Non-Glamour Retouch Challenge

This month the challenge is to retouch the provided photo, but as a non-glamour, non-magazine cover retouch. The goal is to just make it more flattering while keeping the snapshot look.

File:
Face.jpg (http://retouchpro.com/contests/source_images/face.jpg)

Special thanks to user aylaah for donating this image

THE PRIZE
Noiseware 4.0 Professional plug-in from Imagenomic (http://www.imagenomic.com/detailsplugin4.asp). This is a brand new version.


What’s New?
Increased Performance
New Adjustment Controls
New DetailGuard™
New interface features
New Manual Profiling
New IntelliProfile™
And Much more


THE RULES:

1. Contest will run from 1 Apr to 22 Apr 2006. Deadline for entries is 6pm EDT 22 Apr 2006.

2. This is not a Photo Art challenge. Keep the image as a photo.

3. When you submit your entry put your username in the filename (ie: tpaul.jpg). This is so users can save the images to a local directory and remember who did what--important when it comes time to vote.

4. Your final image size should be as close to 800 px on the long side and 600 px on the short side as possible. Also remember that the file cannot be larger than 100KB.

5. Post your entries to this thread. Please restrict your comments, questions or discussion to the Apr 06 Contest Discussion thread. Inappropriately placed posts will be deleted.

6. Only one entry per person.

7. Voting will run from 23 Apr to 30 Apr 2006. Only those with entries may vote. You will vote for the 5 best entries in order. Note you cannot vote for your own image.

Finally, please remember that this is a friendly contest and suppose to be a learning experience. Tips and suggestions to help others are highly encouraged.

Note: RetouchPro Moderators are allowed to enter

Needed a break from bookwork. Whilst I am not entirely sure what is required here, had a go

Difficult to stop yourself going over the top on this one :)

Apr 06 Contest

Here's my entry. Fixed the flatness of the skin, blotches and shine. Also removed a few stray strands of hair that fell on her neck and darkened the pupils to make eyes look livelier. Finished with a little brightening. Good luck to everyone! :dizzy:

this is my first time to do this so im not sure if i gave you what you are asking for. it was a fun project to do in any case.

Ok I got rid of the background and put my house there instead, because a) the original is still my house, lol and b) yellow is bad! lol

Mainly dodge/burn on features, spot removal and bra strap removal :p and then I got the other side of the shorter hair and put it in front of my ear. Well, ok I copied the other side. But it *does* exist! lol

I did try to mostly get rid of the double chin because of the dodgy angle.

Here is my entry, it was fun, hope you liked it aylaah..

Giga

Here's mine,
Background change, cloning, smudge, blur.

I have tried to keep this as natural as possible but give her a little more 'va va voom'. A lot of cloning, got rid of the unsightly shadow, smudging and added a little noise. Darkened her eyelashes and irises, lightened the whites of her eyes and added some colour to her lips. :happy: Decided to change the background so the skin looked less sallow and tried to make her eyes and lips a little more moist and 'sparkly'.

OK it is hard with a retouch you do want to keep going. I don't usually do the comps but thought I would drop one in this time.

snapshot at the lake.

Overall Color change made her less sallow, rosy. some Rosy lip gloss, remove the bra straps, flyaway hairs, and skin imperfections (mostly with clone/fade clone and patch/fade patch tools). I think the color change and undereye made the biggest difference, quite dramatic. The background just made her poor skin sooooo sallow! Hope at least this time I have a chance!

Here's mine. I tried to not stray too far from the original.

My first contest entry... um, well, my first post here as well.

I changed the background a bit, and recentered the subject.
I left the shadow, since I felt that it added to the "snapshot", but I did lighten it a bit.

Blemish removal, a little nip and tuck (just a little), removed the light spots on her forhead and under her eyes, applied a slight diffuse glow.

..I think that's about it...

Here goes nothing!

Here is my crack at it. You are right it is hard not to go to far.

So here comes mine. Really hard this time!

im next :)

Thank you for the chance to work with your picture. Resized . Sean

Color correction; gaussian blur with mask to bring back sharpness; noise reduction; selective color change of background; somewhat different crop; levels adjustment; selective color saturation changes, etc.

Brave and lovely girl-- thanks for allowing us all to work on your photo. Some very good entries so far! Cheers- Kate

Thought a seaside vacation might be nice.

This is my first contest entry, and my first post. I don't expect to win, I just thought it would be fun to contribute for a change. I really enjoy this website, and I have been learning a lot (I am new to retouching). I tried to Keep the photo as close to normal as possible. Any constructive criticism is welcome.

Face of the girl was a little bit distorted on the original because of lower shooting point, so, I made some correction - reduced chin area and enlarged a little bit a forehead, so the face become nicer and more natural. After I did dodge/burn smoothing, hair painting and final tonal adjustment.

Here is my effort. Usual clean up with heal and clone brushes, evened out the complexion with a gausian blurred copy layer. I smoothed out the lips and very slightly increased the colour saturation of the lips and eyes using the original colour tones. Slightly enlarged the highlights on the pupils. Faded the lines at the chin and throat and put a little shadow at the sides of the throat to narrow the neck. Warmed the skintone slightly. Added some hair at the left side of the centre parting and temple to even things out. I decided to keep the shadow on the wall with small adjustments. Darkened very slightly the upper corners of the background to intensify the "on camera flash" look.

Here's my modest attempt...

She's a lovely young lady. I can't wear yellow either, HA! Just thought a natural background (My mother's house) and the angles would show off her naturally lovely attributes.

It was fun! Thanks!

You said keep it looking like a snap, so gave it photo corners

Here is mine. I tried to keep it soft but still like a snapshot.

Cathy :wavey:

...did some basic color correction, skin smoothing, eliminated shine on face, added some subtle blush and lip color, fixed shape of hair and filled in some uneven spots.

here's my attempt; i hope i didn't go too overboard, but it was fun to work on.

Marsha

First stab with, I hope, some humor.

I don't have that problem with "glamour retouch", wich was discussed in the forum,
cause I don't have that skill.
So this contest suits me just fine.
well, here is my tryout.

Actually, in my last edit I tryed to use paintbrush to add shaddows & highlights to her face & collar bones.

Greetings all,
Just joined today. (like I need another addiction...) :dizzy:

Somehow managed to figure out how to upload my edited shot.
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31619&stc=1

Feel free to slap me around if I get out of line - lol

this is my final. hard work, nasty face. nice idea, thought, with this contest. my first time, hope it wouldn't be the last one. cheers!

New to Photoshop, and to this site. Here is my first attempt! Wanted to keep the look of a quick snapshot with a flash.

HI Aylaah,

Thanks for the challange, a real doozey. I know I've gone way over the top, but I couldn't resist. I probably took the brief a little too literally, but I hope you like the finished result.

I've gone for the non-glamour, non-magazine, snapshot look, but I took some time to enhance the image as well, but not too much I hope.

I liked the idea that this was a candid snap shot that had been taken and placed in a scrap-book and that this was what it would look like in 20 years time.

I do have a tendency to go off on a tangent.

had a lot of fun though. hope you likey.

Sure, I'm still recuperating from my open heart surgery (22 days ago), but who could resist Aylaah's "Mona Lisa" smile. It's all wonderful therapy.

I found the background color to be nauseating and likely to make any subject look a bit sickly. So that had to go -- replaced with a more formal, cool portrait backdrop. I solved the bra strap dilemma simply by stopping by WalMart and picking up an attractive top for our lovely model. The rest is subtle formula facial retouching finished with a more active vertical crop and soft dark vignette for emphasis.

The effort helped transition the image from a sterile, lackluster mugshot (read: Driver's License photo) to a more becoming snapshot.

Thanks!

This is my first post here at Retouch PRO. I hope I'm doing it correctly!

I'm not quite sure what I've done here because it's a little disturbing. The goal was to make it flattering, so I slimmed her down considerably and tried to imagine what she'd look like if she either had practiced a healthier lifestyle of diet and exercise throughout her young life, or, went on a diet and exercise regimen for a couple years. Basically this is what she would probably look like.

In a photoshop sense, the picture is interesting in that it was done without using any other photos. Only the basic image was used, and the tools available in photoshop.

Mig

btw, don't vote for this one. I don't know what the plug in is and I wouldn't use it anyway. This is the type of thing I enjoy doing most in photoshop, and the picture's worth looking at for anyone interested in this type of thing, so I post it here.

With spring in the air in the Northeast USA, I couldn't resist adding a new background.

I hope I did justice to the subect. Thanks so much, aylaah, for contributing your photo. It was a pleasure to work on.

Also, I hope you have Japanese cherry trees in Australia --
'cause that's what you're in front of :)

Lorraine

Kept it nice and simple. Sharpened her features and smoothed the blemishes from the skin. Tidied up the hair a little too.

This is the first contest I've entered for a while - at first I thought it looked too much like hard work :dizzy: , but seeing everyone else's attempts made me want to give it a go. As others have said, it's hard to know where to stop in order to keep the natural snapshot feel. Hope I've managed to make the tread the line.

Thanks for providing the image, was fun to work on.
Adjusted the background color, adjusted the shoulders to give a bit more of a relaxed look, and well...just take a look :wink:

I'll post a complete rundown in the discussion forum. Kept all the work to that of a purely cosmetic nature. So it's nothing that Aylaah wouldn't normally do for a night out on the town or a special occasion... possibly a wee bit flash for nipping down to the local superette tho ;)

hope you like it. Vote for me!! :lmao:

This is my first post. Hopefully I presented myself well.

Here are my steps:

Created a new layer and removed dark circles under eyes and blemishes with the healing brush. Dodge and cloned over the highlighted areas of skin
Cloned out Bra Straps. Duplicated the cloned layer and blurred it to create a smooth skin color, masked around sharp edges. Dropped opacity of layer down to about 40% and added noise to match original photo Whitened her eyes, added rust color to her eyes and filled in her eye lashes, and filled in/shaped her eye brows Straightened the part in her hair. Cloned out friz around edges of hair. cloned in hair to have a more uniformed appearance. Added in a more controlled friz. Fixed edges that had been inadvertantly blurred. Highlighted hair.

Thanks!

incredible

This is my first post in this forum and my first attempt on retouching in public. I hope I didn't go too far with changes.

Here's hoping foreground tinkering doesn't bend the rules too much.

Just a light retouch, kept everything the same except I made her dress strapless.

First time in forum and first try

Butch

GL :wavey:

Was tipped off about this site earlier today. Needless to say, this is my first attempt. I did have a good read of some of the threads first though... :) Not too sure if I've got the attachments worked out :depressed By the way, all done with Photoshop 5LE as that's all that came with the camera :cry:

Duplicated background layer and reduced width by 4% using free transform. Cloned away blemishes, wrinkles and unwanted highlights on face. Cleaned up neck line hair and background shadow on wall using clone tool.
Created solid color fill layer with 50% gray. Layer blend to overlay. Using the dodge tool lightened the whites of the eyes a little to brighten up and even out. Using the burn tool, darkened the pupils and defined the iris.
Created new layer set to color blend mode and painted the iris color with a little more saturation.
Created new layer set to screen blend mode. Sampled the iris color and painted a half moon highlight on bottom of eye iris.
Created new layer set to color burn blend mode. Chose a rosey color and painted the lips to darken slightly. Adusted opacity to look good.
Created new layer set to color burn blend mode, and did the same thing with the cheeks to add a little blush color.
Created a new 50% gray fill layer set to overlay and dodged and burned some highlight and shadow to define the cheek amd kneck.
Created new layer and used burn tool with a small brush to darken and define the eyelashes.
Found some hair to paste over for a new look. Adjusted layer style blend mode transparencies to try and get a good blend. Layer mask where needed.
Created a new merged layer, (cntl+Alt+shft+E) and used AutoFx Dream Suite Bonus filter to add a diffuse glow to the image. Then added green channel layer mask to add back some definition, and then painted some more mask to bring back the eye and lip detail.

oh, my gosh. First post and first entry. This is so much fun! Hmmm, now to figure out how to post thumbnails and larger image? Photoshop 7, can't post techniques, as I can't remember what they were. I loved working with this image. So much talent here, I am a bit intimidated. Does she or doesn't she have green eyes?
I wanted to make sure, the young ladies mother would know at a glance her one of a kind daughter.

It is hard not to keep going. I didn't change the background or her hair, since this wasn't a glamor retouch. I did fill the hair in to make it look better. My idea was to bring the viewer into the eyes, so that was my main focus. I also touched up her skin, but left some texture (pores - hard to see at low res... but look close )around her cheeks, where it belongs and gave her lips some color. Cleaned up the straps. Just because it is a snapshot doesn't mean there has to be a nasty shadow. I didn't change any features. I did get the one side 800 px but the other side is a little long, which can be trimmed if needed.
~Nancy~

All Photoshop CS2. I sampled her eye color to develop a harmonious color scheme: the purple background and eye-liner; peach dress and lipstick, peachy powder; green eye-shadow. Smoothed her skin using the patch tool. Spent most time on eyes: enhanced her natural eye color, added eye-liner, little eye shadow, added some lashes. I really disliked the framing of the original so, when I found the top, I bumped her up and filled in below as required. Spent lots of time unsuccessfully trying to poof-up the hair and ended up settling for the poney tail. Powdered her face, neck and chest.

Hi All! This challenge really looks deceptively simple. Like everyone else has said it is indeed VERY difficult to stop! :dizzy:

Excuse the very long explanation, I was afraid the too subtle changes will be overlooked. :blush:

Our subject has lovely eyes so I decided to focus on that. I changed the catchlights to a more flattering one so that her eyes look more alive. Also did some sharpening mostly around the eyes. Removed some stray eyebrows so that it looks neater. Adjusted the colour so that it is a more natural hazel than a yellow tinged one (due to the walls). Also added a slight touch of flattering light rose eye shadow.

Having done "the focus", I went on to fix the problem areas.

Major problem 1 - harsh shadows/highlights
I lightened the harsh shadow due to the use of flash to produce a gentler shadow. Also burned areas on her neck and face that has highlights due to this. Hotspots are toned down dramatically. It still retains the look of a snapshot.

Major problem 2 - stray hair
I cleaned up all fallen hair on shoulders and around her head. Also fixed the shape of the hair to a more balanced one

Major problem 3 - color/exposure
Lightened the image and warmed the overall tone. More flattering to skintones.

I touched up the skin so that it appears more even now. Although bra-straps can be a feature of an outfit, in this setup it is distracting the viewer from her face, so I decided to remove that too.

As you can see I did not change any of her features. The essence is still her, but the photo is better. :)

This is the first time I have posted something - hope I've managed to attach the picture OK. :confused: I didn't do anything complicated, mostly cloning tool. I tried to make the photo flattering without it looking obviously retouched.

Some color/brightness correction, lots of creative cloning and a hint of contrast to bring out the interest in the face. Fixed the flyaway hairs, but kept some around the head and removed the extraneous shoulder straps.

removed all the patches and marks, added warmth and life to the skin tones, changed the background and added more area around her head, extended the dres a bit... :)

well... here's mine..

This is my first post and i enjoyed it. Please let me know your critic
as this will help me in future projects.
Thanks to all the tutorials in RetouchPRO I have learned alot. :bow:

Healed/Cloned blemishes. Use bra straps to make the blouse. Applied gaussian blur on the skin. Adjusted color by using Color Balance filter. Applied a little bit of makeup on the eyes and lips. There's not much work involve on this one. It's just hard not to go overboard and keep it a snapshot.

Good luck everyone!

I am a new member and fairly new to Photoshop. I enjoyed working on the picture and tried to keep it as natural as possible.

CarolB

My copy. Comments are in the discussion section. Good luck to all. This was a great picture to work on.

Janet

Because I had to keep it as a snapshot, I didn't do anything on the image itself. No curves adjustments. no schadow highlight, no sharpening,no background replacement, no removing of fly away hairs. I tried to focus just on making Aylaah more flattering! Hope ya like it!

This is my "realtor touchup" The basic retouch done for realtor advertisements at my company :)

Besides clone stamps, healing brush, curve, level, and all sorts of tools,
I added shadow, highlight, and vignette to enhance Aylaah.

This is my first post and my first contest. I have enjoyed viewing all of the images :D

Here's a snapshot from aylaah's holiday trip to the USA.

Been working on this off and on since the contest opened. Can't remember everything I did. The list includes--but is not limited to--heal, clone, degrunge, burn, dodge, curves, levels, hue/sat, selective color...I could go on.

Thanks, aylaah, for letting us abuse you.

dc

I have a son that will graduate on May 20th. We are now in the countdown and this photo made me think of all the Seniors of 2006!!

My first post - comments are welcome.

Here is my entry.

This contest is now closed.

Caitlin has been kind enough to create a temporary photo album for easier viewing...

April Contest Entries (http://www.tv83.net/retouchpro/April06Entries/)

The votes are in.....

Congratulations Bella

THE PRIZE
Noiseware 4.0 Professional plug-in from Imagenomic. (http://www.imagenomic.com/detailsplugin4.asp)

Top 5:
1st - Bella (54)
2nd - Soleah (39)
3rd - Doug Colwell (28)
tie for 4th - Very Wierd & Aceman (25)
5th - BobJones (21)