Hi! This is my first post here. :) Im not new to photoshop, but im rather new to this kind of work.. It was a lot of fun and im sure I will continue with other photos.
So, I found this stock photo and decided id give it a try..



Here it is (http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w37/jelvin1/comparelarge.jpg?t=1184385751)


What do you think?

Jelvin, that was a very nice effort. I think the dress and jewellery came out very weel. May be the skin color is a bit unnatural. I am really curious to know the steps you followed. thanks.

Thank you for your kind comment Pranavy, and yes I agree. The whole picture is unnatural. But I was aiming to do a mainstream retouch which you can see in any skin care commercial, and they are for the most part unnatural. :tongue:

I've changed the curves to get the colors I wanted, and i've removed skin "defects" with the spot healing brush.. played with levels and contrast and sharpened the whole picture with mainly unsharp mask. Dodge and burn on teeth and eyes/eyelashes, to bring them out a little more, and on the hair.

What I did with the skin (in a few steps) was that I merged the picture in to a new layer, you should also apply the red channel to it (image->apply image.). This layer should be on Soft Light mode. On top of that I have another merged layer on lighten mode. Finaly I merged all layers again into a new one which i've put blur and noise->Median on. Add a black layer mask and paint with a soft white brush with opacity 25% over the skin. This will get you a nice smooth effect. (I think this is the way, if I remember correctly)

This was a technique I learnt from a tutorial a some time ago, but I cant seem to remember where I read it.

Basically it looks pretty good except for two things. Number one, the skin is far to red for my taste, if you would have to print this in a magazin you will get a bad surprise and I think most editors would reject the image for that reason. Number two is that you lost a lot of detail in the dress.

Okey, thanks for the advice Alfred. I'll have a look at it and post what I come up with later.

That was a interesting model to retouch, here is my version:
link to the linus version ("http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa292/)
I went for a more "ladies magazine" look, less saturation, lighter makeup.

Nice try as a beginner in photoshop yes I agree the skin is too red indeed you overdone the photo...

As a newbie to retouching, (even though I've used Photoshop for the last 11 years) I find I probably could achieve amazing results, I just haven't developed the eye to know what to enhance in a photo, or know when I've gone overboard. Anyway, I agree with the overly redish tone. Keep pressing towards developing "the eye". Much Respect!

Sorry folks, I'm going to disagree.
To me the problem is in the overly yellow tone in the highlights.
This makes the reds seem redder than they are.
I tried this by actually increasing the reds - but only in the highlights. (the background went pink!)

Also brought back some hair details - although I do agree that the dress looks better in "dark" black.

Ah, and there is a very distracting "blotch" on the shoulder to the left which needs fixing.

Rô

Byro, how did you bring out such detail in her hair. You did not get the original image from Jelvin did you? Also, she seems to have more of a warm tanned like tone to her now. Was that from increasing black, or d&b, contrast, what? The skin and hair looks more natural than Jelvin's version.

The colours have been really compressed and looked washed out. Your retouched version is too pink. One way to get around this is to desaturate the skin tones quite a bit. Also go easy on the Median blur. It looks too blurred. Be careful not to overexpose the highlights when turning up the contrast.

Syd

Hi, again. I haven't had time to sit by the computer very much lately, so no new version yet. But I just read your reply's. (Thanks for taking time btw)

Bdilly: Thank you, I will. I agree with you, it is really hard to know what's needed.

ByRo: Yes, the hair in your version is a great deal more detailed. Great job, but im not sure about the skin. But this could also be a matter of perception, I mean skin color changes from person to person. Your girl look more tanned and mine rather "white". Another thing that struck me, maybe my monitor is a bit twisted.. I havn't corrected the colors on it so it might be something along those lines. What is that thing on her shoulder you're talking about?

Syd: This was spot on, really. Yes I overdid the blur, will keep that in mind till next time. Thanks for the tip!

byRo, how did you bring out such detail in her hair.
If you have CS, Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlights is THE tool for reviving over-darkened hair.
(if you don't, you'll need to make a shadow mask, or a very careful dark-end curve adjustment)

...this could also be a matter of perception...Your girl look more tanned and mine rather "white".Yes, maybe because I live in Brazil - seems more natural (here) :bigthmb:

See the blotch on the shoulder now?

Rô

ByRo: Yes, haha, might be that. I live in Sweden ;)
Yes, now I see the blotch. Didn't notice before. Thanks for pointing it out!

Jelvin