Bed of Roses

[Mohammed]

Hi all

I just wanted to share a retouch I just made, that took me quite a bit of time (almost 3 hours actually) I may say I have an "advanced beginner" level at photoshop

Original
not mine but the author is ok for retouching it

Retouch

and the photoshop layers palette in case you want to know is Here

The hardest part was making the mask...

Please let me know what you think, good, bad, improvements, whatever

Kind regards

[Peter S]

I like the soft focus, it makes her look even more sleepy.
One thing is that the rose in the hair, to me, looks a little too false. There is a small black outline at the top of it.

Have you thought of posting this pic in the Photo Art section. Its a great picture and I'm sure it would get a good response?


Peter

[Mohammed]

Thank you Peter,
You're right about the rose in the hair, I tried to fix the outline, but I think it will still look fake because of it's relative size comparing to the baby's head

I'm not familiar yet with the forum, will post over there next time for this kind of photos, for this time I'll just leave this thread here because I don't want to post multiple threads of the same subject

Cheers

[blue dog]

Very nice picture!

First the negatives. The hair was not handled well particularly on the back of her head - it looks artifically flat. Although I approve of most of your retouching, I think you were a bit heavy handed on her clothing. I too find the rose in her hair a bit over the top.

I like the soft focus but now you've got a nice crisp textured background that doesn't look right. I've always felt that having your subject out of focus and the background in-focus is almost always to be avoided. I certainly feel that way about this one.

Nice job!

[Mohammed]

Thank you Blue Dog for feedback

Indeed hair selection at the back of her haid is messed, however I find this pic to be very challenging at hair selection, the blond hair is dark behind and somehow mix with red sofa, tried several techniques and no one worked properly for selecting it... still have to train at this

The rose in the hair is not a very good idea unless you make it look real, I'm happy though because I learned a bit on this one on how to do compositions, even if it's not perfect here

regarding the soft focus versus crisp background... I don't agree here :-) maybe it's a matter of taste, good to know though that it may be distracting for some

Cheers

[Cassidy]

Maybe it is your intention to focus on the bed of roses as is stipulated in your title, but I'd think the subject should be the child, mind you the oblivion of slumber is apparent by the blur

[Smokie]

Hey there,

i love the image, you made it look so soft. good work.

[JimJam]

Very nice idea and nice work for an "advanced beginner". I like it, but Peter and blue dog do have good points that could make it better... (maybe) your judgment. Keep up the good work. Oh and to bad the photographer did not get her feet into the photo.

[Mohammed]

Thank you JimJam and Smokie, glad you liked it, will do better next time to avoid the distracting details

Cassidy, I'm not claiming that this is the perct way to retouch this photo, I think the original shot is so nice that it can be emphasized in several ways, so this is just my way the glow softness is intentional here...

Cheers