Glamour Retouch Lacking a Certain Something

[SkySapphire]

Hi, all. I've been lurking RetouchPro for a little while now and I've sort of been practicing my Photoshop skills on my own, mostly using tutorials and the like. However, I feel like no matter what I end up doing, my pictures are lacking...something. I'm mostly interested in glamour retouching, so comments skewed in that direction would be much appreciated.

I got the original from this collection of stock photos, in case anyone is interested.

Original: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...elOriginal.jpg

Edited: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ModelFinal.jpg

[saby]

If U change the face go for symmetrical idealization. U'd sharpening more and softening shades of the skin whitout bluring

[Ant]

calibrate your monitor. you have issues on the background. good idea on the nose, but you made it concave and the shadow is too dark.

[saby]

kung pow chicken: $9.00

[Chilihook]

I don't have any real issue with the background, but I am viewing your image on a laptop.

I think you chose a good image to practice with... rich hair color, lots of shine; good skin tone and hey, she's not unattractive.

For a beginning retoucher, I think you did a good job bringing out color, removing blemishes, and getting the viewer to focus on the model's face, which is the key to any portrait.

However, my focus went right to where you "corrected" her nose. The line of her nose is concave and the depth of shadow is a bit unnatural looking. A reshape of the nose and an easing of the shadow would make a big diference.

A very good start, I think

[Damo77]

I think you've done a great job. As mentioned, perhaps a little too far on the nose, but the rest looks great.

[crazyfly1]

Hmmm, I'm not at all sure who needs to calibrate their monitor. I was curious because I couldn't see a problem with the background so I took this into raw and slammed the fill light all the way up. Sure enough, ugh.
My question is does anyone else see any problem with the background? My monitor is calibrated with a spider and I didn't but maybe it's time to do it again.

[AFrazier]

There's a problem with the background if you want the background visible. Personally, I think the background looks good washed out. When I toyed with the photo just to play with it, I went into raw also and turned up the fill lights so I could have the whole image to work with. But I ultimately ended up turning the background into a blur to imitate the depth of field from a wide aperture or longer focal length.
In the end, the face is what you want the focus to be.

As for the nose, I didn't really see it as concave. It's just mis-shadowed. What I did to fix it was duplicate the layer, go into filters, select liquify, mask the area around the nose, and use the pinch tool. Not only did that give her that slim, aristocratic nose I think you're looking for, but a second use on the end of her nose also took care of that knob. I just touched up the effect with the healing brush afterwards to blend in any unwanted shades or hard lines that shouldn't be there.
I'll post what I did with the picture a little later. I haven't actually finished with it yet. The color isn't quite what I want it to be.

[crazyfly1]

afrazier,
So is my monitor OK then? When you look at the pic the way skysapphire retouched it you don't see any background really at all? Just black?

[pixelzombie]

i can see it on my crt, it shows up a bit more when using adobeRGB as the working space...

[AFrazier]

crazyfly1:- I was actually referring to her original edit, meaning that I liked what she did in washing out the background.

What I see on the photo you posted is extremely bright, I can see the paint strokes and blur marks in the background, and her hair is tinged with green.
I don't know if that is a bad calibration on your monitor, or if that is from opening up the fill lights and you just left it that way to demonstrate something.

I can tell you without question that my monitor is calibrated. What I see on my monitor prints out of my Epson picture perfect. I can, and have, held photographs up next to the monitor, and they are identical.

Here's my version of the picture. It's not everything I might wish for, but I think it illustrates the nose, if not necessarily the right color and tone. Glamour shots aren't really my thing. I'm not sure what the "look" should be.

[img=http://img132.imagevenue.com/loc843/th_52543_ModelFinal_122_843lo.jpg]

[duwayne]

I couldn't resist taking a shot at the nose. I used Free-Transform to get the right length and width and then use Liquify for minor tweaking. I think it's important to work both side and keep the nose centered.

I also did minor work of the right side of her face. Basically moved the hair to cover a little more of her face and make it appear a little narrower.

The hair - removed strands that were crossing the main flow and fixed the part on the top of her head.

More could be done with eye makeup and very subtle eye lashes.

[AFrazier]

duwayne - looks good. You're color is better than mine. I didn't tinker long enough. Mine is far too warm.

[leuallen]

Here is my version. What is interesting is that I did it some time ago before seeing this thread so that I was not influenced by anything.

This is blur version, intended more as a studio portrait than a high end retouch.

Larry

[AltIvan]

Thanks for mention the link; others like it?
Keep improving.