Need Brutal Honesty

[Jeanne Marie]

I really need to get some feed back on what I'm doing. I only have very small files to work with right now, so it's affecting the quality, but I need some feed back. I know in this one the step wedged transitions need to be fixed and the shadow on her forehead, but other than that ... what's working and what's not.

BEFORE

AFTER

Thanks
Man those transitions and that shadow kill me.

[pellepiano]

It looks quite nice. I would blur the background some more though, to put the face more in focus, and maybe smooth some of the hair that ends rather abruptely on the top right.

[Kraellin]

jeanne marie,

welcome to RP.

ok, i really like how you brought out the eyes. very well done on that.

i had to study this image quite a bit because something was bugging me on it and i couldnt at first figure out what. i took it into psp and looked at it and it finally hit me.

notice the first attachment here. the red outline i've included shows the main focus area of the image. the little pink area refines this down a bit more. so, it's mostly the eyes, nose and lips. and on that part you've done very well.

now, the blue outline is what i call 'the first frame'. basically, you frame the main focus area with other parts of the image, in this case you are framing the face with the hair and her hands. ok, that's fine, but you always want the main focus area to be the attention draw. bright colors and bright lights tend to draw attention and darker colors not. so, the first thing off here is her hands. parts of her hands are brighter than her face. i've circled those areas in yellow.

now, you also have here a second frame. now, that's also ok in some instances. this is usually what we call the background. and in your image it's that area outside the blue lines. and this area shld be of even less attention drawing that the first frame. so, you want cooler colors or darker colors or duller, more blurred, less contrast areas there. your background is a bit too much of an attention drawer. so, i'd blur it like pelle said or darken it.

but, those werent the main things that were bugging me on this image. i kept looking at the hair and thinking something was wrong there. at first i thought it was just the outer, top part that needed to be cut back. but, when i started outlining things it hit me. if you look at the inner focus area and then compare it proportionally to the rest of the image, you'll see that it's very unbalanced. the inner focal area is just way too small compared to the rest of the image. so, the obvious answer was to crop.

notice the second image posted. this is the crop i used. notice that now her face really stands out and there isnt so much 'filler' to distract one from this. this was only a crop. i did nothing else to it. and on this one you might still want to fix the highlights on her hands.

you dont have to crop as much as i did but i do think a crop is in order here.

craig

[NancyJ]

Did I hear the words brutal honesty?!

Craig, as lovely as the crop is to her face, I think it emphasises the oddness of her hands/arms, on the longer shot I think you can better see what she is doing and its more clear they're her arms, rather than she's about to have her neck snapped.
I tihnk what makes the hair stand out and look distracting is 2 things.
Fristly you've warmed the background and her skin tones but her hair is cool in comparison particularly on the top right hand side.
The second thing is the skin, particularly the face is very smooth, arty and stylised - it looks amazing but the same treatment hasnt been given to the hair, its still very 'photo'. You've put a lot of work into the face but the same treatment needs to be given to the arms and the hair.
1 final thing, since your retouch has empahsised those kissable lips, I would straighten them out a little, the top left lip is a little puckered and distorted - presumably by her hands.

The other issue is ofcourse the picuture has been blown up and the edges are jagged and pixelated - very obvious on the arms.

Do what you did to the face to the rest of the picture and I'd blow that up and stick it on my bedroom wall - that pic is HOT!

[Jeanne Marie]

Thanks Pelle and Kraellin for taking the time to look this over.
Edit: NancyJ too, lol ... we must have post around the same time, but you beat me too it. And those edges bug me too.

I agree with all points made so far. I now have to rework it a bit based on your suggestions and see where it goes.

It hadn't occurred to me to crop the image. I had actually added headroom, lol. I was stuck in terms of ad copy/cover and forgot this is just stock and I can do what I like to it. I do think the image is more compelling in the cropped shot.

Let me see what I come up with after I finish this other image I’m working on. I'll post that one here next.
Thanks again, and keep it coming.

[Kraellin]

Craig, as lovely as the crop is to her face, I think it emphasises the oddness of her hands/arms,

nancy, i know. i mentioned the hands in my original post. i left that for jeanne marie to fix; i'm just pointing out one possible crop, which i still feel it needs.

craig

[NancyJ]

Craig, I mean the posisitioning of her arms - nothing Jeanne Marie can really do about that.
What she's doing with her arms is freaky and unnatural - I cant even get my arms into that position - boobs get in the way. But generally someone with their hands to their face, you exect the forearms to go straight down or point away from the face, so they look like they dont belong to her in that position - the long shot makes it look a little more natural - which is a shame because such a beautiful face deserves a really tight crop.

[bart_hickman]

I agree, the hair line is too sharp--you need to do a more realistic extraction along the top of the hair. I'd try the extract filter first--that should work pretty well and then maybe a bit of smudging to cleanup any messy bits.

Bart

[PatrickB]

Two things: The nose looks somewhat odd, it's quite wide on the top. Maybe you can fade the shadows around it a bit to make it look smoother.

And the catchlights are on opposite sides of the eyes, makes her look squint-eyed

[Jeanne Marie]

Okay ...

I worked with everyone’s suggestions and a few other things I noticed, like narrowing out that enormous arm for one.

I understand what everyone means about the awkwardness of the pose, but it was the face in the original that interested me. I thought if I could make the pose a non-issue it would be a successful retouch.

I'm happy with the results, except I think she needs those shadows on her nose. You can't see it from the size of the image, but there is actually skin texture there ... but to me she now looks too Barbie in that area of her face.

RE-WORKED

[bella]

I think the reworked version is beautiful. I love the warmth of the photo, and you really made the model, who was already a pretty girl look really beautiful. Good job!

[Godmother]

I just made her a little less red

And croped it

Tell me if you like it. I didn't do any retouching, just adjusted what I've said before

[Julien Lions]

In my opinion the skin is too smooth, the left eye is too light and the arm is too thin. It's not that bad but the next retouching should be lighter

[Jeanne Marie]

Originally Posted by Godmother

I just made her a little less red. And croped it.
Tell me if you like it. I didn't do any retouching, just adjusted what I've said before

Sorry it took so long to get back here.
I really do like what you've done G-mom, the crop works really well. I added a bit of a tilt to straighten her up some when I reworked her
Again

lol ... .

And Thanks Bella, that was a pretty strong compliment. I appreciate it.

So yeah ... I reworked it one last time, tying out Julien's thoughts ~ which I really have to agree with. Thanks Julien, they where all thing I thought I was seeing but it helps to hear it from someone else. The skin was a hard pull because of the size of the original image. Real low dpi, 72!, and I have a hard time not overworking the skin texture trying to lose the artifacts. Makes me kinda crazy too

It's online here ...
www.Vitalart.net

I'm trying to build my portfolio back up and get it online and it's kinda slow going ... but at least I'm done with this one ~ stick a fork in it - It is done!

I’d love some thoughts on the others if anyone’s got a minute.

[blansky]

I think it is a little over retouched and looks a little false.

Compositionally I'd crop down farther on her head (at the top). This picture is about the eye contact and the top of the head seems distracting and sort of stange because her chin is so low.

Michael

[Quantum3Studio]

I just went into here because the title "Need Brutal Honesty" HAhHAhhahHh MADNESS!!!!!! MADNESSSSS!!!!!! Oh!!!! Rivers of MADNESS!!!!! Amaizng title... let see...

Bleh, image removed...

Anyway, the title of your post is freaking cool