Editing thin, veiny infant skin

[Godeshelm]

Hi all,

The reason I went looking for this site in the first place (which I'm very glad I did and should have done sooner) is because, as a newborn photographer, the most common difficulty I come across in editing my images is in correcting thin, veiny newborn skin. I find plenty of tutorials on how to correct jaundiced skin or red, blotchy skin, but I can't seem to find anything specifically geared towards this. What tips would you all have for me?

Thanks!

 

[IamSam]

It's hard to say for sure what techniques would be used as it varies from image to image. When you have a project, just post it and let us try to see what might work best.

 

[Godeshelm]

Hopefully this one can give you an idea. Look at the baby's arm, specifically. Sorry, I'm having trouble finding a really clear example.

 

[Godeshelm]

Here's a better example of the problem (arm):

 

[chrisdesign]

Make a selection of the arm, soften the edge 5 pixel.
Add Gaussian blur 3 pixel.
Add Noise 3 pixel.

This is an easy and fast way to do it. A good result in many cases, but far from perfect.

 

[Godeshelm]

Thank you chrisdesign, that is helpful.

 

[IamSam]

Recently I have been working on different retouching techniques. I tried several but this one gave some great results on the arm skin of the baby.

It's a high pass filter with a inverse layer mask.

Make two copies of the original, turn off the original and the first copy.

On the second copy (top layer) run a high pass filter between 8 and 9.
Set the layer to OVERLAY. Hold the Option/Alt key and hit the add layer mask icon.
Turn on the first copy.

With the high pass layer (second copy) highlighted, select your BRUSH TOOL and a soft brush, set your flow to 3%.
Select white as your foreground color and begin brushing the areas you would like to blend.

 

[Godeshelm]

Thank you so much IAmSam, I'm making note of that method. Well done!

 

[Paul]

Maybe when you get it to a standard you like, could you post a couple of your efforts for the members to see please?

 

[Godeshelm]

Will do Paul!