Travel magazine-like photo attempt

[iceblue1980]

Hello guys!

As perhaps some of you already know, I do mostly glamour/artistic retouching but after seeing all the beautiful pics here on RetouchPRO, I decided to have a go at an old shot of a friend of mine. It has really poor quality but I tried to do my best.

I wanted to give this pic nice quality, colors, and "travel magasine -like" looks.

I did only one minor surgic adjustments on the girl (couldn't help it) - the hip.

I put down around 6 hours on this one but mostly due to extensive testing with different stuff.

Please comment on what you think i've done good and what I can improve, doing such photos.

I'm a bit uncertain about the blur effect bottom line.. so any alterations are welcomed.

Original:.........http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3...iajaltakv5.jpg
Retouched:.....http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9...edited1ll1.jpg

Comparison (smaller format):....http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8...parisonrv4.jpg

[lee_the_flea]

Hello iceblue,

I must be honest ... I am not mad about the photo. I know this is about technique and the retouching but you really need a good pic to start with otherwise it says nothing about your skills. Her face is completely wrong, for travel AND glamour ... and her hand is very awkward. Rather download an image from somewhere like stockxpert or istockphoto which are reasonably cheap compared to other sites and then you have something professional to work with ... it will inspire you further !! AND I dont mean something already glamourish or retouched, it can be a photo of a girl with a decent composition. You can also play around with backgrounds..... that is soooo much more fun than blurring or erasing. If you can imagine your final artwork in magazine then you know you have done something right otherwise you are just wasting your time when you could rather be doing something amazing.

[0lBaldy]

IMO you cleaned her up pretty good considering the quality of the pic. I think the blur is a little much and the water drops seem very large.

In my quick fix I used a blizzard effect to simulate the water spray and left the background just to keep the atmosphere

[iceblue1980]

Yeah, my goal was to do what can be done, so to speak.. And I'm not so familiar with this type of pictures.. So any tips are appreciated.