Forums > Digital Art and Retouching > skin texture retouching

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

hello friends, I'm a photographer and retoucher with experience, but I can never have texture like these photos:

https://www.annarovkina.com/beauty
https://www.instagram.com/retoucher_veronica/


If someone can help me with a video, photo, or send a touch-up psd I would be very grateful, I've been trying to do it for a long time and I can not.

I attached a link with some photos of me if someone is encouraged to do a test for me.
link drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ … sp=sharing

I also attach a psd with my attempt

Jan 12 19 09:29 am Link

Photographer

Shadow Dancer

Posts: 9773

Bellingham, Washington, US

Dodging and burning specific "defects" while leaving the actual skin texture.

Look up Natalie Tafferel on YouTube, lots of tutorials.

Jan 12 19 10:38 am Link

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

Shadow Dancer wrote:
Dodging and burning specific "defects" while leaving the actual skin texture.

Look up Natalie Tafferel on YouTube, lots of tutorials.

Hello that is not the solution, if you see the drive link, leave a psd photo retouched with FS and D & B they do something more to WIN TEXTURE is not only clean the photo and leave it with the original texture.

Jan 12 19 12:08 pm Link

Photographer

Bryan Saxton

Posts: 38

Redmond, Washington, US

Professional retouchers use dodge and burn all the time to adjust color while preserving texture. You can also use frequency separation if you're careful about the harsh lines and strong shadows.

Jan 12 19 04:04 pm Link

Photographer

Camerosity

Posts: 5805

Saint Louis, Missouri, US

The usual high-end way is to do all the skin work with dodge and burn. That’s very tedious and time consuming.

For example, what makes a crease in the skin a crease in the photo is the shadow. Lightening (dodging) the shadow to match the surrounding skin doesn’t “remove” the crease, but it makes it much less obvious.

Same with pimples and other imperfections.

You can minimize skin imperfections with lighting – but the lighting that does that (soft lighting, basically directly above the camera) doesn’t always provide the mood and look that I want.

D&b can be very tedious and time consuming. (That’s what the aforementioned Natalia Taffarel advocates, unless something has changed in recent years.)

I’m using short lighting more and more.

If the main light is between the camera and the model’s nose, that’s broad lighting. If the main light is more behind the model, so that the model’s nose is between the camera and the main light (if you draw a straight line between the camera and the light), that’s short lighting.

The down side of short lighting is that it makes the texture on the far side of the model’s face more prominent. So I cheat.

One of the first things I do in Adobe Camera Raw (you can do the same thing in Lightroom) is to use the spot removal tool to replace texture that’s too prominent (like a little bump that becomes a highlight with its own shadow) with less prominent texture from a nearby spot.

This minimizes the amount of d&b, healing, cloning or frequency separation required.

There are some very good PS actions for using d&b to contour and shape the face. However, I don’t know of any that work well for minimizing or equalizing skin texture. (If anyone knows of one, let us know).

However, it’s obvious that there is a less time-consuming way than pixel-level d&b (and even frequency separation) to get the effect that you want. Otherwise, this retoucher (and others) couldn’t do the skin work that he does for $12 per photo. You might PM him and ask him.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/forums/post/975358

Some retouchers blur the skin and then add noise to simulate skin texture. One way you can tell that he didn’t do that is that the texture is less prominent in the highlights than in the midtones and the shadows.

Jan 12 19 07:03 pm Link

Retoucher

Areenshah

Posts: 131

Manama, Manama, Bahrain

I am downloading the raw files you provided and will be working on one or two and will show you the result, if you will like it, then I can explain to you how I did it, main while you can check some of my work on my portfolio www.behance.net/shahbaloch  | www.instagram.com/shahbaloch, I use 3+ workflow to work on deferent type of images. regards

Jan 12 19 11:02 pm Link

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

Areenshah wrote:
I am downloading the raw files you provided and will be working on one or two and will show you the result, if you will like it, then I can explain to you how I did it, main while you can check some of my work on my portfolio www.behance.net/shahbaloch  | www.instagram.com/shahbaloch, I use 3+ workflow to work on deferent type of images. regards

thanks for your help I'll wait, I saw your photos in instagram very good

Jan 13 19 07:24 am Link

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

good I take the time to read everything you wrote and I will have several things in mind, in the link that I leave there is a psd with my intent for you to look at it, if you can do a retouch and send the psd with suggestions I thank you


Camerosity wrote:
The usual high-end way is to do all the skin work with dodge and burn. That’s very tedious and time consuming.

For example, what makes a crease in the skin a crease in the photo is the shadow. Lightening (dodging) the shadow to match the surrounding skin doesn’t “remove” the crease, but it makes it much less obvious.

Same with pimples and other imperfections.

You can minimize skin imperfections with lighting – but the lighting that does that (soft lighting, basically directly above the camera) doesn’t always provide the mood and look that I want.

D&b can be very tedious and time consuming. (That’s what the aforementioned Natalia Taffarel advocates, unless something has changed in recent years.)

I’m using short lighting more and more.

If the main light is between the camera and the model’s nose, that’s broad lighting. If the main light is more behind the model, so that the model’s nose is between the camera and the main light (if you draw a straight line between the camera and the light), that’s short lighting.

The down side of short lighting is that it makes the texture on the far side of the model’s face more prominent. So I cheat.

One of the first things I do in Adobe Camera Raw (you can do the same thing in Lightroom) is to use the spot removal tool to replace texture that’s too prominent (like a little bump that becomes a highlight with its own shadow) with less prominent texture from a nearby spot.

This minimizes the amount of d&b, healing, cloning or frequency separation required.

There are some very good PS actions for using d&b to contour and shape the face. However, I don’t know of any that work well for minimizing or equalizing skin texture. (If anyone knows of one, let us know).

However, it’s obvious that there is a less time-consuming way than pixel-level d&b (and even frequency separation) to get the effect that you want. Otherwise, this retoucher (and others) couldn’t do the skin work that he does for $12 per photo. You might PM him and ask him.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/forums/post/975358

Some retouchers blur the skin and then add noise to simulate skin texture. One way you can tell that he didn’t do that is that the texture is less prominent in the highlights than in the midtones and the shadows.

Jan 13 19 07:47 am Link

Retoucher

rawster

Posts: 22

Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

I would love to give it a try if you could clarify if I can use them on my portfolio with credits. instagram and behance.

Jan 13 19 11:54 pm Link

Photographer

Camerosity

Posts: 5805

Saint Louis, Missouri, US

I took a (close-up) look at some of your images.

For example, on MG_7992_CR2, I found 27 small “bumps” on the model’s face (and 15 more on her neck) that could have been eliminated in seconds with the spot removal tool in ACR or LR.

Unless you are doing this on the RAW file in ACR or LR before moving to Photoshop, you’ll have to use ACR as a Photoshop filter in order to do it this way. I think that has only been an option for the past couple of years or so.

Another issue is the hot spots (blown-out areas aka specular highlights) from the lighting on the model’s face. I am a photographer, not a professional retoucher, and personally I have problems with these.

This does not necessarily mean that the lighting is bad. It means that the model’s skin is oily in these areas and/or the makeup is not appropriate for the lighting. Or, in some cases, it might also mean that the lighting is bad.

Also, there are some very good (and some not-so-good) MUAs who aren’t accustomed to doing makeup for photography, which is different in some ways than doing makeup for an evening at the symphony or the theater, etc.

I watch as the makeup is being applied and look it over carefully before the model stands up and walks away from the MUA. The longer I shoot, the more attention I pay to the makeup.

If I am going to be using hard lighting, I ask the MUA to apply face powder to the shiny areas (which typically include the forehead, the areas under the eyes and sometimes the tip of the model’s nose).

There is no way (outside of Photoshop) to control these things except with proper makeup and lighting.

I didn’t see any photos in the group that you linked to with specular highlights on the forehead. However, some of the photos do have shiny hot spots below the model’s left (camera right) eye, mainly on the cheeks. Often these highlights are between the eyes and the cheeks.

Typically, beauty products companies want hard lighting on close-ups of the face – and they want perfect skin. Enter the high-end beauty retoucher…

Tbh, I typically send these beauty photos to a high-end retoucher, and I have a few that I will soon be sending to a retoucher.

I know (and know of) VERY few good photographers who are also very good retouchers. Unless you want to be mediocre at both, you need to put most of your focus on one or the other.

I saw a video a few years ago that suggested filling part of a blank layer with skin tones from the model’s face (with the tones covering the same areas of the blank layer where those skin tones are on the pixel layer), placing that layer below the pixel layer that you’re retouching, adding a black mask to the filled layer, and blending the tones from the layer below into the specular highlights of the model’s face.

I did that a few times with success. But it has been years since I’ve seen that video, and I haven’t been able to find it again. The last couple of times I tried it, it didn’t work very well. Presumably there is a step or steps in the video that I don’t remember.

The best way to avoid those situations is to make corrections in order to get it right in the camera. When I do encounter one or those situations, generally I do as much as I can do, then send it to a professional retoucher to finish the job.

Obviously, as a professional retoucher, you won’t have either of those options – and you won’t have any control over the makeup or the lighting.

Imo, beauty retouching is the most challenging area of retouching, with the possible exception of complex compositing.

The other issue is uneven color, sometimes the form of red color casts and sometimes simply splotchy skin tones (that may or may not include red color casts in some areas of the splotchy areas). Your photos have some of those as well.

Look into frequency separation. That might save you some time with several of these issues on images where its use is appropriate. These frequency separation tutorial is not by a name-brand beauty retoucher, but it does explain how it works.

Also, when they talk about Gaussian blur, understand that you are not blurring texture. Skin color and texture are separated into different layers, so when you’re working on the color layer, you are not affecting texture (and vice versa).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7WKWwIUIVQ&vl=es

Natalia Taffarel goes into detail about handling these things (with dodge and burn and some use of frequency separation) in her DVD, “The Art of Dodge and Burn.” As far as I know, it is not available in a downloadable format. Photoshop CS4 is used in the video.

https://digitalphotoshopretouching.com/ … ng-gallery

Otherwise, the best videos on beauty retouching that I know of are these two by Pratik Naik:

https://rggedu.com/collections/fashion- … ratik-naik

Btw, RGG is owned by world-renowned food and beverage photographer Rob Grimm, whose studio was just down the street from two of my last three studios, on Locust St. in midtown St. Louis.

https://www.creativelive.com/class/art- … e-header_0

I see that Pratik’s course on CreativeLive is now US$49. I paid US$129 for it 3-4 years ago. (Maybe that’s because the version of Photoshop that was used in the video is no longer the current version). The CL video course was made in mid-2014 with the version of PS that was current at the time.

In the first part of the course, Pratik is working in studio with photographer Felix Kunze, showing him what he can do in studio to reduce the time and cost of retouching later.

If you decide to buy it (or anything else on CL), PM me your email address, and I can get you a $15 discount on your first purchase on CL, if you’re a new customer. That would bring the price down to $34.

Jan 14 19 10:01 pm Link

Photographer

Camerosity

Posts: 5805

Saint Louis, Missouri, US

Areenshah wrote:
I am downloading the raw files you provided and will be working on one or two and will show you the result, if you will like it, then I can explain to you how I did it, main while you can check some of my work on my portfolio www.behance.net/shahbaloch  | www.instagram.com/shahbaloch, I use 3+ workflow to work on deferent type of images. regards

Your Instagram link is broken, but your Behance link and your MM portfolio aren't. Your skin work is EXTREMELY good! (I'm guessing that you're out of my price range?)

Jan 14 19 10:08 pm Link

Retoucher

Areenshah

Posts: 131

Manama, Manama, Bahrain

Camerosity wrote:

Your Instagram link is broken, but your Behance link and your MM portfolio aren't. Your skin work is EXTREMELY good! (I'm guessing that you're out of my price range?)

can you PM me on Instagram, so we shall be able to discuss for the collaboration my Insta is www.instagram.com/shahbaloch

Jan 15 19 06:45 am Link

Photographer

Camerosity

Posts: 5805

Saint Louis, Missouri, US

Areenshah wrote:
can you PM me on Instagram, so we shall be able to discuss for the collaboration my Insta is www.instagram.com/shahbaloch

I don't have an IG account, so I sent you a PM on MM.

Jan 16 19 04:51 am Link

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

If there's no problem I want to see if you get what I want

rawster wrote:
I would love to give it a try if you could clarify if I can use them on my portfolio with credits. instagram and behance.

Jan 16 19 11:49 am Link

Retoucher

Mcretoucher

Posts: 19

Tampa, Florida, US

amauri ,  encontre el problema por que nunca podras , alcanzar el retoque que quieres .
soy fotografo profesional y retocador.

te mande una solicitud de amigos .?
el problema es el lente de tu camara . tu usas un  28-135 , luego tratas de enfocarlo a 100mm, cuando haces esto el lente borra los poros de la modelo y  el resultado es muy malo para el retoque que buscas. suavisa la piel y borra los poros..

el lente que usaron  estos fotografos es un ,  telephoto  sigma 105mm macro aqui te dejo el link  .

https://www.amazon.com/Sigma-105mm-Macr … B0058NYVXG 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvtICw6f5TE

como puedes ver este lente solo tiene  un focal leng de 105mm , por eso las fotos salen muy bonitas y enfocadas para este tipo de retoque.  es la unica manera como podras tener las imagenes para el estilo de retoque que quieres.

las fotos del link que pusistes no sirven para este tipo de retoque aunque le metas millones de horas de retoque ,  jamas nadie podra hacerlo . no te frustres mas ,   el problema es el lente .

cambiando el lente es la solucion y entonces tendras las imagenes  para este tipo de retoque .

dejame saber que piensas ,  gracias.

Jan 16 19 01:22 pm Link

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

hello friend thank you very much for your clarification to if not piero time, I will try to buy a lens of that type, at the moment I only have a 50mm f1.8, yougnuo 100mm f2.0

any help is well come to improve, I do not open this page a lot because I do not speak English and I use the translator
but you can talk to me by instagram for suggestions @ amaurii.jimenez

if I also see a bit of your work




Mcretoucher wrote:
amauri ,  encontre el problema por que nunca podras , alcanzar el retoque que quieres .
soy fotografo profesional y retocador.

te mande una solicitud de amigos .?
el problema es el lente de tu camara . tu usas un  28-135 , luego tratas de enfocarlo a 100mm, cuando haces esto el lente borra los poros de la modelo y  el resultado es muy malo para el retoque que buscas. suavisa la piel y borra los poros..

el lente que usaron  estos fotografos es un ,  telephoto  sigma 105mm macro aqui te dejo el link  .

https://www.amazon.com/Sigma-105mm-Macr … B0058NYVXG 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvtICw6f5TE

como puedes ver este lente solo tiene  un focal leng de 105mm , por eso las fotos salen muy bonitas y enfocadas para este tipo de retoque.  es la unica manera como podras tener las imagenes para el estilo de retoque que quieres.

las fotos del link que pusistes no sirven para este tipo de retoque aunque le metas millones de horas de retoque ,  jamas nadie podra hacerlo . no te frustres mas ,   el problema es el lente .

cambiando el lente es la solucion y entonces tendras las imagenes  para este tipo de retoque .

dejame saber que piensas ,  gracias.

Jan 17 19 12:32 pm Link

Retoucher

fireshoot

Posts: 100

Naples, Campania, Italy

I agree with Mcretoucher. The main problem is not the photo editing but is the lens. In fact, observing in his website the before and after, the detail and texture of the skin is very evident, too much in pre postproduction photo too. Some photos are exasperated in sharpness. So on this already exasperated sharpness obtained by a macro lens, he works to clean up the superfluous, obtaining what is the final image. There are techniques like high pass, frequency separation to give a perceptive clarity and you certainly know them too, but this is not the case. Bye

Jan 21 19 03:26 am Link

Photographer

Camerosity

Posts: 5805

Saint Louis, Missouri, US

fireshoot wrote:
I agree with Mcretoucher. The main problem is not the photo editing but is the lens. In fact, observing in his website the before and after, the detail and texture of the skin is very evident, too much in pre postproduction photo too. Some photos are exasperated in sharpness. So on this already exasperated sharpness obtained by a macro lens, he works to clean up the superfluous, obtaining what is the final image. There are techniques like high pass, frequency separation to give a perceptive clarity and you certainly know them too, but this is not the case. Bye

Can't that be also mitigated to some extent by masking out the face (except the eyes and possibly the lips) from the sharpen layer and by masking out other skin (but leaving the edges of the arms and legs sharpened somewhat)?

Not that I have done that from Day One, btw.

Jan 21 19 03:35 am Link

Retoucher

fireshoot

Posts: 100

Naples, Campania, Italy

What you are referring to is a technique often used to highlight eyes and lips from the rest of the face. But the photos in question have excessive sharpness during shooting. You can see it from here. Watch original link and not post here.
you can see how the transitions of color on the skin have been canceled beyond the common cleansing of the face. This makes everything very uniform.
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/60977a_7c0eac2547df4d4c9c8e4f092d99441f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1109,h_831,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/60977a_7c0eac2547df4d4c9c8e4f092d99441f~mv2.jpg
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6097 … 1f~mv2.jpg
The sharpness is already very high. The rest is usual post production.

Camerosity wrote:
Can't that be also mitigated to some extent by masking out the face (except the eyes and possibly the lips) from the sharpen layer and by masking out other skin (but leaving the edges of the arms and legs sharpened somewhat)?

Not that I have done that from Day One, btw.

Jan 21 19 06:58 am Link

Photographer

Camerosity

Posts: 5805

Saint Louis, Missouri, US

fireshoot wrote:
What you are referring to is a technique often used to highlight eyes and lips from the rest of the face. But the photos in question have excessive sharpness during shooting. You can see it from here. Watch original link and not post here.
you can see how the transitions of color on the skin have been canceled beyond the common cleansing of the face. This makes everything very uniform.
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/60977a_7c0eac2547df4d4c9c8e4f092d99441f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1109,h_831,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/60977a_7c0eac2547df4d4c9c8e4f092d99441f~mv2.jpg
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6097 … 1f~mv2.jpg
The sharpness is already very high. The rest is usual post production.

I agree that frequency separation is the best way (other than very tedious dodging and burning) is the best way to smooth out skin texture and smooth transitions in skin tones. However, many photographers (including me) still sharpen at the end of the process to emphasize details in wardrobe, etc. But sharpening skin is generally counter-productive.

Jan 21 19 01:46 pm Link

Photographer

Camerosity

Posts: 5805

Saint Louis, Missouri, US

fireshoot wrote:
What you are referring to is a technique often used to highlight eyes and lips from the rest of the face. But the photos in question have excessive sharpness during shooting. You can see it from here. Watch original link and not post here.
you can see how the transitions of color on the skin have been canceled beyond the common cleansing of the face. This makes everything very uniform.
The sharpness is already very high. The rest is usual post production.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/60977a_7c0eac2547df4d4c9c8e4f092d99441f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1109,h_831,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/60977a_7c0eac2547df4d4c9c8e4f092d99441f~mv2.jpg
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6097 … 1f~mv2.jpg

Jan 21 19 01:47 pm Link

Retoucher

fireshoot

Posts: 100

Naples, Campania, Italy

Camerosity wrote:
But sharpening skin is generally counter-productive

fireshoot wrote:
But sharpening skin is generally counter-productive.

Yes. It's so.

Jan 22 19 01:26 am Link

Retoucher

Tatsiana Butsnevich

Posts: 10

Minsk, Minsk, Belarus

Jan 26 19 06:32 am Link

Retoucher

fireshoot

Posts: 100

Naples, Campania, Italy

Good work. wink

Tatsiana Butsnevich wrote:
Tried to repeat the style like there: https://www.annarovkina.com/beauty. You may compare.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ … sp=sharing

Jan 26 19 09:51 am Link

Retoucher

Deep Blue

Posts: 94

London, England, United Kingdom

Beauty formula:
Model + Make Up + Light !!!!!! + Lens
Keywords: micro contrast.

Jan 27 19 07:22 am Link

Jan 27 19 07:29 am Link

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

Excellent work, you noticed the texture color, everything! I like your work if you can help me get this result I thank you.

Tatsiana Butsnevich wrote:
Tried to repeat the style like there: https://www.annarovkina.com/beauty. You may compare.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ … sp=sharing

Jan 28 19 11:17 am Link

Retoucher

Tatsiana Butsnevich

Posts: 10

Minsk, Minsk, Belarus

amaurii jimenez wrote:
Excellent work, you noticed the texture color, everything! I like your work if you can help me get this result I thank you.


write me a private message, please, or [email protected]

Jan 28 19 01:59 pm Link

Retoucher

Tanya_Retoucher

Posts: 50

Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Jan 31 19 03:09 pm Link

Retoucher

fireshoot

Posts: 100

Naples, Campania, Italy

I also place my elaboration with the techniques already discussed. The basic shot, however, was not obviously made to have a final rendering on the style of the photographer in question. The technique to obtain that particular style of image is therefore more laborious.
https://i.postimg.cc/9mH5p2v4/MG-7983un.jpg

Feb 01 19 09:47 am Link

Photographer

amaurii jimenez

Posts: 115

Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia

I wrote to you, I leave my instagram: @ amaurii.jimenez


Tatsiana Butsnevich wrote:

write me a private message, please, or [email protected]

Feb 01 19 11:00 am Link

Retoucher

Tanya_Retoucher

Posts: 50

Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Feb 01 19 01:23 pm Link