July 05 Discussion Thread

[Jaime]

Congratulations Faustina!

[faustina]

Wow, I am truly in awe. This whole process has been very cool! And coming in first among such talent is really amazing! Thank you so much to those of you who voted for my version of Nurdant's glamour portrait. I am also honored that our model herself voted for my retouch... thank you! Also thank you for the constructive criticism on the eyes, some of you. I have learned from that.

I have a lot of work to get done the next few days, but for those of you who are interested, I will post a tutorial of sorts soon. Again, thank you!

[cazubi]

Congratulations faustina. You did a beautiful job.

Cathy

[Kraellin]

congratz, faustina! see, i knew you were the one to beat

and congratz to everyone else. very well done!

one point, t paul, are you sure flora didnt place higher? i saw a lot of votes for hers, but in your tally she isnt listed.

Craig

[Marthig]

Congratulations Faustina,
some great way to start your activity in the Forums, I seem to recall it was your first entry, not only in the contest but in the forum !!

Cheers to all the other finalists and in general to all the participants.

Regards - Martha

[T Paul]

Just a reminder that those that did not vote had their images disqualified in accordance with the rules.

[Lorraine]

Congratulations Faustina!!!!!

[soleah]

Originally Posted by faustina

I have a lot of work to get done the next few days, but for those of you who are interested, I will post a tutorial of sorts soon. Again, thank you!

One look at your work, and no need for words, you seem to be very experienced in this area. I'm looking forward on your tutorial. Maybe you can offer some tips on hair, make-up and so on.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

[1STLITE]

CONGRATULATIONS FAUSTINA!! Absolutely wonderful BEAUTIFUL job. And like everyone else, I am anxiously awaiting your tutorial. Great Job!

Dawn

[Dreamypix]

Congrats Faustina! I knew when I saw your entry, that you were going to win! It was a beautiful retouch! And I am looking forward to the tutorial as well! Again Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing you in the next contest!

~Amber~

[Sean2]

Well done Faustina!.

I am looking forward to more of your work in the upcoming contests. Like others, I would really like to see how you accomplished such an outstanding retouch.

Regards,

Sean

[Nacoya]

congrats faustina,

simply had to be your entry that took top spot as the result of your efforts was fantastic and hope that you can find the time to let us know how you achived the results and as important how you identified what you wanted/needed to do in the first place.

cheers,

nacoya

[chrishoggy]

A much deserved 1st place faustina. Your work on that photo was amazing, and looking through your site I can see the high standard you work to.
I didn't think my simple job would get anywhere near the top 3, so thanks to all for the votes
Very Quick run through what I did.
1/ Used clone/spot healing brush to remove stray hair and blemishes, and removed background. Then ran Photoshop Auto levels.
2/ duplicate layer and erased all but the skin, then run surface blur filter.
3/ Duplicated layer again and erased all but eyes, hair, mouth, earrings and eyebrows. Cloned hair from top of head to fill gap under right ear, then increased contrast a little.
4/ Took a photo of the sky, and changed colour to match skin tones etc. Then moved it to the background layer.
5/ Flatten image and resize for entry

Very simple method, as I like to keep it fast n simple

[T Paul]

Thanks so much Chris for sharing your steps. Hopefully others will follow (hint, hint).

~T