Acne challenge

[jerryph]

On another board, someone threw up a picture to be cleaned up of the acne of his friend. A few people worked on it and some had some nice results, however, I thought we could have that same little challenge here:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3510/3254342957_d722669e41.jpg?v=0

Give it a shot... try to fix this guy's severe acne problem... without using ProActive... lol

[coffee]

Here is my fast and dirty try. Great piture to practice on Jerry. I will never complain about removing a few pimples again. :)

http://images27.fotki.com/v993/photos/4/1392814/7219248/Final3-vi.jpg

[blackeyedpea]

Good job Joseph! I like the added touch of the refection in his glasses.;)

Lisette

[jerryph]

Definitely nice touch!

Mine turned out like this:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3407/3255500373_079bc38aac_o.jpg

[ladyups]

Jerry and Joseph...I like how both of these turned out but would like to know how you came to these final images. What steps did you use and what program? If you don't want to reveal your secrets, that is fine, but since this is an edit thread, knowing how you did it would be helpful to those of us who don't really know how.

[coffee]

Hi Mary. Only used 3 tools in PS CS3. The Healing, spot healing, and patch tool.

[ladyups]

Ok, I understand the healing brush but not sure what the patch tool does. I have CS2 and don't know if the patch tool is in that version or not. Will have to check it out. Thanks for letting me know what you used.

I'm debating on upgrading and not sure which I want to do...CS3 or all the way to 4.

Since I got my new a700, my raw files can't be opened in CS2...so an upgrade is imperative. My camera software came with a raw converter but I don't like it quite as well as I do camera raw.

[Kaye]

Ok, I understand the healing brush but not sure what the patch tool does. I have CS2 and don't know if the patch tool is in that version or not. Will have to check it out. Thanks for letting me know what you used.

I'm debating on upgrading and not sure which I want to do...CS3 or all the way to 4.

Since I got my new a700, my raw files can't be opened in CS2...so an upgrade is imperative. My camera software came with a raw converter but I don't like it quite as well as I do camera raw.





Mary, have only just seen this message, and I have used patch tool in CS2 that I have. It may work better in CS3 OR 4 - not sure as I do not have these yet !!
I have resorted to combining Clone Tool & Smudge Tool (work well together in most instances), but I find sometimes patch tool a bit "patchy" in CS2. I repaired a couple of photos magnificently with this, but now, when I use Patch tool on CS2, I get dull images of what I have copied, or dark or light patches of images.

If you still need CS2, Try clone tool, but you must go up to top icons on left top screen for "brush size" and also "Lighten or Darken" on right side of brush icon. (You proably know all this - not sure).
Smudge tool is also wonderful I have found on CS2.

P.S. With Clone tool (the best tool I have found) - You sort of copy and paste: - BUT YOU MUST "ALT + CLICK" to copy, then brush over area you want changed. If mistake, go to Edit, Backwards.
Bit rushed, but hope it may help.
Perhaps you already know all this. Just let me know when you have the time, but hope it may have helped you a little. There is so much to learn in Photoshop!!
P.S. I also use Spot Healing tool often. Great for small blemishes on face, flowers, etc.

[ladyups]

Mary, have only just seen this message, and I have used patch tool in CS2 that I have. It may work better in CS3 OR 4 - not sure as I do not have these yet !!
I have resorted to combining Clone Tool & Smudge Tool (work well together in most instances), but I find sometimes patch tool a bit "patchy" in CS2. I repaired a couple of photos magnificently with this, but now, when I use Patch tool on CS2, I get dull images of what I have copied, or dark or light patches of images.

If you still need CS2, Try clone tool, but you must go up to top icons on left top screen for "brush size" and also "Lighten or Darken" on right side of brush icon. (You proably know all this - not sure).
Smudge tool is also wonderful I have found on CS2.

P.S. With Clone tool (the best tool I have found) - You sort of copy and paste: - BUT YOU MUST "ALT + CLICK" to copy, then brush over area you want changed. If mistake, go to Edit, Backwards.
Bit rushed, but hope it may help.
Perhaps you already know all this. Just let me know when you have the time, but hope it may have helped you a little. There is so much to learn in Photoshop!!
P.S. I also use Spot Healing tool often. Great for small blemishes on face, flowers, etc.

Thanks, Kaye..I've been catching up on the forum and haven't had a chance yet to check on the patch tool in CS2. I know how to use the clone tool but I'm sure others here don't, so your explanation may help them out. It was the patch tool that I'm not familiar with. I'll give it a try later this afternoon.

[coffee]

For the photo in question to correct the acne I started with the spot healing tool and worked my way around the perimeter of the photo clearing up some small easy stuff that was clear of any surrounding acne. This gave me some good area to start using the healing tool which samples good area to repair bad. I made my way around the face until I got to the heavy acne. This cleared the way to use the patch tool which takes a selected chunk of good area, and replaces the same size chuck of bad area, and blends it together.

Some use the blur tool too which is fine for very light repair, but if you go to far it can make skin look plastic.

Mary, I ran into a very good set of Workflow videos from a guy that teaches on a college level. I've been looking for something like this for a long time and made my way through all 17 videos while working an image at the same time, and I have to tell ya, it's quite impressive. It may help explain a few of your questions. I will post where they are soon.

[coffee]

Here are the videos posted on youtube. For anyone that is going to follow these, put an hour or so aside and keep with it. A lot of this stuff doesn't make sense to me. He does things that acutually make the image look bad, because he knows later on, he will change something else that will make the bad adjustment benificial in the long run. Like Sharpening for instance. Some early steps are nessesary so that later sharping will add no haloing at all.

These 17 videos are posted in order and watch them in this order. If you skip around and try certain things, it may not work well. Like I mentioned above, an adjustment made in one video may be a setup for an adjustment in a later vid. There are some step within that may not always be used, like Vignette. I plan on going through these vids again and taking note of all the nessesary adjustments made so I can weed out rarely used adjustments to help speed things up a bit.

Let me know if this helps anyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn8FKlslwl4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5vA0yk37IU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkFcdIfjTJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpHOoSrTJW4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPDK6NCUteY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nioTHB429_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAZXxso9uJc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNVeki5KaQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_kitOlzTw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ9pTYi8z1Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AntlWAbl-to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iz5FU6VMFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNQN9Qc0-zc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWub2rZND_c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8pfbFgB5TE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2dV__-eaGs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO06vZ5issk

[ladyups]

For the photo in question to correct the acne I started with the spot healing tool and worked my way around the perimeter of the photo clearing up some small easy stuff that was clear of any surrounding acne. This gave me some good area to start using the healing tool which samples good area to repair bad. I made my way around the face until I got to the heavy acne. This cleared the way to use the patch tool which takes a selected chunk of good area, and replaces the same size chuck of bad area, and blends it together.

Some use the blur tool too which is fine for very light repair, but if you go to far it can make skin look plastic.

Mary, I ran into a very good set of Workflow videos from a guy that teaches on a college level. I've been looking for something like this for a long time and made my way through all 17 videos while working an image at the same time, and I have to tell ya, it's quite impressive. It may help explain a few of your questions. I will post where they are soon.

Thank you, thank you....you did an excellent job of explaining this to me. Now I understand the patch tool and if I'd thought about it, it makes sense....move a good patch to a bad patch. I just need more hours in my day to learn all this stuff. Thanks for the explanation, Joseph, and for the links to the videos. I'm off to view some of them.

[coffee]

Thank you, thank you....you did an excellent job of explaining this to me. Now I understand the patch tool and if I'd thought about it, it makes sense....move a good patch to a bad patch. I just need more hours in my day to learn all this stuff. Thanks for the explanation, Joseph, and for the links to the videos. I'm off to view some of them.

You are very Welcome Mary, I'm glad it helped. Nice to talk to ya again. Those last series of tutorials on workflow are very good. But there is a drawback to them. Very complicated stuff to follow. At least for me. I process many images, and using that workflow would be impossible. I have since found a new workflow that makes more sense to me, and is much faster to process. I may still use the above workflow for my very best shots.

[solo1]

Hi,

Go straight to 4 do not stop at 3 will will not regret. I am using 4 and what a difference with the 2. Many more options and faster.