Hello Everyone ~

This is a job I'm working on for a friend. The after pic may look light as it is for print and this light looks best so far on paper. Also I'm on a Mac so some pics may appear darker to PC users. Anything I'm missing? TIA ~ Kevin

Overall good job. IMHO his "wet hair" got lost. Try doing a Selective Colors-> Blacks and add a little more black into the job. You can mask out any areas of beard etc that might get too black.

Hi Kevin... Welcome to RetouchPRO.

Is there a reason you removed some of the hair detail, e.g., next to his left ear and near his neck? To me that would seem to be part of his personality. In the after he does look more "cleaned up" if that's the intent.

Looks like in both the before and after there's a bit of a white halo between his hairline and the background. Give that a look.

~Danny~

Thanks Swampy. I'll try adding some black back. He does want it to look wet. Slick.

And thank you DannyRaphael. He really wants this to look "slick" (his word). He said that the photographer didn't tell him that his hair was a little messy and asked me to clear away all strays and the clump of hair on the right. I see that halo now that you mention it. I will work on that!

kevin,

welcome to RP.

i'll just mention one things the others didnt. to me, the biggest problem here is the 'pasty' skin you've added. by pasty here we mean too monotone and not enough texture or shadow or variation. it all sort of looks the same, making it look flat and 'doll-like'. so, frankly, on a face like this, i'd tend to only clean up obvious blemishes or artifacts and leave most of the skin alone. you might do a contrast/lightening, but even on that i'd tend to do very little.

there was a movie with robin williams as a robot that wanted to look human. he finally gets his wish and the guy doing the face says a line i've always remembered.... 'it's all about the imperfections!'. retouchers shld always remember that line :)

craig

Hello-- i think the primary retouch is well done-- the halo should be an easy fix, aside from that it just seems a little flat-- depending on the size you are going to print you could potentially pop up the contrast a bit (aside from the hair/scarf) to make it pop a little more. I did just that off of your original retouch, I assume from the style of the photo that the person is going more for that high contrast rock star glam.... cheers,

Kate

Thanks Craig. Seems I have a tendency to work toward some kind of perfection. I guess the trick is to stop short of that or risk going beyond human. Great tip!

I will say that at 300 dpi there is definitely more texture to the skin. I try hard not to make the skin look blurry or flat. Maybe a little too devoid of imperfection though... :happy:

Hi Kate - Thanks for the tip. Yes I know on-screen this looks light and very flat, but it's not printing like that. I guess I should optimize the images for screen viewing before I upload them. But you're probably on the right track, it may very well use a touch more contrast...