Handling Rosacea and other problem areas?

wildmaven · Sep 8, 2007

How do you process a photo of someone who has rosacea (the reddening of the cheeks and/or nose due to increased blood vessels in that area)?

Yes, it's me. Don't laugh. I had surgery when I was 5mo old, and my mouth and nose droop. I'm a great practice case, by the way, LOL. One eye is bigger than the other, one nostril is bigger and hangs lower, my mouth droops, I have big pores, and I have rosacea on my cheeks and chin and psoriasis around my eyes and on my forehead. Pththth. Oh, and you can see that I need to re-dye my hair. :meh: Anyway, here it is (this was taken just so I could practice. No fun lighting or anything was employed). Sorry it's blurry. It's hard to take pictures of yourself!

Big Mike · Sep 8, 2007

I don't see a photo *edit* (Oh, there it is)

As for processing. Try a Google search for photoshop+skin. You will get thousands of hits. There are any number of different techniques.

I usually start with the healing brush (band-aid in Photoshop). That can usually get rid of spots fairly well. Then I use the clone stamp tool at a low opacity and with a soft edged brush. Then, to really smooth things out, I might create a duplicate layer and apply gausian blur. I set it quite blurry but then dial down the opcity of the layer. Then I create a layer mask to cover all of the blur layer. Then I use a soft bush with low opacity and with white as the paint color...I paint the layer mask, which paints the blur back onto the image. This way, I only blur the areas of skin that I want...rather than other things like hair & eyes.

~Stella~ · Sep 8, 2007

My kids had miserable baby acne and one has eczema - both are accident prone and are forever bruised or scratched up. I use a combination of the spot remover tool (can't remember the name), selecting and removing the red tones, desaturating, and blurring it out. I'm usually pretty sucessful with that combo - it's trial and error, depending on what I'm dealing with at the moment and how rough or dark it is.

wildmaven · Sep 8, 2007

Big Mike said:
I don't see a photo :scratch:

As for processing. Try a Google search for photoshop+skin. You will get thousands of hits. There are any number of different techniques.

http://i18.tinypic.com/6gcxzzb.jpg

ARGHGHGHGHGHGH.................sorry for the rant, but "google it" is my LEAST FAVORITE reply to any post. Why have a forum at all? Why not just have a link to Google?? I wanted to know how you all handle it. Not some random person I've googled. [/end of rant] :hugs:

~Stella~ · Sep 8, 2007

OK, this only took a few minutes and it's rough, but to give you an idea:

wildmaven · Sep 8, 2007

Thanks, Stella! You've made it so that it looks like a nice glow to the skin, rather than a skin problem.

(can you get rid of my grey hair, hee hee)

I'm going to have to try your suggestions now!

~Stella~ · Sep 8, 2007

In PS you can "adjust color for skin tone" and you just click around until you like it - it gets rid of flourescent glare and other wierd tones.

And yes, grey hair is no problem, either. Want to be a redhead? That can be arranged.

Big Mike · Sep 8, 2007

I had a try, I hope you don't mind

~Stella~ · Sep 8, 2007

Very glamorous! I was just thinking I should have lightened her up a little, but was too lazy to go back.

I also wanted to take her head off the platter or whatever that is... it's driving me nuts.

wildmaven · Sep 8, 2007

~Stella~ said:
Very glamorous! I was just thinking I should have lightened her up a little, but was too lazy to go back.

I also wanted to take her head off the platter or whatever that is... it's driving me nuts.

What are you talking about? I have no body. I've got to rest my head on something.... :lmao:

Great job, Mike! You even made me smile! How'd you do THAT??