Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Many of us have trouble learning Photoshop. I think the main reason is we want to do it all right away. As I learn it I take one process at a time. My First step was layers, Next masking, then on to blending. Most people like me can't remember all the steps. I go to YouTube each morning and see what strikes my fancy. I have found Unmesh Dinda with PixPerfect is a great teacher. During each lesson he continues to remind you of the basic short cuts and processes. That what it takes to learn Photoshop, do something then do it again and again and again and finally it starts sink in and be remembered
Today I followed this video and tried it on a current photo that was shot at a local workshop. I also went on and made Unmesh's Action for blending skin as directed. I also created his additional link for skin smoothing as mentioned in the video.
I put my pictures side by side for you to see what the process could do.
Instructional video is here....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQXeFEKPUis

(Download)

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

As always his videos teach us interesting techniques.

Here's a twist to the skin softening technique you might want to try. Copy the layer, then instead of using filter/blur/ gaussian blur, open the layer in ACR,go to the texture slider and take it to the left to where it 'feels right to you,. Then do the mask and brush thing.
I've tried this a couple of times and am happy with the results. Plus a couple fewer steps.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Where portraits are concerned, for me the question is how necessary it is or whether it's any kind of improvement. Ramping anything up in a portrait is usually a risky strategy - unless you're willing to see all semblance of realism go out the window. Even something as basic as contrast can produce very unflattering results, and too much sharpening for a woman can produce the wrong sort of effect altogether.

I suspect that people in general aren't interested in a ramped up, unrealistic look for portraits of themselves, and women in particular are wary of anything that comes across as unflattering. An expert will know how to push portraits to good effect, but my advice to anybody else would be to tread carefully and lean towards moderation and playing safe.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Good advice. Thanks for posting. In LR, I reduced the clarity as a quick but not optimal way of dealing with the problem. The new texture slider may also help.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Jim-Pops, I see a different issue here. For me, the hardest thing about editing is getting the "right" color balance. I start that process by using either the Expodisc, XRite ColorChecker or its gray card. If this does not work in LR, I tweak again in LR.

If that does not work or if I bring the picture into PS for other editing, I then adjust the separate RGB channels separately. Even when I think I have the right balance, I am surprised how it almost always improves.

In looking at your picture, I think the issue is color balance. The artistic enhancements described in the video are like the icing on the cake. They are nice but the color balance needs to be "right" first.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Thanks for all the comments. All well taken. 👍

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Nice improvement. Great ideas.

Thanks for sharing!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The thing that strikes me most is the change of the hair color. Was her hair that red? I often like to warm up skin tones, but I usually just select the skin tones so the color of the hair and background aren't changed. I also think adding a touch of yellow to the skin tones would make them more realistic.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Thanks for commenting John,
I added the enhanced red color to her hair. It was not red originally. I wasn't going for a totally realistic portrait. I was trying out the instructions described in the video. Now looking back the moves were a bit too harsh.