Any critiques? thanks!

http://litfuel.net/pics/before_after10.jpg

man ur soo ugly

Totally uncalled for rbaek!

great improvement there but it needs to go further down into the awkward bits between the necklace

Palms

rbaek213,
I agree with Swampy. Comments like that are not cool!
Ray

no worries all, he's just some kind of troll. He signed up, made one post and that was it.

MrBeagle, you should make your masking around the lips and eyes more accurate. And the method you used to clarify the skin tone seems to have left areas with more freckles look more blotchy. you might try some alternate methods to see if you can deemphasize the freckles without turning them into blotches.

Good start though.

Great start. Didn't know if you were going for a certain look or a glamour shot thing or what, but like what you are doing.

Agree with madclarks comments on the skin tones. Also the lips look like they were masked and there is a defined line around them (skin is blurred, but right before the lips, the skin appears to be sharper). Maybe a softer brush would be in order around the lips edges. The eyes may look a little sharp to me, but you might be going for that.

I'm just a beginner, but have been trying to go a few portraits myself. I've always got Katrin Eismann's book on retouching and Kelby's book on my desk to look up how to do what when I run into situations. Enjoy reading everyone's comments on this site and learning from the pros! They are so many different effects, it's neat reading peoples ideas and thoughts. Have fun!

looks a bit blotchy to me ..

Sometimes we get into (seemingly) endless discussions about the two (main) types of retouches: Natural vs Glamour. (for an example, see this month's contest)

It seems that you have chosen the "glamour" path.
As such you must eliminate EVERY imperfection from the image.
Some have already been mentioned, but here's my list:

a) Left cheek textured, right cheek flat - choose one or the other, do not mix;
b) Defects on the left and right sides of the upper lip;
c) Strange "blotchiness" left behind on the right jawline;
d) Bump present to the left of the nose;
e) Chin bottom edge blotchy with a strange red half-shadow;
f) (Like palms1 said) You avoided the difficult bits - makes the retouch more obvious;
g) The eyes look kind of scary. A lighter half-moon at the bottom of the eye would have given a better effect;
h) Seeing as how you did a "fade to black" on the hair, you could have eliminated the ear as well. I think the image would be stronger that way;
i) If we are talking about glamour, maybe you could have improved the make-up a little;
j) You diminished the neck creases, why not get rid of them completely?

Actually you did quite a good job - especially when you changed the jaw-line.
Keep up the good work. :bigthmb:

Rô

Mister B!
I love it.

I actually [again, this is MY ethos] LOVE her skin and would go the other way, accenting her freckles and only artfully minimising any large patches of red.

She's such a naturally gorgeous lady that i'd really push her unique magic more than make her a smooth skinned doll although I think you've done beautifully and stopped nicely before overcooking… Love your work.

I'm scared to put up my work now…

Any critiques? thanks!
http://litfuel.net/pics/before_after10.jpg

Hi MrBeagle,

I studied the enhanced image for a while before I clued on what wasn't quite right about it. The darkenened eyeshadow is very distracting, and takes away from the eyes. I think the eyes are slightly over processed, giving them a kind of red demon look. The skin looks good though. I might go and have a shot at this myself :)

Hi again Mrbeagle,

I did a quickie on this one, in between tea and showers etc.,

The retouch itself isn't the greatest because of the time constraints but I did try and make the eye shadow less visible. personally, I would take it down a little more but I think that it doesn't make the image look top heavy now.

Alison.