If your looking for that effect put down your camera and pick up an airbrush.
Lmao! I didn't say it! You did! Now Nick won't hate me. Yes!
You would be surprised how many Black glamour models or wanting to be models want that look. Nick didn't invent it, he was smart enough to put it on a dvd first. Nick may not be the best photographer but he is very business savvy! Back when I 1st started I was really going to pay a lot of money to go to his boot-camp! LOL! Glad I didn't because I don't think I would have liked him very much after I found out it was a lot more to retouching.
I have a buddy that makes a lot more than I do because he don't care that the models won't look real. He tells me all the time that as long as his name isn't going on the image and he is getting paid, he could careless how they look. I swear it takes him 15-20 mins editing. Lmao.
I did all of nick's 7 DVDs and learned a ton. You guys seem to be forgetting that nick specializes in Glamor retouching which are full body shots and therefore can be smoothed much heavier than portraits and beauty shots. Nick's slickforce technique is always done on separate layers and can therefore be scaled down to as little as he wants it. In his DVDs he emphasizes that its up to the retoucher how much he wants to smooth an image and Nick tells you what body parts models prefer to look more or less "real". It's absolutely not airbrushing. Airbrushing removes almost all texture.
I've found that using Nick's slickforce technique in combination with frequency separation works brilliantly because you lose no texture whatsoever.
PhotoVision wrote: ". It's absolutely not airbrushing. Airbrushing removes almost all texture.
I've found that using Nick's slickforce technique in combination with frequency separation works brilliantly because you lose no texture whatsoever.
You must have watched a different set of DVDs than the rest of us. The technique is by nature destructive (you lose texture). The simple act of cloning (even with a low opacity) removes texture. If that's not called "airbrushing" I don't know what is.
I'm not saying it's a bad technique but you have to be aware of its strength and weaknesses (and be real).
Again, it's really a technique for glamor retouching. You kinda want the models to look smooth like seals there, it's not about displaying realism or a product, its about ... err.. well... being sexy and smooth like a seal ... *scratches head*