The Haute Couture - Paolo Roversi

To all my photographer friends out there have you heard or even know a photographer named Paolo Roversi? Do not ask me, I also don't know the guy not until I read a thread on model mayhem about his work on Vogue Magazine. It was published on Vogue Italia September issue. I was blown away when I saw the photos totally awesome dude! Those are the kind of photos that I really wanted to achieve and learn especially the toning of the photos. Too bad for me because he is using a medium format camera on all his work and I guess that how he gets that old school look of his photos.

(all photos credit to Paolo Roversi)

Paolo Roversi is an Italian-born fashion photographer who currently lives and works in Paris the fashion capital of the world. He is already 64 years old and born in 1947. Check-out this link from model mayhem to know more about Paolo and some behind the scene of his Vogue Haute Couture pictorial. 

(all photos credit to Paolo Roversi)

(all photos credit to Paolo Roversi)

Significant addition to mayhem website.

Have you been to Model Mayhem website lately? If you do I am sure you already notice that there is one additional tab just right after "shop" the tab is called "edu" obviously it is short word for education.
Although I already notice this tab a few weeks back, but I did not even bother actually to open it and see what is inside until I saw Pratik's (Soltice Retouch) Facebook wall this morning. 

Model Mayhem education blog is the latest feature on their website and it consists of different article that provides tips, advice, and knowledge in Photography, post production, Modeling, Hair & make-up, styling and using MM. And also All articles written there came from Mayhem member's submission. 

For those who are into retouching and want to have an idea how to breakthrough in retouching business
Pratik Naik has a great article about Making it as a professional retoucher. On his article he discusses the basic on business and marketing side of retouching as well as other topics like networking, anatomy, manipulation, etc. it a must read for all retoucher. 

How about If you are in a Photo shoot and the model asked you for a model release form, but you have no idea what is a model release well there is one article from Laurens Antoine that tackles model release, what it is for and what to write in it. 

I also saw one articles about DIY lighting and about copyrighting your photos and it's importance plus an article about how to read the histogram on your camera. 

So for those MM members out there watch out for this MM edu blog who knows maybe soon someone will share their workflow and technique on skin retouching so you don't have to read high-pass sucks over and over again lol!

S P L I T

I have been very active in posting photos on Digital Photographer Philippines DPP this past few months and most of the photos I posted there is mostly beauty head shots that I retouch. I have noticed that quite a number of people there on the forum is really interested in learning the basic of digital high-end beauty retouching although I am quite surprise also to learn that this genre in Photoshop editing is somehow not so popular on DPP. 

I posted there few of my recent beauty head shot and the response was not bad I received some nice feedback from other members of the forum I even got some questions on my email asking me what sort of workflow I am using while other is asking how do I achieve a clean beauty head shot with skin texture still intact yet shiny soft skins are distinct. 

Well anyway I saw one thread there on that forum entitled Beauty Retouching and the thread got quite a number of posting and replies as well as workflow sharing and it was nice, I enjoy reading those stuff that they share some is really helpful and informative especially those that have a detailed workflow, but the rest is just for show-off nothing impressive, but anyway on that thread they mention the term "Frequency Separation" and how this applies to skin retouching. Now let me discuss this term in the best of my understanding and how this technique helps in getting a good result in beauty retouching.


Frequency separation in layman's term is simply splitting the image into two separate layers the high-frequency and low frequency, now why we need to split the image and how it helps in retouching.
Clone tool and Patch tool is the foremost tool in Photoshop that we often use when we want to remove blemishes on the skin, but one perplexity of every Photoshop user when utilizing such tools are after you clone or heal a certain area of the skin you will notice a shift in colors as well as a shift in highlights and shadows that are very visible on the image which tends to look blotchy specially if the skin has a lot of shadows. 

Say for example, you want to remove a pimple and you use the healing brush to remove the pimple so you sampled in an area of a skin around the pimple that is clear and you apply it on the affected area and right after you heal that portion you will notice that the skin tends to darken or sometime lighten compare to the other skin surrounding it and also the color becomes different thus creating blotches and the effect is very obvious. In short, every time we use a patch or clone tool or even other healing brush directly on an image there is always a tendency of shift in colors, shadows and in highlights. This always happen when the image has a very deep shadow and also when you heal an area along the edge of the face that has a transition of shadow and highlights.

Why does this thing occur? It is because these tools tend to copy not just the texture, but also the shadow and the highlights as well. 

So how to prevent this? Well that is where the Frequency Separation comes in.
Frequency separation or the "Split" is the technique being used by Retoucher to safely remove skin blemishes without the result of blotches or color shifts. In the split, the image are divided into two separate images, the first image contains the texture of the image and it is called the "high frequency" layer while the other image contains the colors, shadow and highlights and it is called the "low frequency" layer.
When you are on a Split you can safely heal the skin imperfection on the high frequency layer without the fear of color shifts, etc. because you are actually touching the texture part of the image. Now where is the color, shadow and highlights of the image? It is underneath the low frequency layer actually. 

Next I will try to write some article about Inverted High-Pass and what it can do on an Image.

Here are some link that discusses Frequency Separation" and how to do it in Photoshop:


Natalia Taffarel Blog 
Sean Baker Discussion about Frequency separation
Here's a very informative video tutorial from Angela


will add more links soon!

Bikinis anyone?

It's been seven long months since my last blog entry here and I just suddenly realized that I need to update this blog not because I have to, but simply because I missed writing some stuff and posting it here on my blog. 
Anyway, I had a great time these past few months I have been busy with my work of course, but I manage to shoot once in a while I also did some retouching jobs on the side as well.
Right now I have a bunch of new set photos to share and I will start by sharing with you my recent shot of Ms. Che a beautiful and gorgeous Filipina model who frequently visit Singapore. This was taken at Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino with me during the shoot was a good friend Jumbo Kulitoy hope you all like it.

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Model: Che

Thank you guys and hope you enjoy the set.

Natalia Taffarel High-End Retouching Workshop in Singapore

NATALIA TAFFAREL - Professional High End Retouching Artist from Argentina is coming to Singapore on ...19 to 20 February, 2011 for a 2 day High End Retouching workshop.
The retouching workshop will show Natalia's complete workflow from start to finish as she works first on a beauty image and then the hair image, working in Adobe Photoshop CS4. The main goal of the workshop is to show and explain the entire process and techniques needed for retouching high end beauty and hair images. Not only does Natalia show and explain the techniques she also explains the thought process behind the techniques and why they are used or why not or when. This makes for a much more thorough and complete learning tool, with the hope that the attendees can walk away with the knowledge needed to competently evaluate an image, envision the result in the mind's eye, plan the process and execute the work needed to achieve the vision.
Some of Natalia's Clients are:
* Michael Jackson
* Westlife
* Rihanna
* Fatboy Slim
* Florence and the Machine
* Alex Reid
* JLS - Jack the Lad Swing
* Pendulum
* Lily Cole
* MIA
* Vogue UK
* Elle UK - China - Germany
* Sugar UK
* Fabulous
* The Big Issue
* Q
* Sublime UK
* L'oreal
* Maybelline
* Revlon
* ASOS
* N Peal
* Wella
* Unilever
Join Natalia to improve yourselves in creating competitive glamorous images.
Date: 19 to 20 February, 2011
Early Bird: s$405 (til 1st January only)
Reg Fee: s$445
Lunch: Provided
Images for retouching: Provided
Venue: Singapore (location will only be disclosed to paid participants)
What to bring:
* Laptop with CS4 installed
* your sound mind :-)
This is a 2 day class of 30pax, no Photo Shoot, 9am to 5pm for Saturday and Sunday. First come, First Serve basis.

Workshop made affordable!
Down payment of s$200 is required to confirm your slot. Balance can be paid on workshop day. Make the donwpayment before 1st Jan and still avail of the early bird price.
Please PM me for registration or
contact xilverclaire@gmail.com/+65 9771-2430
-Xilver Claire Events