Photon Mayhem wrote:

It's not that simple... I think she is attacking the "plugin" because she has a DVD that is for sale... or who know what... 

But in any case she is makes false claims about something that apparently she does not understand how it works. And simply dismisses it's usefulness.
I don't know what the reasons are.

If she has something constructive to say and actually suggest a way to make it better, I would make it better. But so far what she has shown are blind-bashing and personal attacks...

I didn't respond to the personal attack about the "portfolios", but I have to respond about how the program works.

who cares ? from my point (being a new person to this) it just looks pety.. you have put all your info about your thread on here and if people want to use it they will - they arent going to listen to you or her argue about what right or wrong or about her dvd (which i dont see as relevant at all - i havent seen her trying to sell her dvd on here?? i dont see this issue?? )

i think you just need to move on and continue to answer questions of other people and leave each other alone - this is very high school - "but he said and she said"

leave people to make their own minds up about what they think - you dont need to defend you "plug in" if people are curious they will try it? this forum has such great amoounts of knowlogde but lately people just seem to be attacking each other - this really is not needed - again im going to leave it at that because this is going somewhere and has ntohign to do with your "plug in" so if you have anythign further to say  feel free to msg me but i think your doing great by adding to the community and there are always new and interesting things to try on here that what make its so interesting

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR (lol )

Photon Mayhem wrote:
I think she is attacking the "plugin" because she has a DVD that is for sale... or who know what...

i seriously doubted.

Daniel James Underwood wrote:
Interesting thread! Photon Mayhem it's fine using some of my images as long as they are the ones I posted into the Challenges, Contests, and Samples forum. I was actually impressed how you smoothed the skin but I have to hand the credit to Natalia on this occasion. The tones look great, fantastic job considering that photo wasn't up there to my normal professional standard!

Natalia could you please send me the high resolution file? It would be greatly appreciated along with a message stating your updated rates as I would potentially like you to retouch some upcoming photos from some shoots I will be doing soon.

thanks

I made a point not to change anything else so I can compare the result on par with Portraiture.

Photon Mayhem wrote:

if it is not D&B, what I personally do is the same thing (just manually)

but manually take a lot more time to setup and find the proper values,
... additionally I do some healing just on the high frequency layer when the image is split. (when it comes just to the skin-cleanup)

Portraiture is not that bad as long as you don't have too visible skin problems, and the image is not too big (in size).
With it it took me about 1 min. to get as much as I could out of it vs 4 min with Skin Smooth.

But I am curious to see other people test it, as probably I'm a bit biased and I don't use Portraiture (I did use the trail period to test it against SkinSmooth)...

Ok...I'm going to be testing all three methods this coming week, Portraiture, SkinSmooth and manual to see where the advantages/disadvantages are in real world application...although, I'm sure my result wont be anything to get excited about, it Will give an idea how useful the methods are for the "unskilled/low-skilled"

Warren Joyce wrote:
Thanks again for all your work & I'm really sorry to display my stupidity but I have a couple of questions.

Does it make any difference whether your tool is used on an 8 or 16 bit image?

And.....I just can't bet my head around the radius numbers.  I know you said
but I just can't work out the relationship. 

I appreciate your work & generosity but a written tutrial would be awesome. 

you really don't need to know how it actually calculates those
I wrote it so Natalia can see that this is the same she preaches in her tutorials.
(it's just automated, and has a skin-mask here )


It doesn't matter if it is 8bit or 16bit image.

a quick example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj3n_yJ8GmQ&hd=1

1) create several "smooth" layers until you get the skin smooth with no imperfactions
start with the big things (blotches) then the smaller - dark spots, then pores...
2) rasterize the layers and "paint in mask" only where the corrections are needed

the video is recorded in real-time, 4 min.

Photon Mayhem wrote:
(I guess from her dvd-tutorial)

You're selling my DVD not me. I've been helping ppl in the forums long before I had a DVD and I recommend mostly free sources to learn.

Anyone who's been in the forums for more than a month can tell you that

MY POST VVVVV
this is true - she has been helpful to me and hasnt asked me to buy her dvd or pay her or expected anythign in return

Photon Mayhem wrote:
dismissing the usefulness, "even Portraiture is better, but best is to learn how do to a proper retouching"

man, you sure like to flex your muscles for only being in here a month. can't wait to see your new work...

TGS wrote:
I find it sort of like automatic cars to manual cars...

... can't argue with that

then just d&b

this aims to give some free options to Portraiture for fast and easy results

Easy-Photoshopper wrote:
im sure i have no idea what im talking about but for me personally as a beginner i find that plug ins are cheating - beauty retouchign and i guess retouching in general isnt supposed to be a quick fix its something that takes a lot of time to learn

i dont think many high end professional retouches use plug ins im sure they just have alot of practise and get good at it and quick at it with time


please dont attack me lol im just giving my opinion as a newb and what i personally think (everyone is allowed to have an opinion)

please correct me if im wrong and this isnt a plug in (and yes i cant spell  but that was never my strong point at school lol)

Not attacking, but I think I see a flaw in your logic.  I expect you don't walk to work but take some kind of short cut that involves a motorized transveyance?  I don't mix my photo chemicals any more to make "film" nor do I process paper in chemical as often.

Tools are just tools.  The importance is not the method, but the result and in the case of business, the efficiency so that you make the most profit for time invested.

Easy-Photoshopper wrote:

i dont really think your making yourself look any better - why not just ignore her if you dont liek her or what she is saying and move on with what you are talking about - everyone has their own ideas - right or wrong?

You already answered his question by quoting him.  Natalia has a reputation and if she says something, most will listen and follow.  So challenges or mis information cannot be ignored.

Each of us can choose to use whatever tool and techniques we like.  Canon or Nikon, Portraiture, by hand or SkinSmooth.  Find what works for you and be happy.

Photon Mayhem wrote:
I wrote it so Natalia can see that this is the same she preaches in her tutorials.
(it's just automated, and has a skin-mask here ).

More when I have more time, but it's important to note that this is absolutely not the same as what Natalia does, and you shouldn't be misleading folks who don't know better into believing something which you know to be untrue.

Phibez wrote:
Thank you so much, I really had a chance to sink my teeth into this last night, I processed 5 images as part of some web publishing stuff and wow, really it is just the sort of thing I was looking for. I have tried portraiture and the best I could manage before the trial ran out is to get the skin looking like a mannequin. Tried, degrunge but I found it a to be a bit of a sledgehammer that left borders around masks even on slighter settings and didn't seem to handle shadow gradients well. I tried desperately on the initial Frequency Separation techniques formum'd here, and the actions, tutorials etc.. but I don't think I ever got it right and couldn't seem to control the overall blurred effect, without making "it" ineffective.. perhaps therr were too many variables to tinker with that I never figured out, but it just didn't do it for me.

What I love about this plug is it is simple and effective without many odd side effects, I can define a mask, Cntrl-J, hide the other layers, press "load", slide into the ballpark for whatever I am focused on then raster it, merge, tear of another mask and repeat. I have used it to great effect on everything from Eyelids to large folds of flesh on torso's. it has reduced my various clicks by at least 80% in regards to skin smoothing, which is exactly what I need.. I have always a stack of post waiting.

So a big thank you for this plug, and for all you guys and gals that take the time to share.

I'm glad you find it useful. It's good to know when people appreciate your work.

I made small update:
now you can make a selection of what you would like to target for correction
(make a selection of your target area, and press "Create")

This will save you the "Ctrl+J and turning off of the layers below".
update this file:

cheers

Rick OBanion wrote:
Like this but the interface is not displaying properly. It is all pushed off the left side and cannot get it to come viewable, so I only see half the controls. I can use it, but not much. I am using it on CS4 64 bit on Win 7

it should be resizing by itself depending on how much space you give the tool/column you work with.

try dragging only its window out of the tools' column and see if you have the problem solved

if you still have the problem,
make a screen-shot so I can see what actually happens




some prototypes (work in process):

Skin NR
- say goodbye to the halos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLrxxQgOZk&hd=1

Advanced D&B
-brush-size aware corrections,
-adjusting only the targeted texture size
-so precise you can retouch a thumbnail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpt1M45b6PM&hd=1

Photon Mayhem wrote:
some prototypes (work in process):

Skin NR
- say goodbye to the halos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLrxxQgOZk&hd=1

Advanced D&B
-brush-size aware corrections,
-adjusting only the targeted texture size
-so precise you can retouch a thumbnail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpt1M45b6PM&hd=1

Dude you are fing rocking the house awesome work so far and that D&B looks to be the shit as well can't wait to try it. KUDOS!!!!

Photon Mayhem wrote:
some prototypes (work in process):

Skin NR
- say goodbye to the halos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLrxxQgOZk&hd=1

Advanced D&B
-brush-size aware corrections,
-adjusting only the targeted texture size
-so precise you can retouch a thumbnail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpt1M45b6PM&hd=1

Ditto the last comment, you are 'da bomb'   The Skin NR seems ready for prime time NOW!  But, for a newbie, what was it calculating?  Or is that your trade secret  lol

Photon Mayhem wrote:
I'm glad you like it.
Skin NR at the moment is not optimized and keeps all possible dynamic options available, which results in about 20 layers (something that may not be needed in the final version)

It takes a long time for those to be created, and I needed a indicator for completion (hence the "calculating" message).

Anyway to consolidate all your work into a panel? That would rock the house.

AllenA wrote:
I wanted to try it out.  Downloaded the ZIP file, followed the instructions (as I have for other panels like from TLR) but going to Windows-->Extensions-->SkinSmooth causes CS4 to stop responding and shut down.

Am I missing something obvious here?

Cheers

This is the second time I hear about this, unless you are the same person who posted about it in "fredmiranda".

It is loading SWF interface which requires Flash Player 10.
(make sure you have this version)

Also make sure you have SmoothSplit turned off before you start the SkinSmooth.

Other than that maybe you have another panel that interferes somehow, try turning them off before loading SkinSmooth.

The Art of Churchwell wrote:
I really like your skin softner

+1

Photon Mayhem wrote:
Update: v.1.5
‎- Control for size-variance added.
- Version mismatch check.
- Precision Increase 2-decimal points (0.01)
- (a few others)
Tip: click on slider and use the arrow keys for fine-adjustments



zip:
http://mobilefiles.ca/SkinSmooth/Photon … .v.1.5.zip

Wow.....thank you for all the work you are doing....just Wow!

JandRStudios wrote:
checked the properties of each file:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5\Plug-ins\Panels\PhotonicTools\SkinSmooth.swf

and

skinsmooth gives this:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5\Plug-ins\Panels\PhotonicTools

i get both info from right clicking on each file and checking their properties.

did i do anything wrong?

If you have "SkinSmooth.jsx" with the swf file you should be fine.
But it should have loaded anyway (even if you didn't have the jsx file in place).

maybe for some reason "Extensions" are not loading
check if you have ">Window>Extensions" at all
(maybe for some reason is turned off there?)
If you see "Extensions", SkinSmooth should be there.


(on the image here SkinSmooth should show instead of "SmoothSplit")