Critiques - - Glamour Retouching

HALX · #1 01-24-2006, 08:26 AM

Hello

I introduce myself for my first post: I am working as an assistant photographer in south of France for almost 6 month now.Before that I worked in a design studio and and did a lot of retouching works.

I would want to have advice about my last work:

http://retouche.fib6.com/wip/retouching3.htm

and any feedbacks about the website are very welcomed

byRo · #2 01-24-2006, 10:42 AM

HALX, Welcome to RetouchPRO

Nice work

, two very very minor points:

1) When you "thinned" the young lady, some parts were left unaffected. For the hair this works very well. (I did the same trick a couple of days ago). However, part of the arm to the left side got moved towards the center and part didn't. This ended up causing the opposite effect of making this arm wider.

2) Hair over the eyes isn't easy, I know, but here you have made the hair opaque and covered the eye completely. Maybe that was a design choice, but it got me wondering how "heavy" the hair would have to be for that to happen.

These things only showed up when comparing before / after. If I (nitpicker

) had seen only the final shot I probably wouldn't have noticed anything at all.

Rô

NancyJ · #3 01-24-2006, 11:08 AM

In addition to byRo's comments. I also noticed that her stomach still sticks out under her breasts, looking at other pictures of the same girl on your site, just good posture could make her look at least 20 pounds lighter.
What is this fashion of young girls puffing their guts out like a beer belly, then complaining they're fat?

In the bottom right corner, you've got a white box around your blue blob, I guess you copied and forgot to account for the change in colour accross the wall

I would also look at the breast shaping. You appear to have given her a little lift but the result looks a little flat. If you tuck her breast in a little bit underneath it will give a 'perkyer' shape.

byRo · #4 01-24-2006, 01:02 PM

I just can't believe I didn't examine at that area.

Must be getting

, nicely seen NancyJ.

Rô

NancyJ · #5 01-24-2006, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by byRo

I just can't believe I didn't examine at that area.

Must be getting

, nicely seen NancyJ.

Rô

hehe

...not sure what that makes me

Mig · #6 01-24-2006, 03:17 PM

Hi Halx,

The girl looks decent, but the before image is much sexier, and that's lost when you remove the right eye from view. I don't think thinning her up will do that much for her since she's mildly plump in both and her weight isn't an issue in either. Plus, when you reduce her size it makes her head appear quite large and she already has quite a big head of hair. That's minor stuff tho, forget it.
The issue of where the eyes focus on is important though. You can test this out by monitoring what your own eyes quickly focus on when look at the before and after. In the 'before' your attention will likely go straight for her right eye, and then add the other eye into your field of focus. In the 'after' your eyes will probably go for her left eye and then the rock blobs in the bg will compete for your attention.
I'm not sure if this is really what you want.
I looked at the rest of the site and I like it; it's easy to navigate and easy on the viewer. The content is good; you have a nice eye for subjects.
There was a rather cool-looking semi-fake composite amongst the retouched with the red-headed woman holding on to the chair and her hip. That one showed a lot of imagination. Also, the coil sculpture is really nicely done.
Something that I didn't understand though, was on a couple I didn't know which were the 'before' and which were the 'after' when mousing over them. Such as the attached pics here, for example. I think the one on the left is supposed to be the 'before', but that does that make sense?

Good job tho - keep it up.

Mig

HALX · #7 01-25-2006, 10:33 AM

Thanks all for your comments.

I agree about the left eye but I didn't find a way to do a quick and still looking good enough job.
I do think she needed to be thinned (at least on this pix) but you are right I should be more carreful about the proportion with the head.And for the pix attached by Mig, the purpose is to increase dynamic range but perhaps I should choose a better one.
Thanks for noticing the blob Nancy , I will change it as soon as today :-)

Kraellin · #8 01-25-2006, 02:57 PM

halx,

welcome to RP.

there is a quick and easy way to get what you want and keep the various relationships intact...or, change the relationships, if that's what you want. in psp this is the warp mesh tool. is ps i think it might be called liquify. by adjusting the mesh size you can do very small or very large alterations in skew and distorting and so on. i did one up of your image and thinned her quite overly so. i did this pretty quickly, so it's not a pro job. just something to show you the possibilities. i also did what nancy suggested and pulled her stomach in underneath the breast to augment that.

you'll also notice that this process doesnt remove the one eye. and the beauty is you can alter how you want, where you want. if the hair is too fat and making her head look too large, pull it in. want to augment the breast, pull it out. same with any part of the image. it's fluid. stretch, push, skew, and totally warp if you want.

barrel, pinch and fisheye distortion correction just wont do on this. and the transform, skew type tools are not as versatile either. just be a bit careful; it's very easy to get carried away

craig