I've got a snapshot I took of my daughter. It looks pretty good at this point (I've cleaned up some dust, eliminated some facial blemishes and removed some elements in the background), but it still has a couple of issues.

There is some noise here that bothers me (it's from a print of 400 iso film) but that can be taken care of later with some smart sharpening. The biggest issues I have right now are the reddish/orange cast to the color -- the wall behind her should be pretty close to white. Also, the contrast has been tweaked, but her features don't "pop" out like I would wish.

Here is a small version around 61Kb (http://adamslan.shyper.com/graphics/chris_1_11-04_EXP_small.jpg) with a larger version around 631 Kb (http://adamslan.shyper.com/graphics/chris_1_11-04_EXP.jpg).

I've tried manipulating the levels and curves, but I keep running into contrast problems and nothing I've done has really brought out her eyes and lips. Any suggestions about how to attack these issues?

Happy Thanksgiving.

Mark

Hi Mark,

This might get a start for you. I sampled the background color, then made a new (empty) layer, and filled it with the sampled color, then inverted. Set blending mode to color, and reduced opacity to 50%. This made it look a lot better, but then I made a levels adjustment, using the eyedropper on the right side, and clicking on the upper part of her shirt. That's all I did, and it needs more work on the color. Good luck.

Ed
P.S. For the lips, you could make an empty new layer, paint on the lips with red. It will look really bad, but not for long. Change the blending mode to color, and reduce the opacity until it looks right.

Hi Mark,

This might get a start for you.

Absolutly Ed. That covers the background very nicely. I think I can handle the skin tone and lips with some color layers in overlay mode. I just wonder if anybody has any tips on how I can emphasize her eyes.

Thanks.

Mark

For your basic 35 mm snapshot, I am pretty happy with this. I could do more with color and contrast I suppose, and the image might benefit from some smart sharpening -- as is all I did was apply an unsharp mask to the eyes and lips, then a little more to the whole image. The skintones are pretty good, eyes and lips look better than they did and the background is nicely neutral. She looks good for a fourteen year old.

Anybody see anthing I've missed?

Thanks.

Mark

I think you did a great job Mark! Just a couple of very small things. Her upper right lip looks a little rough. Maybe just a little bit of smoothing. Also, her upper right cheek is a little red and splochy..but HEY! She is a teenager.

Cheers
Dave

Hi Mark, can't open your links, so not able to see your original images.

Hi Mark:

I took a little different tact, as I wanted to create a more natural look. Here is what I did:

Decreased saturation by 44
Cleaned up the left cheek with some cloning of surrounding areas
Added slight smoothing to the face
Used a multiply layer to add depth and more uniform tone to the face
Decreased saturation in the whites of the eyes (to brighten them a bit)
Use a color balance layer and decreased the yellow in the face by increasing the blue
Use a soft light blending mode layer at 33% opacity to emphasize highlights
Use a sharpening layer to emphasize the eyes and lips
Desaturated the background

Alan

Alan. Visually and by the numbers, it's close to perfect in my book.

Cheers
Dave

Gary: I posted the originals to the wrong directory and had to move them. My apologies. Corrected links are here:

http://adamslan.shyper.com/graphics/family/chris_1_11-04_EXP_small.jpg

http://adamslan.shyper.com/graphics/family/chris_1_11-04_EXP.jpg

Duv: I agree that there were some issues with her skin -- my primary problem was the color. When I corrected the orange cast, I had trouble keeping her from looking green. She has a kind of olive complexion, but I was not happy with the color generally. Alan has done a terrific job correcting that and the blotches on her cheek and upper lip. I think desaturating the background looks better, though the actual wall I'm looking at here has a very subtle "pink" tone.

As soon as I recover from Thanksgiving I'm going to study his instructions and try to get better at this.

Thanks all. I really appreciate the assist.

Mark

Hi Mark, the new links work fine, and now I can look at a decent sized version of the original. Thanks for taking the time. I'll have a play with it now, and get back to you later.

Had a quick play around with your image as follows. Made duplicate layer, inverted and reduced opacity (like Ed), masked it to show just background. Adjusted Levels on channels, and also added curves adj layer. Then adjusted saturation a little. Finally painted in a little white into eyes using a colour layer, adjusted opacity of layer for best effect. Result is far from adequate, but I don't have a lot of free time at the moment, sorry.

Hi everybody,

Wow great results!!!!

I had the same problem as Gary, and when I saw the picture I just couldn't resist....

What a stunning girl!!!!

I used Hue&Saturation and Selective Colors Adjustment Layers to fix the colour.
Neat Image (Medium Settings)+ Gaussian Blur for the noise. Here (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=140)
Patch Tool on her right cheek to remove the blemishes.
Created a new empty Layer (Blending > Overlay) and with a soft black brush (Opacity 10%) I emphasize eyes, mouth and the contour of her lovely face.
Used a Linear Gradient on the backgorund.
Used USM for Contrast and Sharpening.

AMAZING Flora,

Simply amazing
Hi everybody,

Wow great results!!!!

I had the same problem as Gary, and when I saw the picture I just couldn't resist....

What a stunning girl!!!!

I used Hue&Saturation and Selective Colors Adjustment Layers to fix the colour.
Neat Image (Medium Settings)+ Gaussian Blur for the noise. Here (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=140)
Patch Tool on her right cheek to remove the blemishes.
Created a new empty Layer (Blending > Overlay) and with a soft black brush (Opacity 10%) I emphasize eyes, mouth and the contour of her lovely face.
Used a Linear Gradient on the backgorund.
Used USM for Contrast and Sharpening.