Critiques - - A Glamour Retouch Project

SteveB2005 · #1 09-29-2005, 01:43 PM

Hi Folks. Here is a before and after retouching job I had to do. The original pic was shot digitally and was hi-rez but needed some definite work. I smoothed the model out with a variety of layer/mask techniques and experiments in Photoshop 7 and this was my result. I wanted to bring out the dark sweater and lighten the hair with a screen layer mode to get a sense of contrast. I was going for a "Vogue" type look as going to print. I used layers and airbrush and blend modes. Any tips and critiques are welcome. I have a passion for retouching and work at it to improve the work everyday. Thank you for your time. regards steveb

Kraellin · #2 09-29-2005, 02:02 PM

yup. that's the vogue look. a bit 'pasty' for my tastes, but that's how the vogue look is. nice job

Craig

SteveB2005 · #3 09-29-2005, 02:15 PM

Hey Craig. Thanks for the advice. Since I have the org image, what other direction could I go to get a different look? I'm self taught, except I have Katrin Eismann's first retouching book which has been invaluable for my education. I'm about out of ideas, working and reworking the image until I can make it look professional. There are so many levels of retouching and styles. I see some with a very mannequin slick look which certain mags want and a more grainy, old Penthouse style in the fashion mags. I'm always experimenting. regards steveb

Cyber Cat · #4 09-29-2005, 02:33 PM

nice job

, but i didnt like couple of things (the skin is too orange (for my taste) unless u going for this look or i should adjust my monitor lol )) and another thing u cut off one eyebrow. again not sure. maybe u ment to do so.

Kraellin · #5 09-29-2005, 02:57 PM

steveb,

actually, i didnt mean my comments as a critique at all. i think you matched the 'vogue' look pretty darn well. it's just not personal favorite look. but you did it well. like you said, there are a lot of styles for mags. now that you've got that one, try another

Vogue would probably love it; Life magazine, not so much

Craig

Duv · #6 09-29-2005, 03:14 PM

I know nothing about the Vogue look or glamour but a couple of thoughts anyhow. The overall lighting seems way too flat. There's very little range in tonality for the skin. I selected her left cheek area from the nose and lightened slightly. Selected her right cheek bone and darkened slightly to give bit of a blush look.
I would only do very minor skin smoothing to keep a bit of skin texture (not Vogue though I guess). I changed the highlights in the eyes to 1 o'clock. I prefer it but probably just me. I agree that the skin might be a tad too yellow.
I do like the subtle detail you pulled out in the sweater and hair.

Cheers

Dave

Panpan · #7 09-29-2005, 04:44 PM

With the light coming form below, her hair flowing up and the blood rushing to her head, the model looks like she was photographed upside down and the photo flipped vertically.

You did a good job with the glamour look and Duv's repositioning of the catchlights helps, but I still think she does not look natural standing up. You could maybe to reorient 90 degrees?

I would also lose the sideburn.

Pierre

SteveB2005 · #8 09-29-2005, 05:55 PM

It was great having all of your input. I am going to try some of your suggestions and go in another direction. Interesting comment about the catch lights. It was mentioned I caught the Vogue look, which was my intent. I am aware of how certain models are photographed and retouched which seems to give the illusion of flatness, reddish skin tones and a few other things. I go through a variety of fashion mags and pick up a few ideas. What would really help me would have an art director circle the spots that they want changed and try to match it, but unfortunately, I don't have access to anyone like that for now. I'll keep at it. regards steveb

Caitlin · #9 09-29-2005, 05:59 PM

As Panpan has said, the first thing that struck me was the hair in front of the ear - not an attractive look. I've just taken Cybercat's version, and removed the unwanted hair - I've also tweaked the lip colour - a personal preference, but I found the colour a bit harsh.

Kraellin · #10 09-29-2005, 09:21 PM

ok. we're all talking about the vogue look here, so i thought i'd go pull one. they've changed a bit since last i looked at a vogue mag, though some are still somewhat familiar as the look i remember. vogue often had a 'pancake' look and sometimes they went for a pale look and sometimes a flat look. this one is somewhat typical of the less-color-is-better look. and i purposely pulled one that mentioned 'trailing hair', since that came up in this thread also.

Craig

oh, and this came off their online site: http://www.style.com/vogue/ and if you go there and look at their current cover pic, you'll see a great example of the pale look on the left.

MBChamberlain · #11 09-30-2005, 08:45 AM

Hi Steve,

I like it but thought it was just a hair overdone. The skin was smoothed to the point where it didn't fit the scene. (Lighting) Try backing off just a tad, and adding a little grain into the image to help keep the skin from looking to plastic. Check out my gallery and the original from retouching challenge 8 for a better explaination of how I go at working on skin (although my work is more the "Cover Girl" look than Vogue the difference is more in color saturation than anything else).

Take care,

Michael

Cassidy · #12 09-30-2005, 09:24 AM

This looked like a bit of fun and so taking on board other's suggestions I copied the layer and applied it in screen mode, then duplicated the layer again and gaussian blurred it to soften it a little and again overlaid in screen mode and reduced the opacity, other than that just a little lightening of the Forehead, removal of gaussian blur from eyes and removal of the hair over the ear. Personally I do prefer stronger colours, and think the original retouch of this photo by SteveB is pretty good depending on the look you are trying to achieve.

SteveB2005 · #13 09-30-2005, 10:41 AM

Hi Guys. I'm so glad everyone took an interest in my glamour project and made so many positive comments. The different approaches you all took was awesome! The hair near the ear was also bothering me a bit, but I went ahead and left it there on my makeover. I decided it is also best to add a bit of noise/grain as a final layer. I have many options to look at now and will post some other makeovers as they get completed. regards steveb

Kraellin · #14 09-30-2005, 01:33 PM

gonna add another comment here. i've looked at all the images posted thus far, and the thing is, not a one of them is 'wrong'. they are all just different looks, different lighting, different styles, different skin tones and so on. that's one of the things in glamour retouching that is important to remember. clients all have different tastes. the real key here is to find out what that taste is. from there, the work is relatively easy. it's like a singer booking a custom date for a different audience each time. sometimes the audience might want the blues. another audience might want jazz. and yet another might want rock. you might sing all the same songs each time, but the style/rendition/arrangement could be different each time to suit. and that's one of the things i love about this site. we've got a lot of different viewpoints to learn from and that is going to translate to being able to accomodate a lot of diverse tastes that clients may express.

so, well done to all, and vive' la difference!

Craig

maureeno · #15 09-30-2005, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panpan

With the light coming form below, her hair flowing up and the blood rushing to her head, the model looks like she was photographed upside down and the photo flipped vertically.

Pierre, I could be wrong, but it appears this model is laying down. I'm observing the white duvet-like texture next to her head.

Maureen