Eran

10 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

Thank you.

Now, select the Levels layer, and go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options.

Are you familiar with the "Blend if" sliders?  I need you to Alt-click on this white slider and drag it in to about halfway:

(You probably already know this, but using Alt breaks that little slider in half, allowing only one section to move).

Hmm...
The skin retouch was done after the levels , so I need to delete that layer and do skin retouch at the end ?

11 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

For now, please follow my lead on this.  I may surprise you and actually know what I'm doing ?

At the end of the process, you might decide that you like 0.5.  But for now, please show me 0.4.

Here you go sir :

Also - Why not first do skin retouch and than levels/BW etc... ?

33 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

Let's take this in steps ...

First, make sure you process this raw file in 16-bit rather than the usual 8-bit. We'll need all that robust data.

Then do your BW conversion again, exactly as you've done.

Then add the overall Levels layer.  You'll probably find that you can bring the white slider in to about 250.  (DON'T bring the black slider in.  Despite what you think, I don't believe there's any black clipping in this edit.)  Then move the middle slider aggressively darker, I suggest to about 0.40.

At this point, you'll begin to recognise some of the characteristics of the other photo.  Not all, but some.  Enough for now.

Then return to the Background layer, duplicate it, then perform all your skin smoothing and blemish removal in the usual way.

Post for me once you've done that.

I did all you said but instead of going to 0.4 which was too dark for me , I went 0.5....

Hi ,
Someone retouched in the past one of my old images and I always like the look of the skin from that image.
I would like to know how to achieve same look on my other pictures by my own .

He worked on RAW and not SOOR ... I know this image has black clipping which I don't mind for now , All I want it the skin effect ?

Here is the end result retoucher sent me :

Here is my the soor

And this is how it looks when I convert it to BW (before levels)