First post - would love some feedback!

[CaptainHinch]

Hello! I am a fledgling to this world and about as far from a pro as you can get. However, what I lack in talent I'd like to think that I make up for in passion. I really, REALLY enjoy this stuff.

I've attempted to color correct this picture, as well as smooth their skin, enlarge their eyes, brighten the shadows and whiten their teeth. I also attempted using liquify for the first time. It's still feeling really bright to me, but then I've been staring at this darn thing for a long time - I think I need another opinion.

Thanks for reading!

J&A 1 is the original, FYI

[0lBaldy]

CaptainHinch, welcome to RetouchPRO! Nice to have you aboard and hope you enjoy your visits here

Yeppers the highlights are sort of blown out but the rest of the work you did looks pretty good

I played with the version that you worked on because you had done so much more on it and got it the way you wanted it... I hope you do not mind..
I did a levels adjustment and moved the center slider to the right just a bit to darken the highlights then painted the mask black to hide all then painted white on the mask where the highlights were to make them darker then adjusted the slider again to fine tune

straightened and cropped (cloned in the corners to cover the blank areas)
selective noise reduction using Imagenomic

Very subtle difference

[crazyfly1]

Yup, I'm with olbaldy captain, you did a good job. I like how you blurred the background to add focus. The only thing I saw is that with the blurring you managed to change the gentlemans jacket from polyesther to nylon.

[TommyO]

CH,
I think you did well. I too would work a bit more to even it out, as OlBaldy did. I would even remove a smidge more reflection from their skin. (Bright sun tends to bleach skin in the image... when people think they look more tan and sort of prefer their picture to reflect that.)
Otherwise, it is looking good.

[CaptainHinch]

Hey guys!

Thanks so much for the feedback, it's very much appreciated. One of my weakest points is fixing blown out highlights. I will absolutely try your suggestion, OB - thank you for laying it out for me.

Is it possible to fix blown out highlights in Camera Raw? I know you can adjust the exposure and such there - would that be a good place to start?

As for the blurred background, that's actually because of the lens that I used. It's a Canon EF 50 mm f1.4 Telephoto lens. It gives me that nice blurred background effect with minimal effort.

[One4UAll]

The Captain gained good advice on the technical details, but this photo could have been better posed.