Hello fellow retouchers. Let me just say I had a lot of fun reading all your threads and learning how to be invisible within a photo. I am learning photography and I found that retouching helps me develop my eye even more. The less I have to do to an image the better. Any way I have a problems with my first image here and of course it's the skin. there is slight differences in color that I was able to address a bit with D&B but not 100 percent. I been trying to find the technique of correcting with curves by the numbers but everything I find is vague... well I just can't understand it.

Please C&C and tell me what else I could have done. I uploaded the image as big as I could and included the original for those who want to give it a whirl!!

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/705/closeupik6.jpg (retouched)

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3105/orcloseupmf6.jpg (Original)

thanx!! I have to go party now.

Lan Man

~I dreamed in pixels and rgb color for the past few days!

Did you resize the retouched version? It's a lot bigger than the original.

As for critiques, what is your final intent? Fashion retouch. Realistic image? You've made a significant shift in color but I couldn't say for sure how correct or incorrect it is. Your version feels too hot, the original feels too cold. It's always risky to come up with a forumla for any skin tone, but with black skin tones the wide range of tone and value makes it virtually impossible.

Here's a write-up I did on another forum on that issue; while it doesn't give hard numbers, it does explore the relationships in the different channels that one can reasonably expect for different types of color and value:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=64303

My post is the eighth one down. It might be useful. The numbers are based on CMYK readouts, but even in RGB, reading skin tones in CMYK can give a clearer sense of what's going on.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh but, to be honest, I prefer the original.

Exactly as edgework said:
Fashion retouch. Realistic image?

This is the very first thing that you must decide. Either you go for the perfect image or you go for the perfect representation of the subject. Inbetween these two is a murky area that it's best to avoid.

First you need to know where you are going - then you find out how to get there. :bigthmb:

I did a glamour / fashion job. Although I did not go too extreme, I think you can see what I was up to.

...and thank you. This is a great image to work on!

Rô

kiltacticon - I like your version allot, i think you did well cropping, and it looks very natural.

byRO, maybe im being too harsh, but i would definatly favour the original over your image. The whole blury, hazey look really isnt fashion (when do you ever see that kind of look flicking through the pages of vogue?) - It looks very amature and ive seen, its the type of thing they teach online.....far to typical...... However i do like how you cropped the image, and the overal mood you gave it. =)

kiltacticon - Your on the right track i think!

Ok first off. I just want to say thank you for your quick replies. This is very important to me. While at my bbq tonight, I want to be practicing on all the images I have, instead. sick?!?!? First thing is first. Thank you!

edgework! perfect man to reply. Everything I did to this image besides the color (obv) was base from a critic you made in a beauty retouching thread about getting rid of hairs in the face. Everyone's contributions truly changed how I use photoshop forever. D&B are the best. To be clear, I am going for natural beauty. What is fashion? (everyone has a different take on this) I want to make images that look natural and perfect and not obvious. Yes, I agree by the end, my image got too hot. I was overly concerned with smooth a skin tone. I mean having just one tone. there were areas of lightness everywhere. I tried to address the issue by D&B, but never fully went away but it seem endless! the link below show the original skin... notice the scuttle variations in color.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8669/tonetp8.jpg

my question is:
Will changing the tone by playing with the number values would help?

I will bookmark the link you provided me with and read this info until I understand it. At the time, I don't. I need to find a video tutorial of the sort to fully grasp the cmyk numbers manipulation through a rgb color space procedure.

BTW, the host must of shrunk the original size from the OG pic (complete lie, I did it wrong lol). I will upload it again to encourage people to go for it ;) I hope to do more photo shoots with other beauties real soon and will def be sharing!

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4771/orcloseupqg2.jpg

I dont want to take any shortcuts in this. While I want to preserve the intregrity of each pixel, I want to also manipulate them to get the best possible results. That being said. Thank you byRO for your comment and for taking a stab at it. Hopefully others will do the same. I like the cropping of the tee and darkening the bad underarm. Your smooth, soft tones and transitions from shadows to midtones, how did you achieve that?!? I didn't like the cutting of the arm up top, for I like the shape it made. However, I took some black of the top.


When I wake up I will research more to learn how to apply the cmyk curve?

Ankh1 - Thanx for the push!

I played with the color a bit and toned down the highlights on this image below.

Oh and byRo,

There is a difference in the way the shape of the cheeks look in yours. Much more sexy. How did you go about that? nice touch!

byRO, maybe im being too harsh, but i would definatly favour the original over your image. The whole blury, hazey look really isnt fashion (when do you ever see that kind of look flicking through the pages of vogue?) - It looks very amature and ive seen, its the type of thing they teach online.....far to typical...... However i do like how you cropped the image, and the overal mood you gave it. =)Gotta disagree. I think it's a nice job. Subtle color enhancements.

I made no actual color moves on this, but some contrast moves with plate blending gave a little more weight to the tones. All healing brush, dodging/burning and a couple of targeted curves to soften shadows on the left side of the image. Mostly worked on the face. Hands and arms are still a little ragged. And, now that I look at it, I might want to knock back the sharpen layer a bit. And the eyes need brightening. And a million other things that pop out once you kid yourself that it's "finished." (As if).

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/orcloseup_retouched.jpg

nicely done, edge!

I thought i give it a try, hope u like it!

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL RESOLUTION! (http://img4.shareavenue.com/image.php?file=e6a91de93991447373c6006e048cff8e59a183cf)



P.S. i only did the face and the, i don't know how they call in English, let i say Left under. haha
and now i see it again its a bit to sharp overall

Edge work, Nice skin texture!

Ok! I got how to get the cmyk reading when making color adjustments. edgework, your explanation for dark skin is extremely informative! Thanx for that. I must say I like your manipulation with out color work. Only thing is I wish I could do have done a better job of lighting the hair. That's a different story and forum. I bet it would have helped tremendously.

Rudd - Although, the skin was a little over-processed for my taste, I really like the eye work. Mainly how you enhanced her lashes. I'll give that a try! I don't think she would go for the thick eye brow though, as good as it is ;)

Back to the drawing board :)

Ok! I got how to get the cmyk reading when making color adjustments. edgework, your explanation for dark skin is extremely informative! Thanx for that. I must say I like your manipulation with out color work. Only thing is I wish I could do have done a better job of lighting the hair. That's a different story and forum. I bet it would have helped tremendously.

Rudd - Although, the skin was a little over-processed for my taste, I really like the eye work. Mainly how you enhanced her lashes. I'll give that a try! I don't think she would go for the thick eye brow though, as good as it is ;)

Back to the drawing board :)

Haha, well youre right, its not really good done, just what you say over-processed, im going sometimes 'to far haha. thats because i did it in 15 minuts, for jobs or photos that are of good quality and i like them im taking about days or something, so thats the point;) But thanks you like the 'eye work' !;)

here is my version...I've tried to get her too look more brown if I can say that without being rude...


Gerry


OH, an error or what? tried to upload a picture that was accurate right on 100kb, but the system wouldn't let me upload it...take a look at the picture on that one as well...abit funny to read the error message...

Just exploring new ways.

I liked what edge did with it, so hopefully he won't be mad I worked off his retouch. Just playing around with making it monochrome. Yet another different look. Some paint with light, bringing out the eyes, more dramatic makeup, very little things. Looks nice as a bw too.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o13/meek35/bwretouch.jpg

I liked what edge did with it, so hopefully he won't be mad I worked off his retouch. Just playing around with making it monochrome. Yet another different look. Some paint with light, bringing out the eyes, more dramatic makeup, very little things. Looks nice as a bw too.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o13/meek35/bwretouch.jpgNot mad at all. However it would be much more useful to you to work from the original. And for us as well. Whether an individual effort succeeds, or fails, everyone still learns.

Messed around with some noise, and sharpening.

Little more makeup.

Little accent here and there...


http://i5.tinypic.com/4zxewib.jpg

looks like you guys covered all the difforent ways to clean up bare skin so i thought why not some fashion makeup!!!!!, I used what they call "smokey eye" but with purples instead of natural skin tones. ( yes it is very extream looking) Its a nice effect you see in a lot of fashion shows. oh and the original touch up job you did was very good.

Ok newbie here but thought I'd have a go.

Wow!! Thank you all you guys!! I must say that everyone did wonderful jobs and have really shown me, exactly what I need to make this image what I want. Starting by going with edgework's advice, I am going to leave the coloring alone because I liked his finish the best in terms of color. For internet purposes I'll ease off the sharpening like MatthewMarshall, it's just starting to bug me out. I did it make because I heard it prints better. Don't know if it's true, for I have no experience with print.

"here is my version...I've tried to get her too look more brown if I can say that without being rude..." I didn't realize color can be offensive... just kidding,
superkoax. I did like her darker too. tried it myself before but couldn't make it work.

looks like you guys covered all the difforent ways to clean up bare skin so i thought why not some fashion makeup!!!!!, I used what they call "smokey eye" but with purples instead of natural skin tones. ( yes it is very extream looking) Its a nice effect you see in a lot of fashion shows. oh and the original touch up job you did was very good.

It is very cool what you did. Is there like a link to view the different styles of make up you know of? Very interesting stuff.

i dont think theres a right or wrong ..

i believe everyone has their own style and eyes are trained differently.

everyone did a splendid job, if you ask me.

=o)

i dont think theres a right or wrong ..If your only intent is to please yourself, your are correct. If you need to please a client, there is definitely a right or wrong, and until the client signs the proof (and the check) it's wrong.

There are more or less agreed upon standards for judging work like this, and while they evolve from period to period, one needs to at least pay lip service to them before striking out on one's own.

I wish i new a great website to give that shows all the difforent styles of makeup. The best thing to do is just go to google.com searching for makup. thats what i do. also I grab fashion magazines from my local bookstore,

You can find all the latest trends and styles here http://beauty.ivillage.com/makeup/makeuptrends/topics/0,,4tbx,00.html

Thanks SO much for that website!

So helpful!

I was aiming for natural looking. Opinions?
=)

Here is my attempt. I don't get to work on darker skin tones much so this was good practice.

I did a little d/b(still trying to learn this technique)
cloning
curve adjustment layers

comments welcome

Here's my try. Wonderful photo to work with.

Thank you! Last submissions were wonderful. I hope everyone had fun and learned something from this thread. Excellent make up link BTW. Hopefully I'll be posting more pictures for us to push our skills to the next level.

best,

Lan Man

Thought I would try a bw

Nice pic Kiltac. here's my take on it.

Nice pic Kiltac. here's my take on it.Nice skin work. See if you can coax a little detail out of the shadows.

My Attempt :)

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd295/funkyboy4/orcloseupmf6copy.jpg

Wanted to bring a little more contrast to this one. Beautiful subject even before any cleanup.

Wanted to bring a little more contrast to this one. Beautiful subject even before any cleanup.You will see a much wider range of tones with black skin than with caucasian skin. But you won't see red/orange on either. Try a curve like this (red channel) and see if you don't find the result a bit more realistic.

Ok, I pulled the reds back a bit. This look a bit more natural?


Curious about the curve setting you suggested...looks like you have two anchors up top, and adjusted the midtones up slightly. If I do that the image becomes more red.

Ok, I pulled the reds back a bit. This look a bit more natural?


Curious about the curve setting you suggested...looks like you have two anchors up top, and adjusted the midtones up slightly. If I do that the image becomes more red.Check the gradient at the bottom. I have white on the left, black on the right. Clicking it will reverse the poles.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh but, to be honest, I prefer the original.

Exactly as edgework said:


This is the very first thing that you must decide. Either you go for the perfect image or you go for the perfect representation of the subject. Inbetween these two is a murky area that it's best to avoid.

First you need to know where you are going - then you find out how to get there. :bigthmb:

I did a glamour / fashion job. Although I did not go too extreme, I think you can see what I was up to.

...and thank you. This is a great image to work on!

Rô
ruud92- sorry to let you know buddy, but you mustve overlooked the horrible skin tones. it looks like she got punched in the face.