| Basic Skin treatment |
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| Written by Cyrus Khamak | |
| Sunday, 24 June 2007 | |
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A portrait simply mean that you have an image that looks like the person
or the subject you have attempted to photograph. We all know that a good portrait is one that also captures the character and personality of the model or the subject. So, the more the image resembles the model in most every way, the more of a successful portrait we may have. There have been often times, however, when I have presented a portrait
to a client and she said: "This is NOT my skin but I love it!" So, if you also feel the need to soften the skin and give the person more of a glamour look, using Dave Beaman's Ethereal Glow Action is one good way to do it. The other benefit of using an action like this is that you can use it to blur part of the image and direct the attention more to where your focal point is. You may download David's action here. Just scroll down and you will see it: www.atncentral.com/download.htm To start with this action, download and save it in a folder where you can find it easily. In Photoshop, open your action pallet and click on the arrow on the top right of the window. When the new window opens, click on "load actions" and go to the folder where you have downloaded the action to, and load it up. This is the original image captured in Tungsten light: I opened the image in CS2 and in my action pallet, I located and ran Dave Eternal Glow. This action creates a blurred and brighter version of the original image in a new layer which looked like the following: Now, with the top layer (effect layer) active, I chose the eraser tool and lowered the flow to about 8%. I chose a smaller brush size, smaller than the size of the eye, with a low flow and low hardness and erased the eyes, eyebrows and the mouth and the lips. I used low flow to have the process more in control and create softer edges I then increased my brush size and slightly erased the edges around the nose, chin and the hairline. I then moved to the hair and revealed the hair totally from around the face area and I was pretty much done and this is how the image looked on my monitor at this point: By erasing the top (effect layer), you reveal the bottom layer. You can also lower the opacity of the top layer to reduce it's overall effect:: You may even want to run the action again if you need a softer and a more dreamy look. Here, I also ran a curve to give the image a softer and a more subtle look, just for fun.: How much and what areas of the image you reveal actually depends on your subject, your artistic vision and what results you'd like to achieve, there is no standard. Have fun and stop when you think you have done enough!
And YES, it works as well or even better on a color photo. Cyrus 
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Comments (12)
  written by rjdesq, June 26, 2007  written by melepix, June 26, 2007
Thanks Cyrus I will try to see if I can make it work with elements. I wish I had the full version but did my best with Elements 5. I didn't make her to glamour with the blur because she is just a kid.
written by melepix, June 26, 2007  written by cyrus, June 26, 2007
Melinda, One important issue the smaller your file size, the more of the effect you get. When I use it on a smaller photo, the ones we upload here for instance, I up size the image to about 1600- 2000 pixels wide in it's longest dimension and run the action. I then resize back. and sharpen, if I have to. You can also use it on a photo such as this one to blur some of it, if that's what you may want to do.
In regards to her being ' just a kid", Don let the age limit your imagination :) I ran it on this beautiful young lady's photo and left the whole face intact, to give the appearance of a smaller DOF. Oh, I just sharpened the eyes a bit too.  written by melepix, June 26, 2007
Wow Cyrus it came out so lovely and the crop is terrific.
written by rjdesq, June 27, 2007
After reading this tutorial I was anxious to give it a shot myself. Here's the original photo:
 I used the methods described in the tutorial to edit and created this:  After going back and looking at the image I created, and getting some feedback from others I decided to tweak it some more so it was not quite so "glowy". I did want to keep a bit of the glow to go with the smooth skin, and here's my second edit: Your feedback is welcome. Thanks! written by cyrus, June 27, 2007
The second try is much better.
First off, I admire you for trying to improve on your work. This is a helpful action and I'm sure in time you will be able to use it more and more to your satisfaction. You have to remember, the action is used to not only make the skin smoother and softer but also make the skin tones lighter and this is particularly helpful for an under exposed image. This is what I had done earlier and over did it in the version above, on purpose to show the possibilities.  And here's my over done version:   written by soltani, June 27, 2007
Well I tried it too and here are the results. I'd love to have your feedback.
Also melepix's photo is very beautiful. congrats. 1.The original 1.After action and adjustments (I lowered the layers opacity) Here comes my next try which I think I over did it a little: 2. The original 2. Same procedure more opacity though Thanks... written by a guest, January 30, 2008
does anyone know what is going on inside the action?
written by a guest, March 06, 2008
ddssdd
written by cyrus, June 14, 2008 does anyone know what is going on inside the action? written by a guest, July 04, 2008
Actually, I do know what is going on inside the action, as I wrote the action. Love to see it getting some use. I wrote it for myself as I wanted an action that would add a glow to an image with out adding any extra color to it. It was intended to be used after retouching of the image to add the glow on the highlights. The action works on the highlights of the image not the whole dynamic range. It first puts a Gausian blur on the image then adjust in levels to increase the gamma and clips the highlights so that the image is much lighter then selects the "highlights" of this to create the new layer which one can then mask off or adjust the opacity. Thus giving the glow that I wanted. To use it as a tool in the actual retouching of a portrait is great. I never intended it for this but glad to see folks using it.
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 15 July 2007 ) |
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Cyrus explained that once you load up the action in PS just make sure you click on it to highlight it and then click on the arrow (the play button) at the botttom of the action palette to play it.
That worked like a charm.