Skin Editing Tutorial

I've experimented with a lot of different ways in Photoshop in editing skin and making it look better in photos without it resulting in that Cosmopolitan-plastic-there's-no-one-on-the-planet-with-skin-that-smooth, look.  And over the years, this is what I've came up with.  (Nicole, I'm using your photo as an example...I hope you don't mind.)  This really works well for any photos.  

Step 1 - Open your file and duplicate the layer. 

Step 2 - Go to Filter>Blur>Surface Blur.  Set the Radius to 12.  Set the Threshold to 20.  (General starting point.  You can adjust them to how you see fit.)  Click ok.  You'll see that it blurs the skin, the hair, and the jewelry.  We're going to fix this, stay with me.  

Step 3 - On your layers panel, Add a layer mask.  Make sure your fill color is black, and select the brush tool.  

Step 4 - Start painting with the brush tool on the areas you want to remain in focus.  (i.e., hair, eyes, lips, jewelry.)  Hint - You can adjust the brush tool on the fly with your bracket keys on your keyboard.  Also, click the forward backlash button to see what you've painted in transparent red.  (I hit this by accident the other day and discovered it.)

 For this photo, these are the areas I want to remain in focus.  

Tap the forward backslash button on your keyboard once more and the red goes away, leaving what you painted with brush in focus.  Now, hang on...it's not quite done.  This is what may set your photos apart from the overkill Cosmo look.

Step 5 - On your duplicated/layer mask layer, take the opacity down to somewhere between 60%-80%.  This will bring back some of the skin's original features, but not too much.  You end up with a soft, beautiful skin that's not too overly-edited.  

Flatten your image, and you're done.  Apply other effects if you want.  Stand on your head.  Profit.  Do what feels right.  

Filling the Circle

Over the weekend, I met up with Kiely and we shot a wedding together.  I went as a backup/assistant to her and we actually ended up doing two shoots.  One maternity, one wedding.  She had a newborn session earlier in the day too, before I even got there.  Between the two of us, we shot thousands of pictures.  I can't find heavy enough adjectives that describe the fun I personally had being introduced to this kind of photography.  The wedding was a gi-huge-ous learning experience.  For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was in the right place.  Doing the right thing.  I especially knew this when Ants Marching by DMB came over the DJ's speakers during the reception.  Can't say I remember hearing that song at a wedding before.  But I loved it!  

I walked away with so much information and some great shots.  I'm still trying to file the experience in my brain, detail by detail, page by page, and photo by photo.  It'll fit in my intellectual file cabinet somewhere.  I'll find room.  I'll make room.  I'll build a room for it.  Wait, no...a house for it.  No, a castle.  A really big one.  With a moat.  You get the idea.

Special thanks first and foremost to Kiely for inviting me.  Thank you also goes out to Megan and Patrick for inviting us into their beautiful home and letting us torture them with our cameras.  And a big congratulations to Nicole and Scott!  You guys were swimming in awesome.   

More to come.

Getting Squirrelly

Anyone who's seen Pixar's Up would know why that was funny.  Like this guy for example.  

Aw yeah.  I'm scoring today.  

Damn.  This side looks good too. 

Oh crap.  I hope he doesn't see me.

Ha.  He can't see me behind this.  Oh wait.

No, I don't care about the dude with the camera either.

To All

Happy Valentines Day...

A-mode;  f/22;  Shutter 1/5 sec;  ISO 250;  tripod;  remote  shutter button;  natural light

Dill

Faster!

Macro Experimentation

I have this weird fetish for my dog's eye lashes.  I don't recall ever seeing another Labrador's eyelashes as pronounced as hers.  I want to swing from them.  Ok, not really.  Sounded better in my head.

A-mode;  f/11;  Shutter 4 sec;  Macro 52mm filter;  ISO 250;  Edited

I have discovered that macro and movement do not belong in the same sentence.  It took me 6 hours to get these shots.

A-mode;  f/5;  Shutter 2 sec;  Macro 52mm filter;  ISO 250;  Edited

At which point, my wife equated it to terrorizing my dog with my camera.  

A-mode;  f/6.3;  Shutter 4 sec;  Macro 52mm filter;  ISO 250;  Edited

She just wishes her eyelashes were this pretty.

A-mode;  f/16;  Shutter 15 sec;  Macro 52mm filter;  ISO 250;  Edited

Oh wait.  They are.  Nevermind.  Macro filters are neat.  But you have to UBER close to your subject.  All these shots were focused manually.  

Warming Up to It

iPhone 4 w/HDR;  Edited

But we're not friends yet.    

Switchin it up...

I didn't shoot a baby today! Switched it up a little by shooting Dorian because she needed new headshots for her portfolio...

Possibly more to come later...still have to catch up on editing the babaays

Lightbox Cars

Nikon D5000;  A-mode;  f/11;  Shutter 1/60 sec;  ISO 200;  Evil flash;  Edited PS;  Lightbox

It wasn't hard. You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!

Note to self:  Use Swiffer before shooting next time.

These are all in my garage.  

Next to my yacht.  No really.  

Until I dreamed I was eating a marshmallow.  Then I woke up and my pillow was gone.

What the F??

One thing when I was starting out with using manual mode that I had trouble with was the f stop and apertures. Is a higher f stop number mean a smaller aperture? What does that do to the depth of field ? More or less in focus? Ugh…!

Here is the easy way to figure it out and remember it.

More F's equals more Focus



So if you would like more of the background in focus you would set your aperture at a higher number of F, like f/16 or f/22.

If you would like your background blurred to make your subject stand out use a smaller f like f/2.8.


I leave you with the ice storm....if you had a free day off work like I did then you better be shooting pictures ;)