Voting will run from 23 to 31 August 2007. Deadline for votes is 5pm EDT.

Only those that entered the contest may vote. All other votes will be deleted. If you did not enter, but would like to comment on an entry, please post your comments in the Aug 07 Contest Discussion thread.

Vote for the 5 best entries in order.

You cannot vote for your own image. If you do, your votes will be deleted.

Example Vote:
Pick the top five contest entries and list in order...

1. Entry X (First Place)
2. Entry A (Second Place and so on)
3. Entry Q
4. Entry S
5. Entry P

This thread will remain closed until it's time to vote.

And as always, when you vote try to include some things you especially liked about your choices…what made them stand out, what impressed you, etc. This is a learning experience! :)

To help with voting here is a temporary link to the entries in Photo Album format:

August Contest Entries (http://www.retouchpro.com/contests/source_images/AugFin/index.htm)

This months contest was extremely hard to judge. The entries were all good as far as I can see but these were the ones that I thought were the most natural of the entries.

1. syd
2. bella
3. cazubi
4. splata
5. CathyH

Well done to everyone who entered.

1. cazubi
2. syd
3. CathyH
4. Cassidy
5. LonK

So many entries and so, so hard to choose:

1. Splata - I think the most aesthetic and pleasing to the eye whilst
retaining a natural look
2. Lorraine
3. Shalford
4. Betouched
5. ByRo.

This was so hard to narrow down to five. There are many other entries that have such good qualities. I chose those that encompassed all the rules of correcting the photo to look realistic while enhancing the subject’s natural beauty:

1. Splata -- Most realistic. Great skin texture and tones. Hair and eyes look very natural.

2. Shalford -- Lovely work on the face, hair and eyes, but the lower portion of the photo neck, blouse and hair could use some more blending.

3. ByRo – The skin texture is wonderful. Eye color looks very natural.

4. CathyH -- Good work on the eyes, missing part of the eyebrow and skin texture. Facial highlights look very good.

5. Graphics23 – The entry is beautiful but just not as photographic looking as the others. I see more of a painted look in the softness of the hair and lips, but the skin tone, texture and colorization are all very good.

Lorraine

1. splata
2. syd
3. Cassidy
4. Shalford
5. Lorraine

gerat job everyone

I entered this contest just for the privilege of voting in what looked to be the most entered contest in quite some time. I enjoyed watching the entries and was able to hone my skills just by looking at different styles. Thank you all.

I looked first for pictures that didn't have the banding/dead pixels that seemed to be everywhere in her face. Second, I looked for ambience. There were a couple of quite good retouches where the moody lighting had been replaced in favor of a more flat and uniform approach. I personally preferred to have the depth left in. It made a much stronger portrait in my opinion.

Photomaster - Given the genre of this picture, his restore was in keeping with the style prevalent at that time. It is suitable for large framing.

Syd - I liked the eyebrow redo. Great retouch. Lacked the bit of depth/pop I felt it needed.

Byro - I felt this was very true to the original. It kept some of the mystery but lacked the coloring to make it pop.

Splata - Great retouch. Lacked the pop.

Jaime - GREAT detail, but was way too light and flat for my tastes.

This was so hard to vote, everyone did a great job.
1 - irshgrlkc = I liked the deep tones and nice smooth skin. Strikingly done.

2 - Splata = Nice and not over done, maybe could use a little more contrast

3 - Syd = Very nice and crisp, good color correction

4 - Graphics23 = Great color correction, skin seems a little blotch, but very nice over all.

5 - bella - Clean and crisp and great eyebrows

heres my votes
1.Out_of_Focus
2.ByRo
3.Photomaster
4.Irshgrllkc
5.Bella

1. Cassidy
2. Lorraine
3. by-gilbert
4. splata
5. syd

There are a lot of beautiful entries. So hard to choose!! But in the end I voted along the lines of the enrty "not looking like it's been photoshop-ed" criteria:

1. Splata
2. Lorraine
3. ByRo
4. betouched
5. Cassidy

Had alot of fun with this. I'm new to the forum but really like trying the contests. Well here are my votes.

1.Irshgrlkc
2.NancyJ
3.Lorraine
4.Scubamargie
5.Rab3rd

IMO there is more of restoration touch than "beauty retouch" in all these photos.
Definitely my favorites are:
1.Syd
2.byRo
3.Photomaster
4.nancyj
5.jaime

Lots of others considered for my top 5 but were dropped for minor (and

probably subjective) reasons like eyebrow construction, eye colour

saturation or skin shine.

1. byRo
2. Splata
3. Shalford
4. Cassidy
5. Nandohdez

Being so new at this made picking a top 5 especially difficult. I don’t feel qualified to ‘critique’, obviously some personal preference came into play. The only comment I want to make is to Splata. I liked your work overall but if I were the client I would ask for you to tone down the green of the subject’s left eye.

1. Syd
2. Lorraine
3. Graphics23
4. byRo
5. Splata


Doreen

Although, as many people pointed out, there was probably more restoration involved in this one than retouch, it was, nevertheless, a retouch competition so I gave extra points to those who treated it as such. In particular, I felt it important to at least address the following issues: fly-away hair, overexposed highlight above right eyebrow, reconstruction of the part of the eyebrow where information had been lost due to overexposure, neatening up of the hair and evening out of the tones on the shadow side of the face.

1. Bella
2. Jaime
3. Shalford
4. Cassidy
5. Chillin

Syd

I chose first on color, then skin texture.

1. syd - skin texture looks real - good eyebrow work
2. Lonk - great color - would like to see more color in hair
3. Splata - natural color - a little soft
4. Lorraine - skin natural looking, a little too light - flyaway hair
5. byRo - it would look better a little darker

This was hard to pick!

Congrats all the posters!
My Vote:
1. Lorraine
2. Ms-Bay
3. bella
4. nancyj
5. onfocus

I based my voting on the following, eliminating each entry as it failed to meet the required tasks in the order given:

The first task was to color correct the photo. So you must have proper highlights & shadows, good mid-tone contrast, and believable colors.

Then "beauty" retouch. So you must have addressed problems such as the fly-away hairs, the blown highlights and damaged eyebrow, and overall image noise, without making the picture look like it was obviously manipulated.

Finally, it had to look nice. This was a purely subjective quality. I had to find it appealing.

So here are my votes:

1. Cassidy
2. Out_Of_Focus
3. Chillin
4. CathyH
5. cazubi

With honorable mention going out to jaime, nancyj, and emilylt87. I thought each of these entries were very good.

Good luck to all,

Michael

1. Lorraine
2. syd
3. Cassidy
4. Out_of_Focus
5. Shalford

Interesting how the votes are spread out. Personal taste certainly does vary - a lot.

To my taste....: :bigthmb:
1) Lonk
2) syd
3) splata
4) Lorraine
5) Cassidy

Rô

I had a chance to view the entries on three different monitors, 2 lcd's and one crt, with each set to a different resolution and utilizing different color spaces. Monitor settings certainly have a dramatic effect on the appearance of a photograph. What looks good on one monitor may look "not so good" on another monitor and vice versa. To those who are destined to be "also rans", take heart, your work may be better than what another's perception may indicate. Here are the entries that looked the best on my monitor:

1. Lorraine
2. Cassidy
3. Chillin
4. Shalford
5. byRo

Thanks to all who entered and helped to make this competition a lot of fun.

Here are my votes:
1. syd
2. byRo
3. cassidy
4. splata
5. Lorraine

Here are my votes:
1. bella
2. irab3rd
3. Syd
4. irshgrlkc
5. CathyH

1. syd
2. Out_Of_Focus
3. splata
4. Chillin
5. bella

1. byRo
2. Syd
3. Graphics23
4. Chillin
5. Photomaster

1. Sid
2. Lorraine
3. Out_of_Focus
4. ByRo
5. Splata

Difficult to do this contest (Ant would disagee), very difficult to choose 5

1 photomaster
2 byro
3 syd
4 lonk
5 splata

Voting is closed. Note the votes after the deadline of 5pm EDT 31 August 2007 will not count.

Well the voting has been tallied and the winner is……..
SYD!

Top 5
Syd – 57
Splata – 46
Lorraine – 40
Cassidy – 31
byRo - 31