First post asking for critique and advice

smiley guy · #1 09-14-2005, 08:57 AM

Hi all,

I love this place and all the information available. I have finally got my head together and figured out how to post images and so forth so here goes...

Attached are before and after images of a retoration I did on a photo of my wife... she is a little older now but no less cute.

I have been working over the summer learning, learning and more learning of Photoshop and r&r techniques. I have finally registered and started my own business called Wesmore Digital and can be found on the web at www.wesmoredigital.ca albeit in a very under construction format right now.

For these photos I would just like open critique of the finished product and any likes or dislikes. However, I would also like to ask for advice in this post regarding setting up a portfolio. Any advice you might have on types of images to include, online presentation, in-person presentation--everything is helpful to me at this point in time.

I did post a question in the "work" forum (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11442) and have a few views but no responses as yet.

Thanks to all for you help and looking forward to some critique.

Kraellin · #2 09-14-2005, 02:03 PM

hi smiley,

and welcome to RetouchPRO.

i can see why you married her; very cute

excellent job on the restoration! the retouch, however, needs a bit of work. the baby's skin is a bit too white, in my opinion. it could stand a bit more red/pink in the face. the saturation on the dress could be a bit more up also...brighter, more color depth. you might also want to bring out the hair a bit more, but this isnt quite as crucial as the other points.

other than that, i think it's excellent work!

Craig

smiley guy · #3 09-14-2005, 02:38 PM

Thanks for that.

I didn't want to do too much in the face for fear of over doing it and really making it look colourized or false. I did add a little blush in the cheeks but maybe a bit more over all.

I agree with the dress comment. We have the dress still so I took the colour straight from that (or as best I could approximate). I may try again with a different blending mode on it.

The hair? Hmmm, not much there to work with. (She has more now, BTW). More saturation or what do you recommend?

Duv · #4 09-14-2005, 03:31 PM

You should be put in jail for marrying someone so young!

Dave

Kraellin · #5 09-14-2005, 08:29 PM

smiley,

i would think you could just saturate it more (the dress).

Craig

pindaro · #6 07-27-2006, 08:07 AM

very nice job! the eyes are impresive!

Vikki · #7 07-27-2006, 10:04 AM

You've done a nice job of fixing the damage.
Does the "original" you posted look like the actual image? I'm asking because it looks as if you've got a bad scan/your scanner is not so great. The eyes are extremely dark in relation to the rest of the image.
Regarding the "after" image. I agree with the others that the coloring needs some work. The original does have a lot of color information and you should be able to bring it out. Run the "Equalize" filter on each channel to see what I mean (the image will be very dark, but the color info is there).

smiley guy · #8 07-27-2006, 04:31 PM

Wow! This one caught me off guard. This was originally posted back in September of last year. Thanks for the comments even at this date.

Thank you, Pindaro, for the comment about the eyes. They are still impressive at the tender age of 36!

Vikki, I would agree with you about the before picture and the darkness of the eyes. I just took a look at the original original and the difference is not that striking. I would chalk that up to my scanning and not likely the scanner. I may have tweaked something inadvertently in the scanning software or ever so slightly in Photoshop before making it a before picture. Thanks very much for the comment.