How to get leathery-face look?

A gimp mask has got to be good for a leather face.

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No need for special tricks.

  • convert to BW and put weight on green (and maybe blue) channel > skin tone will be darker and pores more visible
  • add contrast to taste
  • pull down midtones, if skin tone is too pale
  • add local contrast
  • oversharpen, especially use too high radius, but watch for jagged lines especially in hair - masking can help in this task

Usually red channel is favored in portrait BW-conversions because it usually yields pleasant low contrast look. Green channel will give darker skin tones and more contrasty skin, usually doesn’t look good if it has lots of weight.

Had some G’MIC fun. Much gentler treatment.

Edit 2 A side by side comparison might be better. Zoom and enjoy!

The answer is bw adjusted for high contrast skin tones and … flash! Can also be achieve with other lighting but flash does the trick. You won’t be able to postprocess a good result.

Thought of this image when I filtered the dog in G'MIC fun with afre - #49 by afre.

Before

After

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