Has anyone seeing a look as close to this as possible?

I know it was a long ago, but a new post from @gigelo (https://p-v.club/threads/youpic-request-high-resolution-portraits-from-inspirational-artists.39370/) made me willing to went for a second/third path on mk slowinski images with goal to finish their deconstruction.

Also, since they started to publish IG video reels, it became possible to compare "real" look of their models / environment with the outcome.

In a brief summary, i would say, previous conclusions were pretty correct, plus I found almost all images (after color grade) use pretty same skin color palette, which can be extracted manually or with help of ColourmapX plugin.

By steps, firstly, faces (skin) are processed with FS using Mixer Brush in FS Color Layer with fully removed skin detail (in result) - on few images they are traces of it. After that, the skin is "restored" with generated texture using PS Filter Gallery plugin, freckles added (I counted just 3! freckles patterns), and polished with light D&B and color grading across all the image to create a some color harmony (mostly based on pretty saturated opposite colors), including btw changes in color not only clothes / accessories but even hair and eyes. And this is all the "secret" .



There is only one open question remains, because most of the faces are heavily sculpted, symmetry corrected and aligned with so called "golden ratio". Theoretically it could be done with help of Liquefy PS filter, however, it is very time consuming work (which could take more time and effort than all other parts of retouch itself), and also I'm not sure how to get such consistent and "precise" results across series of images. My feelings are that it is done with some PS add-on or tool/filter (definitely not Portraiture or Portrait Pro - they have no such granular control) that I have no knowledge, so any advise (what it could be) is highly appreciated and welcome .

 

Great reply even though some of it will require me to do more research to learn!'

 

Thank you, every time glad to help

 

here you have some more resources (2048px long edge photos)
https://p-v.club/threads/youpic-req...nspirational-artists.39370/page-2#post-184944

 

Thanks!

 

@MarkHarris71 @gigelo

PS. To illustrate the point, I've included (into my previous post) a small collage of their Before/After where all the things that I told before visible pretty well by naked eye.

PPS. This also explains why they don't have online recorded courses, and during personal workshops mostly cryptically talk about Retouch and PhotoShop just in general but never can reproduce and successfully repeat their kinda "own" workflow . From other side, they are in a good company Mo...ris, Dor...ell, M.E.e, ..., I have pretty long list (few I met even personally) of famous names synthetically created for good money flow in the similar way. Ha ha.

Cheers!

@MarkHarris71 And, on closing note, as pretty old person, I can say there is nothing wrong to learn all the life (even on retirement ). Recently I found very interesting Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/OscarNtege) related to real (not obscured in anyway) retouch process and education. There are nothing really evolutionary, however, the author Oscar Ntege (might be because he is not yet sick with money gathering as mentioned people) speaks openly and detailed about many (retouching) things in his very specific way, and often tell about very small tiny but critical details which honestly I understood in the past after very many forth and back unsuccessful and painful tries. I hope it will be helpful as well.

 

@Foxman2k here’s something that may be of interest
https://p-v.club/threads/elena-kanaschenko-lght-setup-actions.40127/

 

Thanks.

PS. If you take attention, in this case "before" and "after" have no big difference, just a marginal tone change, however, in the mentioned and discussed before MK shots "source" and "result" are two different pictures where retouching studio (but not MK) changes everything starting from face geometry/proportions/symmetry and ending by skin structure including artificial skin details and artificial freckles.

Honestly, I don't have enough time and even more unfortunately I don't have around (in the country where I live right now) red haired teen models with great pale non-damaged skin (I met only one in five years ) to fully recreate this style.

From other side, if you take a look at the new NBP tools, especially Freyja Rae de Vil Color Gradients and LUTs https://www.nbpretouchtools.com/collections/color-and-luts you can find at least answer to the question about "consistency" and color of the skin in MK pictures (they apparently use pretty similar LUT set which transforms all possible light skin colors into one same consistent tone). Everything else it is more or less digital painting and photo manipulation (which I also love and do some times) rather than regular retouching process. It looks really good in a portfolio but it is not a miracle, and result pictures do not show "real" people but digital creations with totally perfect golden ratio aligned symmetric faces and perfect (same) magic skin tones ; btw, Jason Buff (Jabu Studio) (which logo picture you linked to your profile haha) uses very similar techniques, only much less than MK retouchers and to much more reasonable and natural extent.

Kind regards!