SkinFix - action for testing

[lutz]

SkinFix - action for testing

I have translated two photoshop skin retouching actions from Kent Christiansen and Chip Springer into a PhotoLine action (although simplified). The PhotoLine script can be downloaded here ( http://www.simplexx.net/actions/skinfix.actions ).

The action prepares a skin-repair layer, that has to be masked to restrict the effects to the skin only.
- Paint with black over the hair, eyes, mouth and the background (soft brush) on the white mask layer.
- Then adjust the opacity of the skin-repair group to 40%, as a starting point, an adjust to your liking.

The layers should be looking somewhat like this afterwards:


One example in two versions - original and skinfix with 40% opacity (original image thanks to chilombiano via morguefile.com):

[greenmorpher]

Running on mine, it is ending up with the 40% layer visible and the whole thing looking blurred.

It is supposed to not have the eye or is it upposed to be soft light or something?

Looks good with soft light. Really adds life to the skin. As does the use of the clarity action.

Amazing stuff, lutz.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[lutz]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for testing! The SkinFix requires that you manually mask out the regions of the image that should not be touched. Otherwise you would end up with a mess (no skin recognition built-in). Best way is to paint with a black brush into the white mask layer ( it is named something like "paint black..."). The Skinfix layer group is of course severely blurred and thus its opacity has to be reduced ( for example 40%). The best blend-mode for this layer group is NORMAL or LIGHTEN.
The idea is that the blur produced by this action (mainly an inverted high-pass layer, contrast enhanced and in OVERLAY mode; this part is not changeable) should compensate for wrinkles etc. better than a simple Gaussian blur. I had some good results so far while trying to avoid a plastic skin look.

[greenmorpher]

Yes, I got that, thanks, Lutz. Good stuff.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com