Voting will run from 25 July to 31 July 2005. Deadline for votes is 5pm EDT 31 July 2005.

Only those that entered the contest may vote. All other votes will be deleted. If you did not enter, but would like to comment on an entry, please post your comments to the July 05 Discussion Thread (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?p=93094#post93094).

Vote for the 5 best entries in order.

Note you cannot vote for your own image. If you do, your votes will be deleted.

Example Vote:
Pick the top five contest entries and list in order...

1. Entry X (First Place)
2. Entry A (Second Place and so on)
3. Entry Q
4. Entry S
5. Entry P

This thread will remain closed until it's time to vote.

Also don't forget that all participants must vote in order to avoid being disqualified.

Well it’s time to vote and this will take some time with so many entries to review. Remember to make sure you have the most current version of the entry as many changed throughout the month. If there is an edit tag at the end of the post, then most likely the entry has been changed. Also when viewing the images, make sure you view the full image and not just the thumbnail. Furthermore make sure the full image is completely opened as many browsers shrink images to fit within the screen view. If you place your mouse over the image and a box with arrows pointing out appears in the lower corner, this indicates that the image is not full size and you need to expand the image to regular size. Just click on the arrow box to perform this action.

A couple important things to remember about the rules:

1. You must VOTE for the top 5 entries. Participants that do not submit their top 5 WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.

2. This was not a Photo Art challenge. The glamour portrait was to remain as a photo. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t add, subtract or change items, it just means that the quality should still remain as a photo.

And as always, when you vote try to include some things you especially liked about your choices…what made them stand out, what impressed you, etc. This is a learning experience!

Finally, Caitlin has kindly offered to post the images on her server for easier viewing. Once I have the link I will add it here.

For easier viewing of the entries click here (http://www.tv83.net/retouchpro/JulyContest/index.html)

Note this is a temporary web site.

Since this was a glamour touchup and not a paint contest, I leveled my opinion on the following (though I really liked one other, but, to me, it looked like a painting so I had to adhere to the rules in my voting):

1. Doug Colwell
2. soleah
3. Flora
4. smats
5. karmaelea

Note, votes will be tallied as they come in so any changes after the fact will be disregarded.

There were alot of awesome entries here! Congrats to all who entered and to those who place in the voting!!

My votes:

1st - Faustina
2nd - DreamyPix
3rd - TPaul
4th - Caitlin
5th - Flora

Faustina's entry, in my eyes, is absolutely beautiful - WELL DONE! DreamyPix is a very close second, losing out only on the background - for me it just does not say glamour. TPaul's is lovely also, but I thought her nose was altered just a bit too much until it was just not her (but this is just nit-picking really - it's a lovely retouch! And I love her hair in this one!). Caitlin's was also an issue of the background, I just thought was too distracting and doesn't say glamour to me. It was very well executed however, so great job! Flora's I thought the coloring and all was beautiful, but I thought her hair on the side that was replaced was lacking something. Other than that a very well done retouch!

THis was very hard to call on many accounts, and I thought everyone did a very good job!

Great job EVERYONE!

Dawn

(Photoshop - Thanks Caitlin!)

1. Faustina
2. Dreamypix
3. 1stlite
4. Soleah
5. Ilpro

This contest will be a great memory for me.
Thanks everyone

Just wanted to make people aware that there was a problem with the photo album and one entry (pjulich) was accidently left out. I've just fixed it! (Please please use your name as the fiilename is per the instructions - 'portrait7' is not very meaningful hence easily lost!!) Sorry for the mix-up :(

1. Faustina - eyes a little overdone, otherwise Great.
2. Flora - 'fudged' on hair- smooth skin, nice 'nose job'
3. Cazubi - plain BG - good job on face
4. Soleah - color cast, prominent nose - otherwise well done
5. Racclria - face a little 'smudgy' - great eyes

1 Doug Colwell
2 Karmalea
3 Chris Hoggy
4 Gen
5 Ikroll

1. Doug Colwell
2. TPaul
3. Kiska
4. ilpro
5. Faustina

Great contest and awesome entries.

I decided by sorting the entries into two almost equal piles. Then I sorted the better pile into two again and so on. In end I had the six entries I liked best. However I still had to rank them and one of them would be left out. Since I liked them best, I had to nitpick to drop some in rank. Please don't be vexed by my comments. It's how I managed to vote, so don't shoot!
1. chrishoggy - Very nice interpretation. I can't say better than first place :classic: 2. lorraine - I like the expression and the skin. The lower half of the hair needs work. 3. dougcolwell - Nice skin. Could have worked on the hair. 4. gobethgo - I had a really hard time deciding between this and dougcolwell. Gobethgo lost out because of the neck and eyes. 5. 1stlite - The painterly hair would have been an asset in another contest

In case you're wondering, the sixth was dreamypix. The skin color of the upper half is great, but it changes from the mouth down.

I know it's said all the time, but this seriously was incredibly hard to judge. For the same reason it was hard to do, it was hard to work out what the best result was in others work too.

My criteria was - realistic and attractive makeup added, still looks like the model, attractive overall effect.

My very tortuous final list came out as:

1. Dreamypix - nice makeup, like the background perspective. Could do with some noise removed.
2. RaccaIria - Not my favourite colours for makeup, but well done.
3. Karmaelea - love the eye colour, and makeup and skin looks good.
4. 1st light - love the hair colour, and the background is really interesting.
5. Doug Colwell - Could do with a bit more makeup, but skin and lips are great.

In terms of technical skill and polish I thought that Faustina and Flora were far ahead and were really attractive images, but in both cases I felt that the model's 'look' was altered too much, and I no longer recognised her, so I didn't feel I could rate either in my top 5.

1. Faustina
2. Flora
3. dougcolwell
4. Lorraine
5. soleah

It wasn`t easy to choose :)

1. DreamyPix. I think you did a great job smoothing her skin, while preserving texture and a nice job with the hair and makeup. I would have liked to see a different background besides the brick.

2. Soleah. I love the pastel hues you decided to use and that you fluffed up her hair. I toyed with that idea myself, but you really made it work! I also like that you made the earrings match the background... details details :)

3. ISTLITE. I loved watching your image transform over the month ;) I think you ended up with a beautiful image. The lashes are great and I love the coloring. I think the hair looks a little oversmoothed, otherwise I would have had you higher :)

4. Flora. Beautiful coloring, glamourous indeed. The only reason I have you 4th is a matter of personal preference. I would have liked to see the eyemakeup highlighting her brows and really making her eyes pop with less of the brown and the eye whites less yellow. Really nice :)

5. Caitlin. You did a nice job


I really love Doug Colwell's image and had this not had "glamour" in the name of the game, he would have been my personal 1st place. It's beautiful work evening out the skin tones, etc...I just didn't much any glam in it.

There is a tremendous amount of talent here and I am happy to have found this forum :)

Here are my votes, based on how much they looked like an actual photo.

1. Faustina
2. Karmaelea
3. dreamypix
4. Chrishoggy
5. Flora

This was so difficult to narrow down to 5, so I’ve included my top 11 picks. :dizzy:

In judging this contest, my criteria was to select the most photo-realistic entries. I concentrated on the eyes, skin texture and overall color tones in making my final selections.

1. Flora – Beautiful job in every aspect.

2. Doug Colwell – Excellent work in maintaining her original look while creating perfect skin texture and natural looking makeup.

3. Soleah – Outstanding eyes and makeup. Her hairstyle is very complimentary.

4. Dreamypix – Exceptional work on the eyes and skin. She positively glows.

5 . Twinbnj – Her eyes look great. Good job on the hair, makeup and skin tones. Very natural looking.

Honorable mention to: Faustina, Caitlin, 1stLight, RaccIria, chrishoggy and karmaelea.

Congratulations to everyone who entered this contest. And special thanks to Caitlin for the photo album.

Lorraine

Here are my votes. Great work everyone, it was hard to narrow it down to 5.

1. Dreamypix: Beautiful color and natural skin. The brick background was the only thing that bothered me.

2. Faustina: Very glamorous. The eyes are a bit over bright.

3. Chrishoggy: Beautifully subtle, nice skin tone.

4. Flora: Beautiful color all around, and skin and hair look great.

5. Lorraine: Good skin tone, and very nice color. Hair looked a little cut-out.

:bigthmb:

1st Faustina- Beautiful job- Great attention to details. Love the rhinestones-wish I had thought of that one..:)

2nd Caitlyn- Wonderful job. The hair looks so natural that I didn't realize you had added the top til voting today and I have looked at these at least a dozen times! Great job!

3rd- Flora- Reminds me of the song Beautiful dreamer. Love the dreamy quality.

4th- Chris Hodgy- Love the background, the hair looks great and the skin looks pretty good----but where's the makeup? Needs more glammed up with some makeup! Other than that- Great Job!

5th- Tpaul- I love the colors used in your portrait. Nice and warm. My only nitpick is the skin is a little too smooth, need some texture/details. Good job!


Congrats to everyone!

~Amber~

1 - Dreamypix - overall great job on the hair, eyes and skintone.

2 - Faustina - stunning, soft and galmous

3 - Chrishoggy - This one struck me with the natural glamour look it has.

4 - Kiska - just love the tones of the B&W, and the crop completes the look.

5 - Kschulz - just a wonderful job on the hair, skin and eyes.

Great entries - lots of fun and certainly hard to judge! My top picks:

1) Flora - Simply outstanding! Great hair, makeup, and depth. The only easy choice for me.

2) dreamypix - Excellent skin texture. I like the receding background.

3) RaccIria - Great skin color. For me, the eyes would've looked more realistic if the light reflection came from the center, like the original. Overall, nice job!

4) Lorraine - very natural look, especially the makeup.

5) Caitlin - great skin texture and color. Points for creative background.

Honorable mention: chrishoggy - struggled a lot with this one. In the final vote, the skin was smoothed a tad much for my tastes. Excellent entry!

Surprise: For some reason, I expected more variations on her dress. Only a very few made any real modifications...

Thanks to nurdant for contributing this photo...you make a great model!

Great job everyone. I enjoyed it immensely and learned a lot from all. :nod:

- Kurt

1.Jaime
2.Dreamypix
3.Faustina
4.T. Paul
5. Karmaelea

1. faustina
2. dreamypix
3. lorraine
4. flora
5. 1stLite

faustina's: absolutely my first choice pick right from when posted. i knew this was the one to beat. excellent hightlights and shadows. great eye treament, correct use of highlights below the brows to narrow the cheeks. excellent use of shadows on cheeks and nose to sculpt. perfect hair. perfect lips. truly what i think of as 'glam'.

dreamypix: very nice overall. a bit too much red overall. could stand some more contrast in face between highlights and shadows. nice treatment of eyes and lips. good color in cheeks. missed a bit on making the hair too fat at the worst point, left of her cheeks, thus widening the cheeks just a touch. but very nicely done!

lorraine: i almost threw lorraine's out of the running for the rough edges on the hair, but the overall look, particularly the face, saved it. good eyes, good lips, good tone, decent hightlight to shadow ratio. just nice to look at overall.

flora: also very nicely done and almost 3rd place for me. good eyes, good lips, good tone, good hair, good highlights/shadows, but left the cheeks a bit fat, especially with the hair wide on the left, and not enough treatment around end of nose.

1stLIte: almost lost this on the hair. bordering close on photo-art. good eyes, good lips. coloring, shadows and highlights could have been smoother, but good. also very easy to look at.

you folks are really going to have to get worse at this so i can make my voting easier ;)

also, to make my voting easier, i threw out all those that didnt follow the rules. if you didnt use your name in the file name or didnt come at least close to the 800 x 600 pic size, i dropped them.

well done to all! a very good contest!

Craig

1 Twinbnj
2 Tpaul5b
3 Eliebeth
4 Dougcowell
5 Faustina

So difficult to choose welldone all

1. Ilpro - everything is done so well - bg, bg/model integration, lighting and highlights, colour and makeup, skin texture and glisten. Very dramatic treatment, but totally believable as studio lighting and makeup. Big wow.

2. Chrishoggy - Nice soft treatment. Skin and features look great, and good bg choice and integration. Very successful in keeping faithful to her look.

3. Lorraine - First place face, terrific eyes. Skin clean-up, colouring and preserved details looks spot on. The only problem I see is her hair looks a little ragged or cutout against the bg.

4. Caitlin - I like the complexion, and subtle makeup, especially the eye and lip colouring/details (eye lashes enhanced but not too Vegas). Bg transition seems a little hard on the right side (hair and arm). Extra points for whole head.

5. Jaime - this one really jumps out, good colour and contrast. Hair, skin and pouty lips (collagen?) look great. What detracts a bit are the slightly too white eye whites, and hard iris edges.

1. Cazubi
2. Caltlin
3. Chrishoggy
4. Twin bnj
5. Racc Iria


#1.(Cazubi) It is soft,easy to look at with out looking made up, or fake.
#2.(Caltlin) Smooth skin,Great background,if hair was feathered in to the background just a little it would be perfect.
#3.(Chrishoggy) The background and skintone match so well great job.
#4.(Twin bnj) I like the eyes, good job.
#5.(Racc Iria) Skintone is Great,The highlight in her eye makes it look like the
light source is coming from the side which would cast a shadow on her features.
All of you did great, I enjoyed viewing all of them.(what's next Paul)

I cast my votes for:

1. Faustina
2. Dreamypix
3. RaccIria
4. Chilli7101
5. Soleah

Thanks Nurdant for a beautiful face to work with!

1. Faustina
2. Dreamypix
3. Flora
4. Lorraine
5. Chrishoggy

To be original, below my hard to decide votes, based on eye treatment (removal of red reflexion), removal of hair strands from face and outer part, overall skin treatment and that they maintained the portrait look.

1- Flora, impecable!
2- Caitlin
3- Cazubi
4- Lorraine
5- TwinbNJ

With a longer list I would have included: Chrishoggy, Soleah, Karmaelea, DougColwell, Dreamypix, Kshulz and !stlite.

Regards - Martha :wavey:

Here's my vote - based on skin smoothing, eye touchup, stray hair cleanup, appropriate glamor background and overall glamor "appeal". Also judged on the result remaining a photograph, not a painted portrait.
1. Flora - very nicely done; a soft exotic look to it and great skin smoothing.
2. Cazubi - all elements well done
3. Faustina - awesome job but the eyes are a little much for me. Also felt that black and white does not show the skin smoothing skill to the same degree that color does. However her shading etc. is wonderful.
4.Ilpro- a good creative entry. Different and well done.
5.Chilli7101 - not crazy about the background but good makeup.

So here's my voting:

1. Flora - everything beautiful & harmonic
2. Faustina - beautiful ... but eyes *imo* slightly overdone
3. Kschulz - beautiful & very natural eyelashes
4. Soleah - glamourous ... but lipstick *imo* a little bit smudgy
5. Cazubi - beautiful ... except this plain white background

Oh, it really wasn't easy to decide ... applauding all the other participants :o)

Kind regards
karmaelea

Here are my choices:

1. Faustina ( hands -down_ beautiful work, clean lines and sharp profiling - would love to see and explanantion or tut on this one Faustina - Wow!! )

2. TPaul - what can one say. encompasses all of those elements that are needed to round out a fine retouch -; looks great

3. Soleah - nice soft rendition, seemed a little small but draws the eye

4. Ryan M. Nice 40 -50 glam B&W - like this one a lot, but competition was fierce

5 Lorraine - very nice, caught all the detail and unless i missed something, was nicely proportioned and balanced


Honorable mention to portraitREEsm (gen) for fine detail around the earings and the flash of the stones. Very well done, but tough given the competition, keep it up. All excellent entries.

I would be interested in how everyone did their renditions (Steps /Tut), particularly the skin and eyes, as my own picture's skin looked blotchy when I put it up on the net, but not when viewing it on screen.

Which pics did the 'owner of the face' pic for herself - just interested???

Well done everyone, looking forward to competing against you all in the next round... I'm moving up slowly form the back of the pack and looking for the opening on the outside, coming round the first quarter post :lol:

Sean

It was not an easy task to choose five.

1. Faustina
2. Chrisshogy
3. Dreamypix
4. RaccIria
5. TPaul

Thanks to nurdant, the model for this glamour contest. Also thanks Caitlin for the help of the photo album.

No one picture really did it all for me, but there were elements in each of my top 5 choices that made them stand out.

I'm not too much of a "beauty" touch up fan, so looked for a "light touch" and that's why I chose Chris as 1st, others were chosen on overall picture impact, and technique.

1st ChrisHoggy (Overall light touch, needed a little more contrast)
2nd Flora (Outstanding eyes, only person to do them justice}
3rd Lorraine (A little harsh on the cut out, so didn't sit naturally into background)
4th Caitlin (loved the background, but poor selection on right shoulder let it down).
5th Kschulz (Eyes too bright for rest of image, or would have marked higher).

Just realised I've marked them by pointing out faults (in my eyes), but this was only way to seperate them, as all did a similar job on the skin, hair, and general "beautification".

1. Faustina
2. Flora
3. chrishoggy
4. dreamypix
5. dougcolwell

tried to think about the possible interpretations of the challenge in picking my top 5. Something of a mixed bag which shows a lot of thought in working out individual 'solutions'. Great work everyone.

1. Dreamypix
2. Faustina
3. RaccIria
4. PatrickB
5. Eliebeth

I hope this is OK but this was a joint decision between my wife and me.
We have eventually decided on

1 faustina
2 dreamypix
3 soleah
4 PatrickB
5 RaccIria

Thanks to nurdant. You would not believe what I learned from this competition.
Great job everyone. I enjoyed it immensely and learned a lot from you all.


Ken

1/ faustina- An amazing job done all round. I can't fault your image at all, and would be happy to pay top $$'s for that level of work.

2/ dougcolwell- The eyes were my only problem with this one. They seemed a bit too bright, and stood out a little too much.

3/ Flora- Nice image, but the background seemed to overpower the image of the face.

4/ Lorraine- A little better blending of the background to the hair, and sharpening of the eyes would have put this further up the voting.

5/ nurdant- Like the red hair look, but some bits were missed round the earrings. Also needed red eye removing.

A very difficult contest to judge.
Congratulations to all, amazing talent out there.


1. Faustina

2. Flora

3. RaccIria

4. Dreamypix

5. Soleah

Faustina – Stunning glamour retouch! I love the skin and lighting in this. I am sure many will want to know your steps for your technique (me included)! Adding the sequins to the top was a great addition and really enhanced the glamour look. The sparkling irises are a bit odd and lessen the realism though.

Flora – A lovely glamour look with just the right amount of softness. My one complaint would be the background, as it overpowers the image just a bit.

Doug Colwell – Light on the glam, but a really nice natural beauty look. Great masking work too.

Dreamypic – A lovely retouch and I especially like the eyelashes. However, the heavy even texture especially in the skin areas I find a bit strong and unnatural looking. Must admit I'm not a fan of the brick wall for the background either.

Caitlin – I like the warm tones and that you repositioned the woman so that you could see her entire head. Nice touch. I think this one would be stronger if it was just a tad softer looking.

Honorable Mention –
Karmaelea – Light on the glam, but a nice natural beauty look. I had you as number 6 due to the wispy hair you left over the eye and a few others you could have tamed around the face. I like the eye shadow you added, and especially how you make it sparkle. Nicely done.

1stLite, lovely results, but alas it looks too much like a painting for this contest.

Here's my vote:
1. faustina
2. flora
3. dreamypix
4. kschulz
5. cazubi

honorable mentions: lorraine, doug colwell, chrishoggy

My top 5 may differ from the others, but somehow I find myself agreeing with the others choices, too.

Well done everyone, for the great entries and great judging! :bigthmb: :bigthmb: :bigthmb:

Kudos to all those that entered this month’s contest. Congrats on a job well done and a special thanks to Nurdant for letting us work on her photo. I’m happy to see that she not only joined the site but also tried her hand at the contest. Hopefully she will remain an active member of our community.

This month’s contest winner is Faustina! Congrats on your stunning entry. Enjoy your prize : Image Doctor by Alien Skin (http://www.alienskin.com/idoc/idoc_main.html). Please take the time to share your steps with us.


The top 10:
Faustina – 109
Dreamypix – 74
Chrishoggy – 38
Doug Colwell – 36
Soleah – 26
Lorraine – 25
Caitlin & Racc Iraia – 21
TPaul – 19
Cazubi - 17