Portfolia Critique

[nick24a]

Hi guys, I am new to Retouch Pro and so excited to have such a wealth of experience and help at my fingertips. I have been teaching myself up to now. I love retouching and though I am relatively new to retouching. Im old hat with Photo Shop.

http://www.wix.com/keep24a/NicholasEdmonds

Above is the link to my Retouch Portfolio. Please excuse the poor site it seems to be having some technical issues. Basic Before & After Rollover images. Please tell me what you think, and be BRUTALLY honest with me. I am looking to improve and need the help of my peers.

**1 thing**
The site will only allow low res images, so where possible i have added a close-up image. Images look much better when full size but hey ho.

[TommyO]

Nicholas,
A very nice site by the way ! I looks like it is very close to being ready to go.

While I do prefer larger images, these are pretty close to being large enough to demonstrate your skill sets. I took a look at each one. The girl in the image seventh from the top still needs something.... her facial symmetry bothers me. It's somewhere in the upper & lower cheeks, chin and mouth... if not all of them. I like what you did otherwise.

While your preference may be to darken the images quite a bit, you may also want to put some images up that present techniques your customers may prefer. Some images that lighten up the model a bit may be good.

It is hard to set up a website. We often want it to demonstrate our artistic preferences and skills. But we also want it to bring in some business. To bring in business, you need to have a variety of work that appeals to our client, not us. So, think about that some and see what you come up with. Otherwise, very good.

[nick24a]

Hi Tommy

Thank you very much for taking the time to look at my work and the kind words. I will look again at that 7th image and take a better look at the symmetry of the cheeks. Thanks again.

Nick

[Markzebra]

yes there's basic ability there Nick. My main points would be - first of all not too much of a problem with site, maybe MORE samples needed that's the only thing.

I'm not too keen on the colouring, in particular the unified and in some cases quite orangey flesh tones you seem to be going for. Buying some screen calibration device might help, and paying attention to the way that hue shifts over the surfaces of skin. As I said unifying it isn't the answer, and its a basic mistake. The colour is generally quite crudely done and some knowledge of colour theory might help. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory Your overall dodge and burn, needs a bit of work, slightly too crude, in particular your tendency to burn the edges of cheeks. The contrast looks slights "blown", by this I mean that the tones are beginning to break apart a bit, and posterising, you can't just pile endless adjustment layers on top of an image without damaging it. Just my thoughts

[nick24a]

Hi Mark

Thanks for your input. All brilliant points. These are my first 10 or so retouches. I cant expect to be perfect (just yet) When you mention Unifying are you talking about making all skin color the same? When you say the d&b is slightly crude, could you elaborate. I generally made burns to the edges to create some depth should i be backing this off a lot? Thanks again. I will work on everything you have mentioned.

[Markzebra]

When you mention Unifying are you talking about making all skin color the same?

Yes, as i said light, any source, will have a different (maybe cooler) hues in highlights and deeper areas on skin, depending on the type of light you decide is on your subject. Use the original unretouched hue shifts as a basis for judging how this works, (one tip maybe LAB can be used to exaggerate color so you can see these natural hue shifts more clearly).

I generally made burns to the edges to create some depth

Just burning the edges is not that clever. All depends on source and how well shot the images are in the first place whether this is necessary or not, its not a 'default. Anatomy is not composed of balloon type shapes, its more subtle and complex than that. Best one by far is the last image

[nick24a]

Hi Mark
thanks agan. The lab color tip sounds great. I wll rethink my burning technique and be much more subtle and inkeeping with natures curves . yours is a brain im sure i could keep on picking for hours. But thanks for the tips.

[alisty]

Comment on the last one. I love the tones in this one.

Question: How did you remove so much of the highlights? Did you just brush over them and blend?

[nick24a]

Hi Alisty,
A combination of the patch, clone and healing tool, then backed of to taste and to allow some highlight to shine through. Using the patch tool to select a piece of clean skin texture to replace the texture blown out by the highlight. hope that helped. My workflows tend to be chaotic at times and hard to remember, Putting some good music on and retouching an image I kinda get lost in the retouch moment lol