I did a retouch yesterday on a picture from here (http://berlinelliott.deviantart.com). I made a few, but this one was my favorite. Let me know if it is good/bad/what I can change, etc. Thanks!!!

Liz

ORIGINAL (http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8969/shai197byberlinelliottip7.jpg)

RETOUCHED (http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/3395/shai197byberlinelliott2pu4.jpg)

Hi Liz,
I think you are on the right path correcting that distracting background and removing those shiny spots on the girl's face.
Maybe you should pay more attention to the tone of the image (it's yellow/greenish now). Also I would suggest not to blur the picture, it looks like the girl is looking at us through the clouds. I used to blur, too, until discovered D&B tutorial here, at retouchpro. It's time consuming method but provides you with better results.
Keep up working and everything will be fine. We all just need patience.:)

Thanks! I appreciate your input. I was actually going for that summer/beachy look since she looks like a California girl or something (if that makes any sense). The way i retouch skin is by applying the dust & scratches filter then a gaussian blur then i use a mask and just paint on the skin parts. After that I reduce the mask's opacity to about 60% to make it look more natural. I never really thought that my pictures looked blurry, but I'll go ahead and read the D&B technique. Thanks again :)

Here's another picture I retouched. I know it's dramatic, and the original probably looks better. I know I messed up on the background where her head is at.

Original (http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/1590/shai86byberlinelliott2zd4.jpg)

Retouched (http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5693/shai86byberlinelliott3ih7.jpg)

Here's another picture I retouched. I know it's dramatic, and the original probably looks better. I know I messed up on the background where her head is at.

Original (http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/1590/shai86byberlinelliott2zd4.jpg)

Retouched (http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5693/shai86byberlinelliott3ih7.jpg)

Heh. I liked the dramatic effect.

Looks like the original has had some blurring done to the skin.

Liz,
You did a good job on the lips,eyes, and eyelashes. I agree with pixelhunter. It seems that the original's skin was already blurred. I'm unsure if you did any work on it.

micheal

I can see mainly tonal changes, personally, I'd prefer a bit more grey in the eyes for the smokey value

I'm sorry, I uploaded one that was NOT the original. I remember I began working on it and I had to do something else, so I saved it. Here is the REAL original:

REAL ORIGINAL (http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/8788/shai86byberlinelliottwj7.jpg)

Thanks!

I agree about the blurriness of the first retouch. I sometimes use the method you described, what are your settings for Dust & Scratches and Gaussian Blur? It never stays the same for me. She has ghostface and the greenish, yellow aspect of the picture although her hair in the original is yellowy/brassy in some areas.

I love the dramatic style of the second. You chose a great red for her lips; I love that blue-red tone. It looks great on many blondes. I would have kept the two tone quality of her eye and made the blue a bit more natural looking. I also would have rid her hair of that brassiness in the lower part and changed the blonde up a bit and maybe lightened her eyebrows slightly but I do like what you did with her skin. You can still see some hair on her upper lip which is great. Great job!