harsh lights and smooth skin?

I've seen some pictures of AV's with very smoothly contoured faces even at harsh light angles.

I've tried tweaking the settings for my face ever which way, but no matter what I try, I get this glaring dark crease around where the cheeks meet the area of the mouth that I can't seem to get rid of.

Could anyone give me some hints or perhaps tell me how this is done?
Is it photo-retouching?
Is there a ratio of settings (of the face) that can get rid of the creases?
Or is it done through reskinning the face in the makeup layer?

My AV's face looks great in the moonlight...

SSSSHHHHHH!! (I use photoshop to fix those!)

But you're right. There's some odd characteristic that puts a highlight and shadow in cheek corner by the nose. Normally, there should only be a simple shadow there. I think it has to do with the fact that SL lights every surface faced toward the sun whether it's in shadow or not--thus the hard crease. And for close-ups, I do photoshop them out.

Conversely, I wonder if different lighting settings would fix that.

Mostly, it seems to be a skin-dependent issue. I've seen the creases on skins that allow you to use the basic tint sliders, whereas ones that are fully "opaque" don't tend to.

Hello, all...
Of note is a file in the SL directory C:\Program Files\SecondLife\character (assuming a basic install) listed as head_highlights_alpha.tga. This file determines the placement and strength if highlights on the face. If you are willing to play with this, you can damp down the highlighting. Be aware this fix is client-side only, and cannot be seen by others.

I hope this helps!

Yours,
Mika Kyubi (Muromachi)
Kitsune-at-Large
(Who wants her proper name of Kyubi on SL!)

Good news: The files in the character folder will alter your avatar for anyone viewing. They are needed for the slider transformations that produce freckles, definition, makeup, etc..

Bad news: Altering "some" of those files will crash your system (kind of like division by zero).

My thanks for that heads-up. I agree to err on the side of caution, for those who require such alterations. I for one thankfully do not need them, as I happen to "wear" a Luskwood Fox av with some notable mods. Thanks, though, for the info.

Yours,
Mika Kyubi (Muromachi)
Kitsune-at-Large
(Who wants her name Kyubi in SL!!!!!)

thanks everyone for the advice

i'm going to have to play around with those light/shadow masks (with backups of course),
and hope i don't crash...