Critiques - - Suggestions/Recommendations/Critiques?

WayDen · #1 05-22-2007, 04:29 PM

I was just playing around with this picture last week, and ended up with this. I took this shot while doing a photoshoot with Heather on Valentine's Day (she's on a boat in my friend's backyard) - I also had some trouble with the camera (belonged to a friend), so I had to do some work in post to make it decent.

I made a good amount of changes to it (mostly color changes), and I made a small .gif animation if you want to see a step by step of those changes here. One of the changes that's not in that animation is the removal of the small part of her ribs that was sticking out slightly. I removed that to streamline the shape of her, and I think it works pretty well. I also did a little bit of cropping from the left side, and took a little from the top, and a lot off the bottom.

While I'm happy with the changes I made to it, I feel like more can be always be done to make it better, which brings me here! Any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques you could give me would be highly appreciated!

Here's the original, and here's the altered version.

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Swampy · #2 05-22-2007, 04:35 PM

Sure is GREEN! :-)

WayDen · #3 05-22-2007, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swampy

Sure is GREEN! :-)

Tell me about it! I'm not even a huge fan of the color, but as a starting off point, I put the color picker in the background, and went from there...

irshgrlkc · #4 05-22-2007, 10:03 PM

This really isn't my cup of tea, but I thought I'd give it a go anyways. As far as suggestions go...

For the original picture, before retouching, I would retake the photo. It seems to me like the camera is focused more on the girl's top and part of her neck rather than her face.

For the retouched image, I like the green of the clothing and whatever she's lounging on, it just seems like her skin has gone too green as well (it looks a little corpse like - if that's what you were going for, my apologies). You might think about changing the background out, it shouldn't be too difficult with the pen tool. It looks like you're already quite adept at doing exact selections (based on your colorizing work).

I did a quick (messy) background change just to see what I thought (also played with the overall color, added shadows, etc.).

My two cents.

stosh7 · #5 05-22-2007, 10:57 PM

Your "two cents" appears to be worth at least a buck and a half

Nice work!

Stosh

WayDen · #6 05-23-2007, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irshgrlkc

For the retouched image, I like the green of the clothing and whatever she's lounging on, it just seems like her skin has gone too green as well (it looks a little corpse like - if that's what you were going for, my apologies). You might think about changing the background out, it shouldn't be too difficult with the pen tool. It looks like you're already quite adept at doing exact selections (based on your colorizing work).

I was going for a more pale look to her skin, so I tried to desaturate most of the color from it, and then made it slightly more white. No real reason for it, other than I kinda liked the contrast of it with the green in the rest of the shot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by irshgrlkc

I did a quick (messy) background change just to see what I thought (also played with the overall color, added shadows, etc.)

Love what you did! Especially the way the addition of shadows makes the viewer focus more on her face. Really nice job!

Umbra · #7 05-23-2007, 02:30 AM

The fabric and seat cushions have very flat color and look painted over. I'm not sure if I can pinpoint the reason for this at first glance but it seems like there's not enough contrast in the fabric. The area around the knot around her hips is especially guilty for this. There is also a shadow on her skin by the knot that looks like you started to modify the area but quit before you finished.

I like green and I think it can be made to work if you wanted that, but I'd at least get rid of the cushions. They seam very out of place compared to the mood of the rest of the picture.

dmrdm · #8 05-23-2007, 06:41 AM

Kerry, your take on it is very, very impressive.

In the orginal the background is distracking. In the green one, have to agree with umbra the seat covers are very flat...and even though the background is blured, I still find it distracting. I guess that's why I like umbra's since both of those are removed, it focuses on her and it's a flatering, sexy kind of mood. Don't know what mood or feel you are going for though.......

Cassidy · #9 05-23-2007, 11:07 AM

Kerry, very sensual

WayDen · #10 05-23-2007, 03:07 PM

Thanks for all the good & honest replies so far - it's highly appreciated!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Umbra

The area around the knot around her hips is especially guilty for this. There is also a shadow on her skin by the knot that looks like you started to modify the area but quit before you finished.

I see the part by the knot you were talking about - it seems I missed a small bit in there. But the "shadow" you see on her hip right by the knot is actually a tattoo. I probably should have just cloned it out, though, since you can't see the whole thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Umbra

I like green and I think it can be made to work if you wanted that, but I'd at least get rid of the cushions. They seam very out of place compared to the mood of the rest of the picture.

I thought about replacing the cushions on the boat, but couldn't really think of what to replace them with. Maybe I'll add in some grass to the foreground....

Umbra · #11 05-23-2007, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayDen

I see the part by the knot you were talking about - it seems I missed a small bit in there.

Well, the knot stands out the most but all of color on the fabric is too flat to look realistic. It sticks out like a sore thumb on my desktop monitor and it looks VERY painted over, but is way more subtle on my laptop. Depending on your monitor, you may not be seeing it nearly as much as me.

I watched the gif you included and it looked ok until you brightened the fabric. I'm not sure what method you used, but it washed out the shadows. The shadows in the creases and areas around her body should be darker.

I tried it from the original image and lightened the overall image (using levels mostly), desaturated the image, and painted over it using color mode (doesn't change the luminosity). I used a layer mask over that layer and knocked out the fabric areas.

I'm not quite a pro and there may be a better method, but this preserved the original image's shading fairly well. In case your monitor doesn't show the difference as much as my desktop I used blue arrows to show the areas that are missing shading in the top image.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayDen

But the "shadow" you see on her hip right by the knot is actually a tattoo. I probably should have just cloned it out, though, since you can't see the whole thing.

I think I'm seeing a different one. The spot I'm seeing has a natural blend in the original picture. I think what happened was when you were making her skin pale, you missed part of the shadow and left hard edges. I circled it in red so you can see which area I'm talking about.

fabric compare.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayDen

I thought about replacing the cushions on the boat, but couldn't really think of what to replace them with. Maybe I'll add in some grass to the foreground....

Yeah, that would at least fit with the image a lot more than the cushions.