Maybe more than I can chew...

[RandyC]

I have probably bit off more than I thought I could handle...

Any suggestions...???
I am not very good at repainting in a realistic fashion...so i tried to deter from that but,
i cannot think of any other methods to smooth out the skin more and retain definition...?

[glennab]

Hi Randy

So far, so good!  To smooth his face and collar, I'd try the patch tool.  I've found it a good way to even out rough areas.  Often I'll clone patches that are really mucked up, then go back and use the patch tool to pull good skin from other areas (i.e. his forehead) to ease the mottled look.  Best to do this on a duplicate layer, because the patch tool is one that won't work with "all layers turned on."  You have to work with the original. Don't try to use patches that are too large.  Try to maintain the shading as best you can, but you can always go back and dodge & burn or whatever works for you to get the contours back.  I find that when there's that much discrepancy in the texture and I use the healing brush, I end up with very odd artifacts in spots.

Your background looks fine, but it appears that you masked him from the original.  Try to smooth that transition with a little feathering or blur on the mask.  If you didn't use a mask, go to layers, matting, defringe, give it a pixel value and see if that blends him a bit better.  (Two might even work, but I've found that 1 usually does the job.

Good luck!  You chose a real bear, brave soul.

Cheers,

GK

[Johnboy]

Randy,

It looks like you are headed in the right direction so far. Glenna has a good suggestion about the patch tool. I use it a lot in the ones I have done. I'll add something to what Glenna said. I keep the History palette open on my desktop at all times. I will usually use the patch tool and then deselect. It is a lot of mousing around but if you see something that you don't like it is easy to undo by going back to the last deselect. It also gives you a chance to try a couple of areas of good material to see which works the best. It is a great help when you get down to those subtle tones that are hard to tell if you made any change at all. By clicking on the previous deselect and the one you just made you can see the tonal change if there is any. At least you can tell if you are headed in the right direction. You may want to take frequent Snapshots of your work as you progress. That way you can always back up to the last stag that you liked. You may already know this, but thought I would mention for what it may be worth to you or others.

Johnboy

[Charlene5]

Hi Randy -

In addition to the patch tool I use a technique involving a levels layer.  It's not as complicated as it sounds :)  I took your guy and added a plain Levels layer -  use either Layer - New Adjustment Layer or use the doohickey at the bottom of layers palette.  Don't do anything to the levels yet.  Just click OK as it is and carry on.

Make sure your paint is set to the default black/white and grab a brush.  I use a soft one adjusted to the size of the mess.  I decided that he had more dark mess than light and started on that.  Hit the backslash key - the \ thing - and Photoshop drops you into the Quick Mask mode.  I use that so I can see what I've doing and where I've been.  I don't look at him as a face, just dark and light in the wrong places.  Paint over everything that is obviously too dark.  When you're done he'll look like this:



Hit the backslash key again and the red goes away.  Do a Ctrl/I to invert the Levels layer.  Double click on the left thumbnail on the levels layer and it'll reopen the levels dialogue.  Use the BOTTOM sliders.  I was going from darker to lighter so I'm shoving the left slider.  (Lighter to darker would be the right side.)  I play with it until I find a point where the lightest darks start making demarkation lines.  Click OK and have another look at him.  Here's what I got:



He's going to need a couple more passes for the dark stuff and one for the light on his forehead, but that's the basic idea.  It won't fix it perfectly but it will give you a much better starting point than you have. 

Cheers,
MJ

[glennab]

MJ, that's a great technique.  Not one I've seen before.  We definitely have to mark it to go into our tips & tricks department.  I have Katrin Eismann's book on masking & compositing, which may discuss something like this, but I haven't gotten far enough into it to have found this gem if she uses it.

Cheers back at ya!

GK

P.S. Is doohickey a technical term?

[RandyC]

thank you so much for the advice.
I have been using the patch tool as suggested and y'all have given me a new look on it now. 
And Charlene, that levels tip is awesome. 

And another quick question... how far should I take this?  There is no way, i think, to completely smooth it out w/o it taking on a fake look.
Hopefully I'll have another pass at the photo up by this weekend.

Thanks again all.

[Johnboy]

Randy,

Take it as far to where it looks good. That maybe more of a judgement call. You may not be able to restore everything back the way it was originally. But you can try to get it back to where it looks as good as you can get it given the situation. I think if you use MJ's tutorial and Glenna's patch tool suggestion you will come pretty close. Feel free to post work in progress, and don't be afraid to start over. It took me 5 attempts to create a mask on my first one.

Johnboy