Folliculitis

[Miss Sally]

Hi There,

I have a mom who suffers from a condition that causes unsightly facial hair.  She treats the hair for removal but it causes a severe case of folliculitis.  I've read that the dust and scratches filter can help with severe baby acne.  I'm wondering what settings you would suggest for this level of editing OR if you could suggest something better.  

I have tried doing it by hand but the area on the edge is impossible to address.  

Thanks for any help.  

 

[Samantha LaRue]

Can you get a crop like this? http://www.damiensymonds.net/2013/09/grabbing-700x700px-100-crop.html

[Miss Sally]

wait...that explains it....i uploaded the first one....not once but twice!  lol

86 that last upload...here's the correct one:

 

[Samantha LaRue]

15 minutes ago, Miss Sally said:

wait...that explains it....i uploaded the first one....not once but twice!  lol

Lol! glad you got it figure out! hehe that's a much better view.

Have you done any editing to this image yet, or is it SOOR (only raw editing done)?

 

[Miss Sally]

I bumped up the luminosity to reduce the noise (was shooting at a high ISO)

but i did that in RAW...so yes, SOOR...lol

 

[Samantha LaRue]

Ok, i still see some noise, so can you go back and try it like this? http://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/07/raw-noise-removal.html

[Miss Sally]

Thank you.  I edit in a different manner.  Coming from a film background, grain (or noise in digital speak) doesn't bother me.    
I tried following your directions for full noise "removal" and I was really uncomfortable with how processed and plastic the effect was.  

I thank you for your time and trying to help.  I've figured it out for the most part.  Thank you.

 

[Miss Sally]

and to clarify.....full fledged noise isn't acceptable in my eyes, but a reduction in noise doesn't bother me.  

Thanks again,  

[Damien Symonds]

33 minutes ago, Miss Sally said:

Thank you.  I edit in a different manner.  Coming from a film background, grain (or noise in digital speak) doesn't bother me.

For as long as you persevered with this flawed reasoning, your photos cannot be their best. Please update your thinking.

[Miss Sally]

L O L

thank you but that's something I chose to disagree with.  I think over processed photos are worse than a little noise.  

[Christina Keddie]

But they're not overprocessed.   Leaving any noise means you can't sharpen for output properly, which necessarily means that your output files are, by definition, not as good as they could be.

Just some food for thought for you: http://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/10/noise-reduction-and-sharpening-leap-of.html

[Damien Symonds]

8 hours ago, Miss Sally said:

thank you but that's something I chose to disagree with.  I think over processed photos are worse than a little noise.  

Nobody is talking about overprocessing.

[Miss Sally]

You got it   Thanks for your help and suggestion.  Have a good night

 

[Damien Symonds]

Obviously it's necessary (though difficult) for me to accept that not everyone wants their photos to be good, so I'll drop the noise thing.

The next problem you have is the colour space.  Please follow this to fix it.

[Damien Symonds]

Regarding the actual skin issue, did you try the Dust & Scratches filter?  It's very fast, and does a fair job for very little effort.

This was with the values of 20/5:

[Damien Symonds]

@Miss Sally, how did you go?