Please let me know what you think.

I pulled my website because I was afraid some of these people that were bashing me would visit my personal webpage and start something. Here are the pictures. The file name web is my finished product....I still need some help. I didn't want to cause any trouble but decided to pull my pictures so nobody could continue bashing the child pageant pictures plus my friend had a fit when she found out that I had her child on my personal webpage so I changed it to a non-informative page.


http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/dollpic00/doll/

Stacey,

Are you going for a pageant retouch? In all honesty, this particular photo is in high contrast and has extremely harsh lighting and I think that should be remedied first before you begin retouching. I think you would have done a really great job, but the contrast/harsh lighting makes it difficult to tell what you have done with the retouch on this particular photo. I gave it a whack to see if this problem can be remedied and it can be- see attachment. I'm not sure what you are working with (I am currently with Photoshop 7 until I upgrade the pc) so, If you would like for me to list the steps I would be glad to help.

~Amber~

Honestly, recognising this photo from another post, the eyes no longer look natural and despite the addition of teeth to the smile, it is not flattering. Personally when looking at a photo of another, thought it would be worth while to pinch the lips as in the original the girl looks rather miffed or thin lipped or both and I have not been able to satisfactorily been able to warp into a smile

I am sorry but why turn a child into a doll?

I will never ever understand why a parent does not cherish their child and keep that child looking like a child, sorry to me pagents are taking the childhood fast, that is one very beautiful child, so why its not kept to look natural i will never understand.

I am sorry but why turn a child into a doll?

I will never ever understand why a parent does not cherish their child and keep that child looking like a child, sorry to me pagents are taking the childhood fast, that is one very beautiful child, so why its not kept to look natural i will never understand.
I totally agree, however, there is obviously a market out there and a requirement to be fulfilled, sad isn't it?

Looking at the original photo I have to wonder if it is a displaced pout or a bit of resentment in her face

Pageant pics have always been a slippery topic around here but, please, let's not forget to respect each other..

There are a lot of mum's who want this service done;
There is a big market for this service;
There are talented professionals (including Amber) working in this area.

Rô

I wish you luck, i know its a big market in America, and here in England i don't think there is a huge market for it, shes a pretty little girl, but i understand that these events are done, and brilliant prizes are won at them.

Good luck with your Pageant pic hun!

Thanks Ro, for the kind words and I agree- it is a very touchy subject.

Stacey-

I went through alot of steps to get to the final image, but the most important step would be to fix the contrast and the harsh lighting First thing- There also ended up being a colorcast as well (Or it's the new moniter?)

To fix the contrast in the original photo I took the following steps-

Open Document- Duplicate background layer, Now on the Duplicate Background Layer press the following keys, Ctrl+Alt+~, now press Ctrl+J and this should make a new layer with just the mid tones selected, Now change the mode to multiply- Lower opacity to 50%. Now, make sure you are working on the Duplicate Background Layer again- Ctrl+Alt+~, after you make the selection, inverse the selection (you can do this by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I), now press Ctrl+J, now you have selected the shadows, change the mode of the shadows to Screen. Now that you have done this, Select All (Ctrl+A) under the menu Edit>Copy Merged. Now paste, now you can work with the levels/curves to help brighten it up a bit.

Now I am sure there is an easier way (prob with curves) but I feel like I have the most control this way. And until I learn a better-this is it.

I will have to finish the rest of the steps in a bit, the boys are starving around here. Gotta feed em.

~Amber~

My prototype doll

~~~Amber that is perfect!~~~

Thanks! :blush: I try... Has anyone else heard from Stacey? I have noticed that she pulled her photos as well as links to her site with the photos? Just curious, it actually makes me a little leary really. Anyone else notice?

~Amber~

Thanks! :blush: I try... Has anyone else heard from Stacey? I have noticed that she pulled her photos as well as links to her site with the photos? Just curious, it actually makes me a little leary really. Anyone else notice?

~Amber~

Yup.

Maureen

I noticed she pulled the originals off her other post as well.... wondering why. I never got a chance to visit her site, anyone remember the url?

These child pageant threads always become peculiar, even when there seems to be no apparent reason!!

But seriously (well, not entirely...), how could you get cuter that the image above? No makeup required :grin:

Caitlin,

I agree, she is an absolute doll without being all "pageantized". She has a gorgous smile, and big beautiful eyes. I'm not sure why they do the pageants the way they do because everything that I have learned about glamour and retouching has always been not to be obviously retouched, but it seems that pageants WANT it to look retouched? But either way, it's all a learning experiance.

Nan- www.stacej.com Here's the link to her site, but the doll like photos are no longer on her site. She may not have had the release to put the photos on the internet?

~Amber~

Pageant pics have always been a slippery topic around here but, please, let's not forget to respect each other..

There are a lot of mum's who want this service done;
There is a big market for this service;
There are talented professionals (including Amber) working in this area.

Rô

I do it for a side job. Thanks for your kind and very wise words.

Also, if someone has pulled samples off their site, they might be catching flak from parents or they were retouching photos w/out photographer permission, or possibly the photographer did not not want samples posted (I can only post from a couple of people, my big names will not allow me to show their work)

Caitlin,

I agree, she is an absolute doll without being all "pageantized". She has a gorgous smile, and big beautiful eyes. Actually I was talking about me!! :blush: (or at least me as a 2 yr old Avatar....) Sadly this little girl didn't have a lovely smile - another one has been pasted on top - I think the original with a rather sad grimace has been removed from the forum completely now. (*edit* I was thinking of another pic - didn't realise there were two - http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=100510&postcount=4) Without the wig and other artifice she probably is a very beautiful girl.

I appreciate the comments about showing respect, and I didn't intend to comment, but I think it is fair to express a view when it is held strongly - and to me, coming from a country where this kind of thing would be seen as verging on child abuse, or at least rather twisted, I feel a responsibility to express that, just as someone would to racial segregation when it was seen as 'normal' in America. While I appreciate that mothers participate in such events with the best of intentions, that doesn't make it something that sits well with me.

Not exactly my cup of tea either.....
Although I do take some comfort that, with competent retouchers, the pageant "look" can be applied after the photographer's click and not before. :wink:

Rô

Check out my updated touchup. Also dreamypix can you send me the rest of the steps?

Stacey-

I checked out your updated version of the touchup, and it is still too contrasty, I listed the steps to doing that in one of my previous posts. There is another thread going on called Pageant Enhancement- http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11543 Grafx gives some great tips on smoothing/lightening the skin as well as pointers as to what is expected with Pageant photos. You might even look at her old posts, she's full of information since she is a pro in the field of pageant retouching. Everytime I try my hand at these I learn something new. Which steps are you interested in?

~Amber~

Please let me know what you think.

I pulled my website because I was afraid some of these people that were bashing me would visit my personal webpage and start something. Here are the pictures. The file name web is my finished product....I still need some help. I didn't want to cause any trouble but decided to pull my pictures so nobody could continue bashing the child pageant pictures plus my friend had a fit when she found out that I had her child on my personal webpage so I changed it to a non-informative page.


http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/dollpic00/doll/

Really sorry we all made you feel that way and I doubt that was the actual intention, apologies from me and I would presume others too. You have to acknowledge this is just another market which has a demand.

Thanks Cass :)

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/dollpic00/doll/


Let me know what you all think about the pictures.

I have a question, are you scanning these photos in or are they from a digital camera? Just wondering....

~Amber~

My personal opinion on your retouches is that there is still too much contrast in the photos. You have to fix the tone and contrast first before you can work on the rest of the photo. It doesn't make sense to try to retouch a bad picture without fixing the bad photography/bad scan first. Until you do that, it's just not going to look right. As you will see in my attachment, I have not corrected anything but the contrast, and by just doing that you will see that the girl has green eyes and it magically smoothes her skin out. Just my humble opinion-

~Amber~

Hey Dreamy, they are scanned in and emailed to me.

So I guess we can blame the scanner for the high contrast then. I'm not that educated about them, but I do know that they tend to do that, that is why I had to ask. Maybe someone out there has some scanning pointers they would like to share?

~Amber~

Hey yall I have four pictures I have been working on. Let me know what you think about the editing, and touchups.

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/dollpic00/doll/

On the second pic I really like the 2nd Touch up, it has also lost a little of the greeny look. A very flattering pic. Unfortunately with the third set of pics, I still feel the mouth detracts from the pics however I prefer the last one, but note that the neck/chest area is not of the same tonings as the face, but in saying that, I am pretty sure that is one you haven't finished with yet.

mustangstacey,

The PM wouldn't let me write as much as I wanted :(

After checking out your site this is what I noted:

The lighting/color is off. They look like they're under florescent lights. You might want to adjust that and warm them up a bit.

The samples a bit small (low res) in resolution so I cannot really judge on the eyes/lashes, but the lashes look clumpy (might just bee the size) I recommend finding a nice sample of natural lashes and making a tracing of them. Adjust w/blurs and your eraser to make them the way you want. Then save them on file to use later.

The color of the skin must be uniform w/out extreme lights or darks. You can adjust using levels and painting in overlays. Don't use blurs to smooth the skin. I use the healing brush the most and a really, really light airbrush. One of these babies should take you no less than 1 hr and 1/2 to complete - more time if your new :)

Also, you need to remove any stray hair that overlaps the background. Lips should not have any jagged edges and be symetrical.

Hopefully this helps some,

Sarah

BTW, Here is a sample from one of your orginals on the far left (I had to hurry and the eyes are not done), the orginal in the middle, and yours on the right.