hi all,

i found the time to work a bit for fun and would like to know what you like
and what you don't like on my work i have done to this photo.

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/9518/beforewbf4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/3944/afterewhz4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

the halo is making a really annoying mark here...but the contrast is nice...

thx you...oh yes that damn halo....havn't found away around. but thx you very much

If you're using Photoshop cS3, you can use smart sharpen and fade the effect in the highlight.

To be very honest digi, I prefer the before picture. I guess the problem for me is that the edit doesn't seem to match the content. What I mean is you've got a pretty, happy, young lady sitting in a field on a sunny day, and in the after picture, it looks dark and too contrasty... to make up my own words, haha. I have attached what I might have done to the photograph, I hope you don't mind. My apologies if the quality is poor.

Hi digi,

The Halo is a bit of a distraction, did you use the high pass filter to sharpen ?

I've had a go at this as well. Corrected the individual channels in levels, added a little bit of saturation, especially to the blues. Used an inverted high pass filter and then brought back the girl's face using a mask.

Very nice photo to work with.

I agree with the other comments about it being too contrasty. I think you have loss some details by pushing it too far. I also think it has too much of a yellow cast.

I used a Curves Adj. layer and a Hue/Sat. Adjustment layer to set the tone and colors. Clone tool to remove the distracting weeds on her legs. Finished off with Unsharp Mask using high radius - low amount settings.

Also created a Black and White version using Russell Brown's two Hue/Sat. layer approach (just great fun to play with) and finished using high radius-low amount Unsharp Mask

I agree that the original was a nice shot to start with. The problem with your revision is that, rather than showing something new, you seem to have just pushed what was already there to unsightly extremes.

Here are a couple of treatments that do something new. Whether they are better or not is an open question.

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/cowgirl1.jpg
http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/cowgirl2.jpg

thx you all. yes most i do "to much". so its good to hear what you think.

here a second try of retouching it

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/7660/emmajy5.jpg