Critiques - - retouch critique

makeovermagic · #1 08-10-2006, 01:12 PM

i haven't posted in awhile and would like to get opinions on this retouch
that i did of my friend's beautiful daughter that i plan to use on my website.

the before pic has not been reduced in size at all, that's what it was when i got it. feel free to take a crack at it as well, but please don't use it other than for this site.

Kraellin · #2 08-10-2006, 01:49 PM

hi mm,

i like how you lilghtened things up. she doesnt look quite so semi-sinister this way.

two things i notice are a mask mark around the hair and the skin is just a bit over-smooth. not much, just a touch.

overall, it looks very good.

craig

makeovermagic · #3 08-10-2006, 02:31 PM

thanks craig, i see the mask that you are talking about -- the original is so dark, that's it's difficult to remove -- i tried somewhat of gradient coloring -- do you think this improved it? i also added some subtle skin texture to make up for over-smoothing.

Peter S · #4 08-10-2006, 02:42 PM

Not bad.
Just one thing, the very bright hairs to the right above the ear, keep drawing my attention away from the face. Maybe try cloning them out?

Peter

Gary Richardson · #5 08-10-2006, 03:23 PM

Her neck could do with some attention, the lighting and texture are in contrast to the face (particularly the line below her jawline).

Face looks much better now you've added a little texture.

makeovermagic · #6 08-10-2006, 03:49 PM

peter and gary, thanks for that -- i was concentrating so much on the face, that i overlooked the hair and neck -- which i have worked on and hopefully fixed.

PatrickB · #7 08-10-2006, 04:33 PM

There's too much cyan in her skin. You made her a lot paler and the darker a persons skin, the more cyan in it.

makeovermagic · #8 08-10-2006, 07:03 PM

patrick, thanks for the color comment -- i reduced the cyan -- does that look better?

Kraellin · #9 08-11-2006, 12:55 AM

i think the last two have gotten worse. the post after my first post seems the best to me, at least in skin color and texture.

craig

makeovermagic · #10 08-11-2006, 01:10 AM

Craig, i have to agree with you on the color -- after reducing the cyan, i wasn't crazy about it -- i don't know if it's my monitor, but it looked very unnatural -- the attached is back to prior to the cyan reduction.

thank you.

Marsha

Kraellin · #11 08-11-2006, 02:03 AM

marsha,

yup. that looks good. good color, got some texture back, trimmed the errant hair strands a bit. very nice. only thing i still see that bugs me a bit is that the hair edge on the camera right looks like it's been mask trimmed, sort of pushed along into an unnatural edge. other than that, looks great!

and boy, would i love to have everyone's monitor in the same room some time all showing the same picture.

craig

makeovermagic · #12 08-11-2006, 02:32 AM

thanks again craig for your time and your good eye for detail -- i masked back in hair detail from the original which had gotten lost somewhere along the line.

Kraellin · #13 08-11-2006, 01:09 PM

ok, something going on here that's a bit odd. this last one makes her skin look pale. did you change something there or was i simply fooled before on the skin because of the highlights in the hair? it appears you've lost some red in the skin when you darkened the highlights of the hair. i looked at this and looked at this and had both examples up and was just flipping back and forth trying to see if this was an illusion or actual. it seems to be mostly actual with a touch of illusion perhaps. what did you do to the skin in this last one?

craig

berko1021 · #14 08-11-2006, 01:45 PM

I opened her picture right eye a bit. I felt she looked a little too sleepy. I don't know if thats the case because nobody else noticed it, but thats the first thing I saw.

PatrickB · #15 08-11-2006, 01:55 PM

Since I caused all this cyan-confusion

The darker a skin becomes, the more cyan AND black it has. Hence reducing the cyan results in some paler skin unless you add black to compensate. The changes are very small, so overdoing is easy.

Another thing: The light parts of the skin consist of more yellow than red, you should not forget to adjust the yellows as well