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How can I create the retouching effect seen in magazines such as Playboy?. The quality of that photos is amazing. When I try to retouch photos with different filters, the effect is not the same. Even using the smuge tool, look better but not equal to the popular magazines.
Thank you
Although I have a different opinion on glamour retouching -a woman is not a Barbie doll, and still has a real skin, and no plastic imitation- retouching is always the same, only you can carry things too far.
The smudge tool isn't good for it. Better forget about that.
Retouching is based upon Quickmasks (and selections), cloning and copying small selected parts.
Load your image and make a copy on a new layer.
Then select the part you want to work on. When you clone, you'll want to use soft brushes, not too small and you'll click with them. Try to avoid dragging. Altclick regularly so as to adapt your source.
To restore bigger, or specal area's, you can select the area, save the selection, paste it on a good location and copy this to the place you want it.
That's about all I know. Some people with more experience will be able to tell you more about it. You can also read one of the many books on the subject, or search a tutorial. There is a thread with lots of links to PStuts on this forum.
If you don't work against time, time often works for you.
You know, I had to restore a lot of bad scans and captures and it takes a lot of work normally. I tried to make it more simple that ended up as a couple of plug-in filters. Can't really say they are of Playboy quality but they save much time for me. You may take a look at a small example at
http://photoshop.msk.ru/as/shamanes.html#tour
maybe this will help you.
Get really familiar with the history brush and its all its functions it will make retouching photos 20 percent easier again because you can brush on sharpening or blur or median or any of the filters within reason to the desired area
Stu. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
for what it's worth here's my two pennies.
You could try making a special mask first then try a gausian blur through the mask.
Perhaps you could use filter>stylise>find edges and use the edges as a basis for a mask that won't blur the edges.
Or maybe paint the whole mask by hand with a soft brush defining the areas you dont want blurred.
thelonious
Carol Braverman wrote a very impressive book on nothing but retouching work:
The Photoshop Retouching Handbook. (IDG BOOKS)
Just found it in the library, so I'll be quiet for some time. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
It really is a question of having masks and selections "in your fingers".
Thelonious' idea is great for making edge-masks, and these work far better than the "unsharp Mask" tool.
If you don't work against time, time often works for you.
I often do this kind of work...although not for playboy (playgirl??). Adding trees, removing buildings, tears in photos, fixing stray hair fly aways, getting rid of red eye and even giving someone an instant diet.
I make extensive use of the cloning and stamp tool for the most part. Once and a while I will make selections, feather the selection, copy and paste to an new area. Depends on how large a fix up I need. You gotta be really careful with anything with selections in photoshop though...most changes in colour or even noise/blur will be visable when you remove the selection. Hence this is not something I do often. I prefer the stamp tool. Especially with a graphics tablet (the mouse can be cumbersome)
I usually use the stamp tool at 100% opacity to start off. I may then use the stamp tool at lower percentages to bring in other info like colour and detail. But generally using the stamp tool at 100% works best. And if you want to reduce the effect, you can use fade the effect. This works really good for getting some detail into a cloned area.
On areas that have a distinct lines (like a tree trunk or someones thigh), it might take a couple of tries to get the proper from/to ratio. (ie the area you are copying from and the area you are copying too). I usually set my 'from' point right on the line or division and then my 'to' point where I want it to go. Usually only a short distance away from the 'from' point. You can then change the shape of things little by little.
Interesting to see everyones techniques.