![lucisart pro 6.0 plug-in lucisart pro 6.0 plug-in](https://31csme3pssfltgd81lo7eu19-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/lucis3lg.jpg)
I did mine by duplicating the background layer and switching the Layer Blend mode to Multiply. Step Six: Lastly, you’ll finish off by darkening the edges (kind of an edge vignette effect). Again, you’ll probably have to paint over these highlight areas a few times to really exaggerate the look. Up in the Options bar, switch the Range to Highlights, and paint over the highlight areas in his shirt, pants, and along both side edges of him, where the brighter light is hitting. You have to really exaggerate the shadows, so you’ll have to paint over the shadow areas a few times, and let it build up a bit.
![lucisart pro 6.0 plug-in lucisart pro 6.0 plug-in](https://31csme3pssfltgd81lo7eu19-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/lucis-1.jpg)
Now paint over the shadow areas in your photo (like in the folds of his shirt, his pants, on his hat, etc.). We’ll start with Burning after you choose the Burn tool, go up to the Options Bar, set the Range to Shadows (so it just effects the shadows), and lower the Exposure amount to 20%. If you have Photoshop CS4, you can use the Dodge and Burn tools, because they’ve been greatly enhanced. Step Four: Now, the key part of this is Dodging and Burning the heck out of the image, in other words, over exaggerate the highlights and shadows, so the photo almost looks cartoonish (basically, you’re going to make the darkest parts darker, and the brightest parts brighter). All I did in this plug-in was to drag the Enhance Detail slider over to 65, and then I clicked OK. Step Three: Now I applied the Lucis Pro 6.0 plug-in (shown above).
#Lucisart pro 6.0 plug in skin#
This left the rest of the image sharp, but his skin very soft.
![lucisart pro 6.0 plug-in lucisart pro 6.0 plug-in](https://31csme3pssfltgd81lo7eu19-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/topaz-8.jpg)
I avoided the edges of his skin or any areas that were supposed to have detail (like his eyes, eyebrows, lips, etc.). Then I changed the foreground color to white, and I took the Brush tool and painted over just his skin. This hides the blurry layer behind a black mask (as seen here). Then I held the Option key and clicked on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layer panel. Then I applied a 25 pixel Gaussian Blur, then I lowered the opacity of this layer to 50%, as shown here (so it’s half as blurry). I started by duplicating the background layer. What I did for this picture is apply the same type of skin softening I might to a portrait of a woman, but I used a higher amount of blurring than I would normally use. Step Two: Next, you’ll need to do an overall softening of the skin. So, I went through the image and did that first. I Option-clicked in a nearby area that didn’t have a blemish (to sample that skin texture), then I chose a brush size just slightly bigger than the blemishes I wanted to remove, then I moved over the blemish and just clicked once to remove it. So, I started by using the Healing Brush. Step One: Before you run the Lucis Pro 6.0 plug-in, you’ll need to do something to soften your subject’s skin, because the hyper-sharpening the plug-in adds will greatly magnify every blemish, spot, or skin irregularity and it looks pretty bad. However, it’s mean comments like the ones I received yesterday that make me think I should stick to safer topics, like the Nikon D3x pricing and more Lightroom conspiracies. But since I did part one and promised to show the post-processing, I feel like I should finish it, so I’m going to. Obviously, this was a huge mistake on my part, because apparently it just mostly made people mad at me (I don’t know why it always has to come to this-it’s just a Photoshop technique for goodness sakes). The reason I did the post in the first place is that this is the #1 most-requested technique I get from readers, and I thought I’d give it a whirl. OK, today in Part 2 we’re looking at the Post Processing I did to yesterday’s image, and for that I used the new Lucis Art Pro plug-in (which I’m going to mini-review in this same post).ĭISCLAIMER: If you hate the Dave Hill look, or you’re tired of it, or whatever…do me a favor-just skip this post.