Skin retouching critic...

[POETIC IMAGE]

Hi I have been trying to perfect my technique in retouching skin and wanted to know what everyone thinks of this image. I appreciate all comments, good and bad ;o) Thanks
Christopher

[Yoolan]

the skin and egdges are to blurred.

but how you did it?

[Gary Richardson]

Nice work Christopher,

There's a slight darkening along the chin and jawline that doesn't quite look right, otherwise excellent.

I particularly like the work on her eyes, although there's an amber coloured patch to the outer edge of her right iris (as we look at it) that distracts a little.

[POETIC IMAGE]

Thank you Gary. I really have to be a little more detail oriented I think. But I really thank you for your critic! Its helps to get another persons perspective on things. Thanks again.
Chris

[Cassidy]

I'd personally sharpen the image up quite a bit, as to me it looks overall blurry, but good

[POETIC IMAGE]

I tried that some but I felt it made the skin look overdone. Tried to keep it softer. But I will give your suggestion a go and see what I come up with. Thanks!

[Cassidy]

Two methods you can try, copy the final image and then select filter->other->highpass and adjust to the point where the finer details are obvious and then set that layer to overlay, else, Image->Mode, Lab (do not flatten) and select the lightness layer and run the unsharp mask on that

[POETIC IMAGE]

Great to learn a new technique. Going to give it try... Thanks again.

[Cassidy]

Found on the res you posted a highpass of 3.3 does an adequate job and then you can mask if you wish to retain the softer non detail

[POETIC IMAGE]

Thanks cassidy that does look better, great technique too! Thanks a ton...

[JimJam]

Poetic Image, I clicked between your original image and Cassidy's version and I have to say I like your original take much more, but I am into Photo Art more than retouching. Yours looks like great work to me, a soft look with a young lady is almost mandatory.

[POETIC IMAGE]

Thank you Jim. I am a portrait photographer and I find that a lot of woman like the soft glowy look but of course I still need to maintain detail, its just finding that middle ground thats sometimes hard. Thanks a lot for your comment. ;o)

[Kraellin]

i used your original and selected the face and copied to new layer. i then ran a usm at about 3 radius, 60 strength to sharpen. duplicated that layer and then ran 'add noise' at about 10, gausian. then gausian blurred at about 2 or 3 (very light). erased the eyes and lips and eyebrows from that layer to let the other layers show through. ran a blank layer above all those and used airbrush to paint her lips, particularly her upper lip, which looked a bit dry and pale. did a couple little minor touches here and there.

done.

i did like the original touches except for the blur and a bit too smooth, which is why i did the usm and add noise.

craig

[Charlottie]

First post here, she's such a pretty girl - anyway, I had a try as I often find that I over-smooth the skin also.

Anyway, I started from scratch because I wanted to see if I could replicate that beautiful 'smoky' look you gave her eyes... as you can see I couldn't

I followed http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213 for the skin, tidied her eyebrows a little and also had a go at fixing that top lip.

[maureeno]

Originally Posted by POETIC IMAGE

Hi I have been trying to perfect my technique in retouching skin and wanted to know what everyone thinks of this image. I appreciate all comments, good and bad ;o) Thanks
Christopher

I like it. Did you use Xero's Porcelain filtre?

Maureen

[POETIC IMAGE]

No I did not use any filter. I will look into that filter and see what its all about. Thanks. ;O)

[JimJam]

That looks extreamly nice to me Charlottie. It seems to me to be what POETIC IMAGE was trying to obtain with this image.

[md_129]

I think it looks really good, I think it would really "pop" if you made the catch lights in her eyes larger.

[i.ilievski]

HI... I must admit, you did a great job... However I also must say that you overdo it a little...
usually when I over do some photo I do the following...
Put the before photo under the retouched layer... then give it a little bit more sharpening.. go to the retouched layer and start using eraser brush at low opacity, on the places you want to pop up .... also don't forget to put some highlights in the hair (but don't go to far), and always touch up the eyes a little....
_____________________

Hope you'll like my touch ups on the retouched photo...

[JimJam]

Hello i.ilievski could you put up a larger shot of your take, I would like to study your fine image in greater detail. I can make out what you mention in your post but not very well.

[i.ilievski]

HI Jim Jam... I wasn't able to put to much details on this photo cause of the low resolution... however I tried to put out some details on the eyebrows, hair highlights, and the eyes...

Hope you can see the difference ...

[JimJam]

Thanks i.ilievski that does help. I am particularly interested in what you did to the eyes. Can you fill us in on exactly what you did? As I said before my interest is greatest in Photo Art but I do appreciate the art of retouching and you, Charlottie and POETIC IMAGE have given great examples as to what can be achieved in that art.

[i.ilievski]

I'm glad that you like my work.... Thank you...

Eye work: Basically is just dodge and burn, by switching the mode to highlights and shadows, depending on what are you doing, dark areas of the iris or light areas... the trick is to follow where the natural lights go and just to highlight it or to make it darker... There isn't more to it, but you always must remember that you are working on a person eye, and like elders say "eyes are the mirror of the soul" ... so must be very careful what are you highlighting or darkening or the person will have look unnatural eye look...


and it's nice to put some fake eyelashes .... but that depends on what kind of retouch you are doing...
On my experience... I'm doing retouch basically for graduate students for the past 5 years, and have done over 200 000 faces, so I must say that eyelashes are adored by teen girls...

I've attached an eye sample, Hope It may give you some clue....

[POETIC IMAGE]

Thanks everyone for the great help and advise. This forum is very helpful!