First Go at Post Processing on skin etc... C&C welcome!

[robertwsimpson]

So I had a go at this photo:


I removed all of the blemishes, moles, etc, smoothed the skin, fixed the errant hair, changed the white balance, and did some other stuff... I think I like the results, but I was wondering what everyone else thought. If I missed something, let me know.

Here is the edited version:

 

[crystalhb]

Looks good to me, skin might be a bit too warm though....

 

[Nikkor]

I agree with crystalhb. It looks well done, just a little too warm for me.

 

[LaFoto]

Too warm, yes, and hey, I must say: for any other reason than to try out how such things work, why did this man's photo (it's yourself, isn't it?) require any special treatment, he looks so good as is!!!

 

[dom yo]

yea i wouldnt remove moles, its part of the person, its what defines that persons face

EDIT: other than that and it being a tad too warm, looks good

 

[Early]

I liked the original better, but as long as you were practicing, I'd say, yes, it's too warm. You also seemed to have lost too much sharpness.

 

[robertwsimpson]

personally, I never retouch my own photos... I just wanted to practice

thanks for the temp comments... I wasn't sure if I went too far on this one, but I increased the WB temp by like 2000... probably a bit much.

I tried to retain as much sharpness as I could with the skin smoothing... how do you guys smooth skin anyway? here is what I did:

1. duplicate layer
2. gaussian blur top layer
3. mask layer (have hair and eyes showing through)
4. work on masking a little more to define features (like edges of ear, nose, lips, etc)
5. smudge tool on really porous areas

it came out pretty well I thought, but maybe not?

 

[tissa]

i like # 1

 

[bazooka]

I've spent the past couple of weeks watching Deke McClelland's CS3 videos on Lynda and have learned a LOT (not sure how much I've retained though). While I am still learning, and I could have this wrong... but you might try to just do a straight gaussian blur layer top like you did but blend with overlay. Other than the color temp being too warm for the entire photo, it looks pretty good to me.

I've been looking for some practice so maybe I'll give it a go when I get home from work.

 

[mwcfarms]

I think it looks good, agree with the mole comment though. I find moles and freckles interesting.

 

[robertwsimpson]

well, I have lots of them!

 

[burnws6]

You don't want to use Gaussian. It blurs and erases pores. Therefore making it look crappy. You want to run a high pass filter and set it to soft light to bring back some pores. Or else, you just have a delicately smudged face.

 

[erichards]

I think #1 is better. Moles are very much a part of the person so keep them in, also color temp is way to warm for my liking. The stray hairs aren't so bad as to get rid of them either, and the edit is fairly clear to me as the skin texture doesn't match the rest of the face and the head looks like it has a flat spot.
Your eyes 'pop' more in the first one as well.

 

[robertwsimpson]

thanks everyone, I have some stuff to try next time.

 

[skieur]

You missed the uneven nature of the lighting caused by the flash, particularly the white dot on the end of the nose, reflection on the lip, chin area and under the right eye. Very minor cloning and selective brightening or darkening can easily make things more even over all.

skieur