Smooth skin with all details and not look like pastic

[Dream Merchant]

Hey, I read about a PS action created by a glamour photog that achieves ultra smooth looking results without losing details or getting plastic skin. Don't go by just the samples in the tutorial. You should see his studio works!

Sooo ... the pix looks super sharp, but the gradation and tonality super smooth like as if they were shot using a 8 x 10 camera and a model with flawless skin and a really good MUA. At least to my amature eye lah.

But it's appears to be very complicated - way over my head. Any PS expert game to give it a try and share a simplified tutorial with us?

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1169397

[ExplorerZ]

not sure, but I think as long as you don blur everything completely, it should look good

[Redsun]

hmm it doesnt look very hard.i'll try it when i get home.Basically its having 2 duplicate layers,one with gaussian blur and another with high pass and laying them over each other...
from my understanding

[Dream Merchant]

Did I mention I was absolutely hopeless at IT stuff, in general? LOL!

[Redsun]

Originally Posted by Dream Merchant Did I mention I was absolutely hopeless at IT stuff, in general? LOL!

lol ok wait till i go back and try and then maybe i can post a few screenshots

[Redsun]

This is my try on explaining the method at http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1169397

1st,create 2 duplicate layers by right clicking on the picture and select duplicate layer..twice


on the 2nd layer,select gaussian blur filter,radius select a no that blurs out everything so you can only see the colours.i used 26 or 27 i tink


on the top most layer,use high pass filter.Use a no same as the gaussian blur filter though im pretty sure it doesnt have to be the same.but anyway..


Next,on the layers tab,select the high pass layer and select linear light.Sorry i couldnt try this out in office coz my office only has photoshop 5.5 and theres no linear light option
Adjust the opacity to your liking for both layers.
I dunno if this is the right way,feel free to correct me

[spazzer]

for the thread

[airforce1]

Can try this.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/archive/t-7576.html

[Dream Merchant]

WOW! Redsun, you make that really simple!

Hope you don't mind my asking, but DG used 5 different layers as well as Lens Blur (Pg 2), which I don't have since I use PS7.0. Is there a difference to using so many layers as compared to 2 layers and can I just use Gaussian Blur instead of lens blur?

[Redsun]

Yes you can use Gaussian blur instead of lens blur of course.The diff is that with lens blur you can still see the outline of your subjects but with gaussian blur you cannot see the outline and everything just becomes a palette of colours
He use 4 layers and applied high pass filter to each of them to show different levels of detail
u can see the names of the 4 layers by the side.Those are the opacity of the layers.
Hope that helps you to understand whats being done

[Dream Merchant]

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to share that Redsun.

CHEERS!

[Redsun]

you're welcome.Just sharing what i know