I'm new here, but I've been practicing digital retouching for around 10 years. I'm working right now on a massive collection of photos for my first client to help build my portfolio. This is the second photo I've worked on (the first was a simple recolour) and it was in dire need of help.

I've spent a lot more time on this one photo than I should, but I feel that I've achieved most of what I set forth to, but I might have missed something. I need some more eyes that aren't accustomed to looking at this image.

Thanks! :)

EDIT: After examining just how much blue there was in the picture, I toned it down.. way down.. and I changed her jacket/coat to a green-ish grey color (hard for me to tell exactly since I'm colorblind)

just a few comments, as i'm heading out soon.

the biggest thing i dont like is too much blue throughout the entire image. blue blouse, blue background...too much blue. i would alter the background and use it to set off the rest of the image.

it's a very nice cleanup. that part of it looks very good.

there is one little area in the neck that seems off a bit here and there. there is some blue/green in the neck area that doesnt seem to belong there.

i know the choice of all those blues is subjective and a personal choice type thing, but that's really my biggest objection, so take that one with a grain of salt.

so, overall, very nicely done!

craig

Hi Mad,

I was going to type that I had to agree with Craig about all the blue, but as I was, you posted your edit with the color change to the blouse. I like this better.

The other thing that stood out to me was the color of the eyes. They're not a very natural color. The green seems too intense - not unlike some contacts that are available though. Just a personal preference there I suppose, but I think a more natural hue would be more complimentary to the photo overall.

Gina

Okay, well I did what I could to the eyes.. hard for me to tell when I have a color that is natural. I can see most colors, just ~10% of my red/green is greyed which usually causes the color to appear as brown/yellow respectively.

Anyways, let's see if this version is a keeper, though if anyone has any nitpicky notions, I'll definitely consider them (though it's probably high time I move onto the giant box of photos that I need to scan and retouch).

Hi , very nice work on the coloring. What my eye sees is the background being a little blah..how about some color on the trees maybe. Neb

I think the redo of her blouse/jacket is much much better. I still think you are a bit harsh on the color though. I little too saturated. I'm just as guilty of that myself though so I understand.

Regarding your color blindness, don't even try to figure it out with your eyes on the monitor. That's a hopeless cause. I'm not color blind but I have no confidence in my ability with colors and even less with how good my monitor is. I go strictly by the numbers. Pay attention to your info palette and you will be much better off than if you try to use your eyes. By learning what the numbers mean you are that much better off.

btw, madchapelier,

welcome to RP.

ok, here's my critque of your 2nd post by way of my attempt on top of yours. the colors are just personal choices here, as in the blouse color, so dont mind that too much.

craig

Hi,

MadChapelier,

welcome to RP!! :pleased:

I agree with everybody on a very nice work in 'cleaning up' !

The shadows seem a bit too dark and blocked (this might be because of the compression and not be there on your full resolution image...)... and the contrast a bit too strong in my opinion ... The original picture is faded, but you can see it has a 'softer' contrast...

Your partial 'colour-blindness' might be the reason why you tend to oversaturate particular colours ... so, after colouring a picture, you could try to tone down the saturation a few 'notches' and I'm sure you'll get even better results! :)

I hope you don't mind, I had a go at your picture as well (used the original) .. where I lifted and smoothed the shadows then colorized it.

As Craig said, the colors are just personal choices here

I received a critique last night telling me that the neck looked flat or like her head was jutting forward. The shadow under the chin is too dark, and the background needs color.

Seems that everyone is basically in agreement with that.

In response to why I made my version so high contrast as opposed to keeping with the softer look of the original is that (and I failed to mention this originally) but my goal with this picture wasn't just to restore it to a clean state, but bring it a little more into the future in terms of what you would expect a camera to be capable of closer to today's technology.

My reasoning here is that if you can achieve turning a broken, disgusting photo into something that looks like what the eye would have seen (as opposed to what the technology of the era was capable of) then you can do pretty much anything less than that with ease.

Because of that, though, I rarely use blur, prefering instead to get down to the nitty gritty of pixel editing using my brush set on 1-2 px and attempting to rebuild texture as it would be in a clean original of today's high megapixel cameras. The biggest downside to this method, however, is it takes more time.

Is the contrast, with that in mind, still too high? I won't be able to tinker with it until monday, when I go back to work. Thanks for all the feedback thus far!

Hi,

In response to why I made my version so high contrast as opposed to keeping with the softer look of the original is that (and I failed to mention this originally) but my goal with this picture wasn't just to restore it to a clean state, but bring it a little more into the future in terms of what you would expect a camera to be capable of closer to today's technology.Although there are rules on what can and cannot be done in photo restoration, in most cases, the bottom line is "as long as the customer is happy" ... so ... I guess, this makes it a subjective procedure ... :wink:
Unless asked differently, I usually go for the 'as-close-as-possible-to the original' result trying to keep the 'feeling' of the image while attempting to bring it back to its former conditions ... but this is my goal... :pleased:

Is the contrast, with that in mind, still too high? I won't be able to tinker with it until monday, when I go back to work. Thanks for all the feedback thus far! In my opinion, yes, the contrast is still too strong ... You can increase the contrast as much as you like, but stop before you lose image information... What I mean is that you should still be able to see some details in both, darkest and lightest areas of the image ... which, at the end, might get you to what the eye would have seen The closest you get to pure white or solid black, the more these details/information fade away until they are completely gone... and, again in my opinion, a 'well balanced' photo is much more pleasant to look at than a too high contrast one with 'blocked' shadows and highlights .. :)

Hope this helps..