Stefaniya Headshots - Listening to Bobby Deal

[lkeeney]

I really like the light a ring flash produces, but I am not a big fan of the catch light it produces.

[Bobby Deal]

Steve, check the Luminance slider in portraiture I am guessing it it shoved all the way to the right.

I don't mask anything before running Portraiture. What I do is taker a dropper sample from just outside the shadow side of the nose then run it on default and output the results to a separate layer. The results are not precise but that is of.

Once the blurred layer appears in photoshop I use a soft edged brush to very quickly erase everything that is not skin or hard edged detail. Eyes, eyebrows, lips, hair, edges of ears, nose, knuckles, tattoos, then I reduce the opacity of the portraiture layer to 60-70% and Im done. Total time 2 minutes. This is not the technique of a lazy man it is the technique of a busy man. It is about working smarter not harder. I devote 3-4 hours to retouching every day just to keep up with my workload if I still did all my skin smoothing by hand I would be 6 months behind on delivering prints.

I obviously still need to clone out major blemishes but with this technique I don't have to be fussy about it, a quick pass with the clone or if there is room the patch tool and then run portraiture as above and its done.

I used to do all the smoothing manually creating high pass overlay layers and inverting masks and all that went with getting nice smooth skin but this yields the same results in a fraction of the time. If getting more work done faster is lazy then I am lazy but you will never catch me smoothing skin manually again

[Bilsen]

Thanks Bobby,

I'll play some more today. Even if I screw up, at least you know I take your suggestions seriously.

[Bilsen]

Went back to RAW and redid them, toning down the hotspots on a layer and then using Portraiture on a new layer as Bobby suggested. Really pretty easy (or lazy).



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[Bobby Deal]

You need to reduce layer opacity the effect is too heavy

[Bilsen]

Originally Posted by Bobby Deal

You need to reduce layer opacity the effect is too heavy

OKIE. Surprised though cause these are at about 80% opacity.

[thcofer]

The highlights look soooo much better. Ditto what Bobby said, I think it's still a bit strong.

[keithdewey3]

Much better but I agree the highlights are still a little hot.


I have started using Bobby's technique for retouching skin and it has saved me a crap ton of time with better results.
I am willing to be called lazy if I can reproduce Bobby's results and not spend hours doing it. I am not there yet but still trying.

[Bilsen]

By the way, not arguing ( this time ) about the amount of smoothing but I should point out that Eastern European models absolutely demand the "plastic skin" look. Don't know why but my Russian, Czech and some German models really prefer it big time.

Since I'm essentially a TF shooter, they are my "clients".

[keithdewey3]

Originally Posted by JohnGalt_ny

By the way, not arguing ( this time ) about the amount of smoothing but I should point out that Eastern European models absolutely demand the "plastic skin" look. Don't know why but my Russian, Czech and some German models really prefer it big time.

Since I'm essentially a TF shooter, they are my "clients".

I hear you. I tend to do more skin smoothing for clients as well.