Portrait fix help,

WJ
Posted By
William_Jay
Apr 16, 2007
Views
336
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Question for the experts, how do you get that clear skin glow on portraits? I have tried all the different blur tricks, what is the common method to get the glow and skin perfection in great portriats, yet keep the sharpness. Kind of like the attatched pic..? <http://ddcstudios.com/>
Related Tags
fix help portrait

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

B
Bernie
Apr 16, 2007
what is the common method to get the glow and skin perfection in great portriats

Great lighting
CK
Christine_Krof_Shock
Apr 16, 2007
Great Photographer, who understands great lighting and perfecting the image in-camera
C
chrisjbirchall
Apr 16, 2007
All of the above – helped, of course, by using models with good clear skin.

However, there are ways of achieving that smooth "soft focus" look to less than perfect skin. Try this:

Duplicate your layer and apply a generous helping of Gaussian blur (considerably more than looks necessary). Add a layer mask and fill this mask with 50% grey. Set the layer opacity to 80%

Take a soft edged brush at 50% opacity and "paint" in black to bring back sharpness to the eyes, lips, hair etc. Paint in white to intensify the blurring effect.

Finally, select the "blurred" layer (the thumbnail, not the mask this time) and bring up the "Levels" dialogue. Bring the right-hand slider in toward the centre to increase the highlight "glow". Bring the left-hand slider in to enrich the skin tones.

Finally – don’t overdo it. You can adjust the layer opacity for a realistic effect.

Hope this is what you were looking for. This technique was used on some of the images in the "beauty" section of my portfolio at: <http://www.beautyphoto.co.uk>

Chris.
DM
dave_milbut
Apr 16, 2007
great tip chris!
WJ
William_Jay
Apr 16, 2007
Thats exactly what I was talking about Chris, thanks alot. What does the 50% grey do, I never use that setting when using masks?
C
chrisjbirchall
Apr 17, 2007
What does the 50% grey do

It gives the layer mask a starting point that allows you go in both directions. Paint on the mask in black to reduce soft focus on the eyes, lips etc. Paint with white to increase the soft focus locally to hide any remaining wrinkles, moles etc.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections