Critiques - - First post...

mister_phillie · #1 08-20-2005, 03:13 AM

Hi all,

I only found this forum the other day, but already I've learned a fair amount! It's a great place to find new techniques and learn about the bits of PS that I've never managed to get round to

I thought I'd post some recent work. I was after an almost porcelain look to the photo - do you think that was achieved? I'm aware there isn't a whole lot of skin texture left - I just thought that worked well for this photo.

You can see the fullsize here (and I'd recommend it - it does work better with a larger image IMO): http://www.pbase.com/mister_phillie/...71057/original

Look forward to contributing more soon

Phil

Caitlin · #2 08-20-2005, 03:23 AM

Nice. Only criticism I'd have, is that since you have gone for the porcelain doll skin, I would get rid of that hint of hair on the upper lip on the right.

rnbluvva · #3 08-20-2005, 03:26 AM

I think it looks very dramatic. I'd love to know the process you went through to achieve that look.

mister_phillie · #4 08-20-2005, 04:38 AM

Thanks. Agree with you about the hair - hadn't spotted it first time!

The process was:

Remove the spots and loose hairs with healing brush

Brush the skin with a chosen pink using brush tool, large brush with opacity and fill at 25%. This reduces the contrast in the skin. You need to rechoose a darker pink for the darker areas of the skin. You might want to brush over certain areas (eyes and nose especially) several times to remove imperfections.

Duplicate layer and set to Overlay

Do a heavy gaussian blur (on a 3000 pixel wide image, I used 30 pixels)

Remove eyes and other areas of necessary sharpness from this layer.

Go to Curves and pull the left hand up and right hand down until the effect is reduced significantly and the colours in the image are relatively normal again (although for this image I kept them fairly bright).

Repeat the last three steps using a gaussian blur about double size.

I'm sure you could repeat the new layer effect again if you wanted to...

You can change the opacity of either layer to reduce or increase the effect of each.

Flatten the image.

(Note: I did an extra pass over it with a soft focus filter, again removing the eyes and other relevant areas. I also redid her eye makeup.)

You could also use Median rather than Gaussian Blur for a different effect (it would 'bleed' the colours less)

Hope you enjoy it!

Regards,
Phil

rnbluvva · #5 08-20-2005, 04:39 AM

Phil,

Just finished a trip through your pBase gallery. I really love your work!

I played with one of your images using a warmer skin tone approach... hope you don't mind. Beautiful girl!

Thanks for sharing your porcelain skin technique!

Flora · #6 08-20-2005, 05:02 AM

Hi Phil,

Welcome to RP!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mister_phillie

....I thought I'd post some recent work. I was after an almost porcelain look to the photo - do you think that was achieved? I'm aware there isn't a whole lot of skin texture left - I just thought that worked well for this photo.

You can see the fullsize here (and I'd recommend it - it does work better with a larger image IMO): http://www.pbase.com/mister_phillie/...71057/original

Look forward to contributing more soon

Phil

.... I think you have achieved that beautifully!!!

mister_phillie · #7 08-20-2005, 05:17 AM

Thanks

No - I don't mind you playing with my pictures. I guess you found one I'd uploaded before I learned retouching

Zoe was a great model. She has amazing eyes and a good 'pout' when she concentrates!

Regards,
Phil

rnbluvva · #8 08-20-2005, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mister_phillie

Thanks

No - I don't mind you playing with my pictures. I guess you found one I'd uploaded before I learned retouching

Zoe was a great model. She has amazing eyes and a good 'pout' when she concentrates!

Regards,
Phil

Thanks Phil! It's nice to find a good picture that's well lit and has lots of skin showing. I just found a whole gallery there of Zoe's images... not sure how I got there. LOL

I love her pout... she has perfect lips!
BTW- I really enjoyed your animal photography as well. Really great stuff.

How have you found the D10? Do you like it better than film?

mister_phillie · #9 08-20-2005, 06:52 AM

They were probably uploaded quickly so Zoe could get an idea of what we'd taken

I then went to town on the best of them.

I love to 10D! It's a great camera! However, I never did film - in fact, I've only been doing photography for about a year and a half (I started with a Panasonic FZ10, which was also a great camera!)

Kraellin · #10 08-20-2005, 12:03 PM

hi phillee,

along with the hair on the lip, i'd also take out a bit of the bloodshot eyes, especially her left one. smooth the shadow on the ridge of her nose a bit and i see a few other blend/smooths that could be done. a smudge on about a 20% opacity would do it, most likely. also, i'd tone down that bit in her right eye right in the corner. dont remove it, just blur it down a bit. normally, what you've got would do fine, but you've got such a large, hi-res pic, that the smallest things show up. nothing wrong with large, hi-res pics, but they will show flaws more obviously.

it's great overall look and i agree, zoe has great eyes.

and welcome to RP

Craig

mister_phillie · #11 08-20-2005, 05:07 PM

Hi!

Thanks for the indepth comments. Much appreciated. It's a fair point about large images..