Your opinion on this retouching

[041567970]

Hey guys, I always like to hear your thoughts so I am posting a few examples. I still need to retouch the eyes, lips and her hands. What else do you think I should correct? Also, do you think I went too far with retouching? I tend to retouch too much, so I would really appreciate your opinion.

I also added a couple of 100% before/after crops so you can see the detail better.

Thanks in advance!!!

100% crop a:
before
after

100% crop b:
before
after

full image:
before
after

[0lBaldy]

I think they look great.. looking forward to seeing the final results!

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[041567970]

Oh ok, sorry, Ill do that next time.

Thanks for commenting.

[Walt_]

thanks for sharing your fine work... great job on the images
most importantly, in my book, is the overall impression of self control that I got
there's plenty of restraint shown in your work, and you are doing well to ask for opinions whether your work is going too far...

funny insight perhaps, my partner just saw one of your 'originals' and commented "too smooth"... showing him around the before and afters impressed him as well, although he remained critical of what may be missing shadows after removal of the scar on the lower lip

[LydiaRachael]

Great work... looks really polished. Hope I'll be as talented one day

If i'm being extremely picky I think the thumbnail looks slightly too thin on the retouched image.

[Brainiac]

I have to agree with Walt about the amount of restraint you've used. It's so easy to go over the top with beauty retouching. Well done.

[Fred Grazias]

You jest if you think you overdid it. I think resat looks great and also the subtle softening of skin of course you had a great looking subject too.

[041567970]

@walt: thanks for taking your time and writing many useful tips and thoughts!

@lydia: thanks, will look into that!

@brainiac: thanks!

@fred: thank you!

[secretagents]

Great job and great pic.

I have had a play with it, currently experimenting with local histogram enhancements plugins, and I thought I would show you a result I quite like as you provided the pic, thanks.

[041567970]

Nice try, but I think you used way too much blurring here. Thanks for looking and making effort!

[Verywierd]

I also think that you've done a fine job.

Only a few minor comments, I think her eyes need a little more intensity and her upper lip needs to match the colour of the lower one. The removal of some of the lines and shadow under her eye would make her look a bit less "goth".

As a personal taste, I prefer more saturated colours, especially in the hair, while still keeping the skin quite pale. Also I feel an adjustement to the direction and quality of the light on her face flatters her features more.

Since it would take far too many words to describe the difference, I did a quick retouch of my own to illustrate.

Although her skin looks a lot more "smoothed" in my example, I actually did very little cleaning up. It's the change in lighting that gives that effect.

It would take a lot of effort to remove the hair from her left eye, so I decided to leave most of it there rather than crop it as it contributes to the "waif" look.

However, this is mostly subjective and a matter of preference (and fashion) - and I'm an old fuddy duddy.