They are amazing! I wish I knew if it was a plug in or something, but it's just so very cool! They seem bigger than usual and obviously retouched, but how does she do it?

http://www.christiecarl.com/

I don't think a plugin would work. It just looks like good catchlights, good sharpening and strong saturation of the pupils. On some images the eye balls are bright white and have the veins painted over.
Regards, Murray

I think that her eyes are pretty interesting, but in some shots the unnaturalness of them is just too much. My main beef is a lot of her work has way, WAY too much skin smoothing. Kind of to the point of ridiculous. That's just my opinion.. to each their own.

They are amazing! I wish I knew if it was a plug in or something, but it's just so very cool! They seem bigger than usual and obviously retouched, but how does she do it?

http://www.christiecarl.com/

Looks like she may have super imposed an image over the iris as well. She more than likely used some dodge and burn, plus some saturation boost.

thanks everyone--I think you all have valid points. I think the whole principle is a great idea--make they eyes pop and the whole photograph comes alive. I'm going to play around and see what I can do--

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photo-retouching/18946-eyes-101-a.html

I wish we would spend a little more time on eyes. There are many approaches and I was wondering if those that are good with eyes would share their technique. Thanks

i think the model has beautiful eyes to begin with..looks like the saturation is really pushed on them and they also have a contrast move as well, the thing i find ironic is the skin and teeth are overdone yet the eyes still have the reflections in them..but IMO i like the reflection in the eyes unless it has a weird shape...

Not saying this is the answer but maybe worth a try to see how it comes out

http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=139721
Palms

Thanks Palms...any tips on catch light when light isn't there to begin with...

Sorry more reading for you

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=20387612

Cspringer (member here) and Peano have posted a fair bit about the subject it is just trawling through the posts to find what you want

Palms

I'm guessing here, but I'd say that the eyes have been cut to different layers, re sized (enlarged) and repositioned along with touch up. I saw a tutorial on this somewhere that showed how to add symmetry to a subject (a much desired feature in the high end modeling world).

Example #1 is a dead give away. Note the distance of edge of the eye from the hairline in the "before" version. In the "after" version the eye has been moved considerably left and the hair line (bangs) covering it via masking.

Hi everyone.... I found this thread when I saw some strange hits on my site. What a great discussion. I wanted to clarify a few things so that those who were interested could make eyes pop too! A lot of clients really like that effect, though some (particularly moms about their small children) prefer a more natural approach. You definitely have to know what your client is looking for... in my experiance senior girls want the very best of them brought out, and therefore tend to have a more 'overdone' result.

I absolutely saturate and sharpen all my close up eye pictures. I also dodge and burn. I never create dodge and burn lines, but instead trace over existing ones. I always smooth skin to create a dewy texture. But there are a few things I never do and a couple that were mentioned that I don't know how to do :)... I have never replaced an eye or eyes. Not sure how natural that would look. I have never enlarged an eye... again that seems to sound like a wierd precious moments doll. In the specific picture referenced I'm not sure what is meant, but the only difference between my half face picture and the original was that I tilted the whole image and cropped it in half, then burned out the surrounding areas. I rarely if ever have whitened teeth or eyes, but have selected them and removed yellow or blue color casts. I don't know how to superimpose an image on an eye or whatever that is... the catchlights are 100% true always... in the center when magnified you can usually see me holding my camera... sadly I take up a huge center due to being out of shape :) Catchlights are my specialty and my bread and butter because I am only a natural light photographer.

That specific model, Kelsey has amazing eyes, as do many of the people I photograph, but I will state that it is hard, much much much harder to get great catchlights with brown or very dark blue eyes. Sadly my son has dark brown eyes (which are beautiful) but very hard to get decent catchlights. I will lighten his whole iris from time to time with the dodge to give it some depth, but I too prefer naturalness on my own child.

I sometimes teach a photoshop class (not because I'm in any way qualified because I am NOT) but to help begining photographers in my community to make what I call picture portraits... in those I show them actual before and afters of any of my images they want to see, and then I edit one of thier images right with them. There is no effect I've found to replacing great catchlights and beautiful eyes that are natural, but you can certainly enhance any eyes, even badly pixelated flashed eyes can be fixed to look decent in my opinion.

I'm definitely no expert, far from it, and certainly as some previous posters mentioned my style is not for everyone, but for anyone interested I give very freely to answering as many questions that come my way as possible... and if specifically requested will provide heavily watermarked photos of before and afters to help assist when necessary. I learned from a great community of photographers how to photograph and am completely self taught on CS2, and have only been doing this two years so take anything I offer with a grain of salt, I still don't even know the names of all the functions, but if you'd like help in 'popping' your eyes or just have some general questions, I'd be happy to help.

What a wonderful place this is and I can't wait to begin reading some of the other posts and learning so much more. Thanks to all of you for checking out my site! I can't wait to look at all of your wonderful work as well.

Regards,
Christie Carl

Christie,

Thanks for the response...a few questions..what camera and lighting system are you using. Also are you doing anything to the eyelashes?

Hi Christie--

Thank you so very much for all of the information you have graciously shared. I sincerely hope you have taken my interest in your work as a compliment--it absolutely is!

Hi...

I use a point and shoot camera (a prosumer Sony Cybershot DSC-H9) and no lights. Windows, outdoors, and sometimes a white foamcore board. I hope to one day soon move to studio style photography, with backgrounds and lights, but I'm just not there yet :(

As for the catchlights, I always position a person then walk around them 360 degrees to find the right light. Then I make them move and turn until I get the catchlights I need. I usually have them placed below me (sitting, kneeling) or I place myself quite a bit higher (stepstools and ladders) since the very best catchlights (imo) come from the reflections of the sky. Another trick for great catchlights is to walk around witha marble in your closed fist between your thumb and top finger and look for where the light hits it... that is the sweet spot.

I do use the burn tool, small circle (usually 1 or 2) and go over Each and Every lash for the girls... but this looks fake and wierd on boys. Also, very tricky on blonds unless they already have heavy eye make up on. Again, I only edit eyes in fairly close up images... which cuts down some on the editing.

I hope that helps!

Christie

eta... thanks melanie I DID. Lots of people like my style, but lots of people think its overdone... and both are right depending on the picture (and a lot of mine are more edited then most people would) so its completely fine... in fact it promotes some great talk on what makes a good photo great, and what the difference is between darkroom editing (which I used to love) and photoshop editing. I appreciate any and every interest someone shows... thank you so much!

Hi Christie,

I don't post here all that often but your response within this thread just prompted me to write a bit.

I want to thank you for your insight in response to someone's "random" post. You took the time not only to post here but you posted here in response to hits on your website. That takes time!

Your pictures look great!

Thank you.

Christie
Hello and welcome to retochpro
Thank you for your detailed workflow, picked up a few tips, the marble is a excellent one, It is great that you have spent the time to post a explanation rather than having to find posts that "might be of some help " even though they have value in themselves

Palms

Hi, Christie! Welcome to Retouch Pro. I'm sure you will be a great asset to our community. I'm not a photographer nor am I really interested in retouching or restoration (I usually hang out in the Photo Art threads), but I do stick my nose into other threads just to keep up. You may have already discovered the Photography forum. Lots of snappers and shooters there.

Look forward to seeing more of your work.

Not saying this is the answer but maybe worth a try to see how it comes out

http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=139721
Palms

Hi Palms, nice find. Thanks

cmcrjr, Enjoyed looking at your site and the different ranges of retouching on them. The fact you've taken your photo's with a point and shoot also is amazing. Love your photo's. The marble idea is wonderful.

What method do you use for your smoothing your skin? I have a few different books that go into doing that, I was just wondering which way you do it.

If I lived in the same town, I'd be checking out your class. Always fun to see how people do things and pick up tips.

Take care.

Palms1

Liked the tutorial you recommended. Thanks again.


Not saying this is the answer but maybe worth a try to see how it comes out

http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=139721
Palms

Hi Christie
thanks for your comments
I like the effect of emphasis you achieve in your facial portraits
You mention the Orton Technique. Can you tell us more?
karin

You mention the Orton Technique. Can you tell us more?
Don't mind me plopping my nose where it doesn't belong - but this may be what she mentioned (http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0106/dw0106-1.html).

Hi all...

Hope you all enjoyed the new year!

Smiley guy.... thanks so much. I try to keep up with all different kinds of communities, and I was very excited to find this one. I'm sure I'm going to learn so much from all of you!

Palms... I picked up that marble tips on one of the other photography boards I frequent and boy was it helpful to me at that time! I'm so glad I can help out someone else. It can be daunting trying to hunt down tips for the precise thing you want to know about... thats why I love message boards so much, everyone gets a chance to share and ask questions. This one seems to do that very well too!

Swampy.... great to meet you. You have a very interesting medium you're working with, your digital art is certainly lovely. I thank you for the welcome and look forward to seeing more of your work in the future... and thanks for the heads up, I just found the group of photographers!

dmrdm.... thank you so much. Taking pictures with a point and shoot has taught me to be extremely creative, and certainly increased my haste in learning photoshop early on... something I'm thankful for now. For soft skin I do two things, first I use the blend brush on a new layer and 'smooth over' the whole skin, then I reduce the opacity of the layer depending on what is needed for that person. Secondly, I do the afore mentioned Orton softening type layer to make things 'pop' a little more while creating a softer glow. As for taking my class, you flatter me... its really more of a community effort, but I thank you for the compliment all the same :)

Hi Karin... the link Stephen mentions is precisely what I mean and use. I've tweaked it a bit over time to fit my style more personally, as I recommend for every trick that I pick up, so all your work carries your own personal signature (at least thats something that is very important to me) so I sometimes dabble with dodging and burning additional layers, or even sometimes 'vintaging' a photo with color withdrawl, just whatever you feel might add that touch.

Thanks again everyone... all my best,
Christie

I would do a light painting layer with a 50% gray overlay and paint white in the eyes. I do this alot actually butr theres a fine line between enough and too much.

Here's a shot I did of my daughter using this technique. Her eyes are usually very dark brown but here they look like shiny marbles.
http://www.astoundingimages.com/galleries/kids/images/007.jpg

Here's another of one of my interns using the same technique.
http://www.astoundingimages.com/galleries/glamour/images/010.jpg

And more learnt I had a dabble at the orton technique before but didnt like it much but this one is great and looks super on a portrait shot of my baby neice i just tried it on ( sorry no permission to post) need to work some more on the eye thing though I wasnt that happy with it but i will get there with more practice
Thanks for the idea Christie
Thanks for the link Stephen
Nice work BrittMcT Love the second one ( grungy one ) sorry, sorry not saying your daughters eyes arent great i meant the all over style :nod:

Palms

Hi Christie
thanks for your comments
I like the effect of emphasis you achieve in your facial portraits
You mention the Orton Technique. Can you tell us more?
karin

In addition to Stephen link about Orton imagery, this video tutorial (http://lakehyatttrout.blogspot.com/2007/03/3-layer-orton-video.html) shows how to get this effect with more control.

Britt, please, what does "light painting" means? I keep on reading this expression but I'm quite confused about it! :confused:

I use a 50% gray layer set on Overlay and by painting white I can dodge the luminocity and by painting black I can burn the luminocity.