Critiques for image composit

[JD Spears]

Hi!
I've been using Photoshop since version 5 and been shooting digitally 5 years today. Recently I've decided I wanted to become a professional retoucher. However, my Photoshop skill level had long hit a plateau. Three weeks ago I started digging into this forum and started learning and improving again. My hopes in posting this is that I will get some valuable feedback to improve my skills. The background is an istock image. I used a channel mask in lens blur to perspectively blur the background. I shot the girl the other day and removed the BG using channels. Any comments or tips for improvement would be appreciated.
Thank you, JD

[crazyfly1]

Hi Jd,
I think you did a good job on the retouch, nice job with the teeth.
I would say you could spend more time on the extraction, the hair needs work. You might also work on the blend a bit, a little blur on the selection edges might do the trick. Where the flyaway hair is concerned you could probably just eliminate it.
All in all good work. I'm gonna have a go at the extraction. How did you do your extraction?

[JD Spears]

Thanks Carzyfly,
I used a channel mask to extract her from the BG. Copied the blue channel. Used Apply image on softlight or overlay. Used the dodge & burn tool on the mask and continued using levels and curves.

[crazyfly1]

I did this fairly quickly. I took out the whispys, I think it would blend nicely with your background. Notice the ecdges are softer. I used multiple channel masks (one for right side hat, one for left, same with hair.) Then I combined them in calculations.
Another thought, while your dodging and burning in a channel, when it looks pretty good try this; select all, copy, past, fade set to screen. You'll see what I mean when you try it.

[JD Spears]

Crazyfly,
Thank you for your help. I'll give it a try after supper and TV. Should have given bigger copy.
http://jdspears.com/recent.html

[crazyfly1]

Here is my try with the larger image. I went ahead and did a little retouch on this one.

[JD Spears]

Thanks, Crazyfly!

[lets_do_retouch]

i like the first photo you posted. . i thought the background was real. .but if you try to focus on her hair.. you can obviously see it was edited. .the teeth is not obvious ..its actually good. .the 2nd photo, with the green background,is too edgy..