Critiques - - Some retouching.

suchyy · #1 08-04-2005, 08:56 AM

I would like you to take a look at my latest work. I am enjoying my vacation time so I can play around with photoshop and I decided to try retouching, here is what i did:

http://suchyy.pcmaniak.pl/works/13.htm

You can also take a look at a few of my older photomanipulations and photos which can be found here:

http://suchyy.pcmaniak.pl/

Ken Fournelle · #2 08-04-2005, 09:33 AM

The cyan looks a bit high.

k

Kraellin · #3 08-04-2005, 09:42 AM

fascinating look and very nice work on your part, but boy, does she look harsh in this.

Craig

maureeno · #4 08-04-2005, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suchyy

I would like you to take a look at my latest work. I am enjoying my vacation time so I can play around with photoshop and I decided to try retouching, here is what i did:

http://suchyy.pcmaniak.pl/works/13.htm

You can also take a look at a few of my older photomanipulations and photos which can be found here:

http://suchyy.pcmaniak.pl/

I really like your work, Suchyy. You are very talented and I envy you (just a little!), as you seem to have the natural eye for photography. I have to work at it!

Maureen

Duv · #5 08-04-2005, 02:32 PM

Well done Suchyy! I'm glad you left some skin pores to show thru.

Dave

palms1 · #6 08-04-2005, 03:06 PM

Well done, love your manipulation work especially the "Battle",
Your English is very good too, keep up the excellent work will keep a eye out for your work in the future.

Palms

NancyJ · #7 08-06-2005, 06:09 AM

I'll be perfectly honest - I dont like it. But I'm not one to make such a sweeping statemnt without backing it up

and surely the purpose of this forum is to get critisism that we can learn from.

You seem to be using a technique that I used in my earlier days, bluring the picture then masking in the skin areas over the top of the original - which is ok in some situations but with this picture there are a lot of visible pores and in the blurred/smoothed version they just make the skin appear blotched.

I've attached my attempt (full size) and a smaller version of mine next to yours.
I hope you can see that mine looks more natural.

I acheived the smooth(er) skin by painting over the top at a low opacity, sampling colours from the subjects skin, then adding a little bit of noise to the painted layer to match the photograph.

Other improvements you might consider is that the image is very cold (as someone else mentioned, too much cyan) I gave the original a 10px gaussian blur and overlayed it at 50%, it really makes a big difference to the look.

One other thing was the change of eye colour - you lose all the beatiful tonal differences in her eyes, I chose to enhance the green very slightly but still keeping the flecks of brown and orange in. I also brightened the whites of the eyes.

I hope you dont take this post as being pompous or trying to enforce my style on you. Everyone has their own particular tastes and this is just my opinion. But hopefully if you like what i've done with the image it this post will help you emulate what I have done and improve your own work.

suchyy · #8 08-06-2005, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NancyJ

I hope you dont take this post as being pompous or trying to enforce my style on you. Everyone has their own particular tastes and this is just my opinion. But hopefully if you like what i've done with the image it this post will help you emulate what I have done and improve your own work.

Ofcourse not, I am very glad that you pointed out all minuses of my work, as you can see on the page I linked to, I am not a skilled retoucher and it was my first attempt in this kind of photoshop work. I will read your post again and try to retouch this picture from the beginning.

NancyJ · #9 08-06-2005, 04:00 PM

I'm glad you're not offended, I've noticed dispite the stickys there seem to be a lot of critiques that add up to pretty much 'its great, I love it' and very few 'critiquing', but I have to be honest, it would be a pointless forum otherwise

I'd love to see what you come up with on a second attempt.

Marthig · #10 08-06-2005, 04:21 PM

Thanks to suchyy and NancyJ

For helping others improve (or simply develop) their skills.

Suchyy - I viewed your "playground" and enjoyed your inspiring works I loved foto # 5 of your byking trip and the Battle rendering. Thanks again.

NancyJ - I enjoyed your tutorial about glamour and your critique of the Angelina's retouch work.

Great input from both !

Regards - Martha

suchyy · #11 08-07-2005, 09:07 AM

Here is my second try.

Nancy: Actually, I dod not use your technique, but I will try it

I worked with Noise Ninja (Filer --> Noise --> Median last time) and did a lot of "healing brushing".

How do you like it ?

Kraellin · #12 08-07-2005, 09:26 AM

the skin tone is much better, more even, but you've lost texture in this one. give nancy's suggestions a try. i did and they work. flora also had some good points on skin tone and texture in other threads.

Craig

NancyJ · #13 08-07-2005, 10:01 AM

Much better! I personally would reduce the opacity on the median layer just a touch to bring a little more texture back into the skin but thats just my preference, I know some prefer the flawlessly smooth skin look.