Fellow MMer's,

Found a look I'd love to recreate but haven't the slightest idea how it is created.

Link: http://chriswerx.deviantart.com/art/Cam … -425797183

I'm mainly interested in learning how to do a similar edit on skin textures and tones notably her left thigh.  The color gradients in it are just captivating to me.  The hair is pretty interesting but I think I can do something similar with a cutout filter.  Seems to be only 3-4 shades making it up, possible a gradient map?

Would love to have some techniques/tutorials or suggestions that would push me in the right direction to learn this style of editing.

*Watched a few tutorials on gradient maps and think that is gonna be the ticket.  Trying a few things out and will see if I get the results I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance,
Jeramy

Looks like HDR was used also

I need to read up more on HDR but could you use a faux HDR creating multiple exposures in RAW from a single image and merging them like a real bracketed image?

Possibly, theres many ways to get there but its mostly going to depend on your source image.

Progress so far below.  Generally I really really suck at correcting/adding/adjusting tone.  I just haven't developed an eye for it yet.  Chin and the skin above it have a slight mis-matched tone, working on correcting that.  Minimal dodging and burning so far.

I have the hair about how I like it.  As I'm sure someone will point out yes there are fly aways, I'm concentrating on achieving the style and can fix the rest later.

Lip edges could probably use some cleaning up.  I never know exactly how to terminate the lipstick.

It's a step in the right direction I think but jsut isn't where I want it to be.  I'll keep toiling away  lol.


*EDIT uploaded smaller image

Jeramy

I think that gradient maps might help with the look of the image,
it's barking up the wrong tree.

ACR can get you most of the way there.
Use recovery and fill, it's usually one or the other, but with a faux HDR effect
push both pretty hard and a generous amount of clarity.

My original thought was I could compress the skin tones with a gradient map masked over the skin.  I dabbled with it all day and never really found an effect I liked.  I did get some nice gradients where it blends to shadows though, wasn't a total bust.

personally, it seems to me that it's more of a paint job rather than photomanipulation.
brush over with skin tones on low flow - i think that's the trick

Yep, definitely a digital paint-over.

HDR / B&W / some Filterwork for the lines and the rest than texturing ... no paint over

Looks like Photomatix and one of the painterfly presets, with a few adjustment.
If you do this, first treat the models skin with Frequency Separation to remove any blotchy coloring. Otherwise they'll look like dying zombies.

Thanks everyone that replied.  Lot of great suggestions, will give them all a try.

It's a paint over.  You're not going to get the tones as if it's an art piece from frequency separation or a plug in. 
It is a technique onto itself that starts with shooting the image with the final work flow in mind so you capture the tonal range needed. That means planning out makeup, lighting and exposure ahead of time.  You're not going to get the look with just any base image, you need a specific setup to get there.
I've been working on 1940's pinup looks for a while and now have the ideal lighting and post work flow to get the look I want.  And everything is a paint over using the base image and tones for blending.
My best guess would be several layers set to various blend modes such as softlight, pinlight and color that are used to paint in the areas and achieve the shading.