Portrait retouch•especially skin

[Yoolan]

hey folks,
my improvement of a portrait.
what do you think?

original:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/...e+-in%3Ascraps

retouch:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40896199/


rob

[Nescreation]

Just awesome Rob!!

[dave-ek]

hi

lovely girl like you say skin was needing retouch i have kept it real but very clean i hope you like.....

[creeduk]

good work, I like how you kept the skin pore variance. Some of the retouch work even when pores are added back look to uniform.

[NancyJ]

I guess I'm going to disagree with the rest here - I dont like it.
Its a start but as a finished image its lacking at a lot.

The work on the skin is mostly fine, but you've lost a lot of quality in the shadowed areas.
The skin tone is pasty and palid -almost grey in parts, with some blotching where her freckles where.
Theres also the scar on her nose and the discolouration next to her right (our left) eye.

Eyes - the first thing that sticks out a mile is she has no pupils. The reflections in her eyes are busy and distracting and completely cover over her pupils. Combined with the grey skin this makes her look alien.
The mascara and bloodshot eyes need cleaning up - this is just attention to detail stuff.
The whites of the eyes are too blue.
Same with the eyebrows - they need neatening up and the skin under them needs attention.

Lips look good, but they havent really had any work on them.

Hair - discoloured - if you sample it you will see its varying shades of green and blue - rather than a nice blonde. Fixing the overall colour cast to the image should help this.

Sorry to sound negative but there is more to retouching and image than just the skin - even on beauty shoots.

[LonK]

Yoolan, my first impression was very positive -- most likely though because I found the model extremely attractive.

I'd be the first to admit that glamour retouching isn't one of my fortes, but I was very interested in NancyJ's comments on the effort you offered. To wit, I took a shot at doing a glamour retouch on your photo following her recommendations. I'm sure I came up short on the model's eyebrows per her notes, but that's simply because I have no idea what kind of attention they might require. I tried to address all the other concerns (and probably even went too far in some respects).

Would you care to comment on my effort NancyJ?

(Apologies to Yoolan if I seem to be highjacking your thread.)

[Yoolan]

thanks for your explicitly critique, especially nancyjs one.
its very importent to get honestly answers. i will try to fix that.

regards rob

[NancyJ]

Lonk, overall its a little goth, but I'm not really one to complain about that
The overall picture is a little grainy - theres a loss of quality I'm not sure if that came from the resize and compression or the retouch - but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Skin - unpleasantly leathery texture - looks like your texture sample came from the cover of an old leatherbound book - also note that the forehead and cheeks seem to have been given the same texture.
Skin tone is nice - pale but appealing
Still have that quality loss in the shadow areas however

Eyes - good work, the catch lights could be better but they're very difficult to do, excellent job under the circumstances - very alluring

Lips - look a little grainy - could be due to the overall quality loss - or where you going for a glittery look?

Makeup - this is where men usually fall down
The smoky eyes are very goth but very sexy - nicely done
Theres still some mascara debris visable under her eyes
Lip colour, for this image I tihnk it could have been a richer red - it looks a little half way between a full red and a pale pink. With the dark eyes a really rich, glossy red would look great.
Blusher - nice and subtle on the left but on the right, you've come too far round - with the angle of her face you would barely be able to see blusher on that side
Eyebrows - just need to neaten up a few strays

Hair - nicely colour corrected.

[Yoolan]

here my 2nd try.
what can i do with the eyelashes? they look so grainy...and how? i have no idea to retouch them...

what do you think?

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40896199/

[LonK]

Thanks Nancy. Your comments are very helpful.

Originally Posted by NancyJ

Makeup - this is where men usually fall down

For sure -- I resemble that remark

I know nothing to very little about makeup. Do you have a suggestion where one might go to learn of such things?

[TheVeed]

Hi Yoolan, here's a quick attempt.

As for how to do eyelashes, I basically use the dodge and burn tools, a little bit of heal, and that's it.

[goose443]

Here's an everything but the skin retouch which might seem counter to your critique but may give you some ideas as to stretching the tonal impact of the photo and adding more drama to it. To be honest, I like the character of her pores including the larger freckles and the scar on the bridge of her nose but I can understand that your challenge is to meet the needs of a client that may not want those particular features accentuated.

[Syd]

Originally Posted by TheVeed

Hi Yoolan, here's a quick attempt.

As for how to do eyelashes, I basically use the dodge and burn tools, a little bit of heal, and that's it.

Ooooh! that is so classy Veed. Stunning!

Syd

[rnbluvva]

Originally Posted by TheVeed

Hi Yoolan, here's a quick attempt.

As for how to do eyelashes, I basically use the dodge and burn tools, a little bit of heal, and that's it.

Hey Veed! I love what you did to the model's skin. Would you be willing to share your process in how you achieved her skin retouch?

Great job.

This is a great thread for learning!

[Yoolan]

i like your eyebrows, veed. and you added the pupils. good job. i like it.