

Yup! No doubt about it! My good friend is certainly one of the best... Lagi nga lang busy! :Grin: Stanley, Bro. dalawin mo naman kami...

very informative.. i will give this a try now and see how i do. thanks!

Tnx for this thread... Just saw this today and I think I'll use this whenever malapit na deadlines... tnx Stan

Do we have Before and After sample, please? I am learning a lot here! I will try this steps myself. Thanks a lot. :)

thanks for sharing your expertise Sir Stanley and Sir Nick...learned alot here...

will surely try this at home. :)

the surface blur is a nice tool, in makeup terms, it is your foundation. but you have to conceal your pimples first before you apply your foundation.

we use clone, heal, patch tools to remove them, but sometimes we won't be able to find a good sample to clone. what to do? here is a tip i've learned that you may find useful.

1. duplicate the background layer
2. create a new custom file in RGB and 64x64 pixels large. then select Edit>Fill and use 50% gray
3. select Filter>Artistic>Film Grain and use a grain setting of 1 and intensity of 5. this should vary on your images. use higher settings for grainier images.
4. select all and choose Edit>Define Pattern
5. Activate healing brush and set source to pattern, choose screen blending mode and select the film grain pattern you created.
6. Use a large brush and paint over the skin areas, you may overdo it. Reduce layer opacity to bring back original skin texture.
7. Duplicate the retouched layer, change the healing brush to multiply blending mode and use the same pattern to refine the face.

this is a very easy and effective way to smooth skin. you will find this useful when deadlines are tight.

First up, thanks for resurrecting this thread hehe.

I tried these steps just now on my cranky face... Quite amazing...

Can anyone explain what exactly happens when you use a pattern and heal using screen and multiply modes?

I got some "bruising" when I try to heal near the hairline and stubbles, why is that?

Took me 3mins hehe.

Thanks

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/theveed/Untitled-2.jpg

Found this http://leonsandoval.com/tutorials/smoothskin/Part%20I.html... was really helpful. Kinda the same as Mr. Diongco's instruction except for the healing brush blending mode.

Here's what I did with my friend's photo.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/theveed/before.jpg
Before

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/theveed/after.jpg
After

- Fine facial hair removed throughout the face
- Removed marks and deep pores around nose
- Lessened neck lines

The following were made using Curves layer adjustments and masks.
- Enhanced bandana/earrings, eyebrows and eyelashes, eyes.
- Added a little lip "gloss" and shade.
- Removed some skin blotchiness.




Took about 15 mins total. Quite a natural look IMO... No blurring tool used at all.

Found this http://leonsandoval.com/tutorials/smoothskin/Part%20I.html... was really helpful. Kinda the same as Mr. Diongco's instruction except for the healing brush blending mode.

Here's what I did with my friend's photo.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/theveed/before.jpg
Before

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/theveed/after.jpg
After

- Fine facial hair removed throughout the face
- Removed marks and deep pores around nose
- Lessened neck lines

The following were made using Curves layer adjustments and masks.
- Enhanced bandana/earrings, eyebrows and eyelashes, eyes.
- Added a little lip "gloss" and shade.
- Removed some skin blotchiness.




Took about 15 mins total. Quite a natural look IMO... No blurring tool used at all.

very natural retouching, the image's elements are still intact. i would love to try this... thanks, boss david for sharing!

hmmmmm so i guess the "dior look" is really not preferred nowadays

http://www.digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=662&highlight=GLAMOUR

Professional retouching pays off. Check out this guy's rates. 140USD an hour, average 2 hours work per image. His portfolio used to contain a whole lot of black stars - Beyonce, Halle Berry etc - but now they mostly contain models. Guess the celebs complained about showing the public their not-so-glam photos.

http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/index.html

Nice, nice David Tong! I would like to try that one, too! :) Thanks a lot. I might be asking more info later. hehehe...

great work and great tips, thanks

Nice tips! :Grin: