Another try - Please comment

[Irene Law]

Hi, this is my another try in photo retouching. Please comment, tks!

http://IreneLaw.deviantart.com/art/P...enda-127800622

[TommyO]

Irene,
Another good retouch. At first glance, it seemed like a nice subject due to her fine skin. But, then the hair leaves you wondering where to fix it and where to leave it.

I only saw a few little areas I would touch up. See the attached. I'm sure some would argue you could go further with the skin d&b. But, you have to stop somewhere and I think you drew the line nicely.

Also, it is an option to slightly enhance the finger nails. Some do and some don't. Since you're building good images for yourself, I would.

And, you can also make the butterfly wrap to the skin depth. I'll let you look up the various methods. That may be more appealing.

[mikedimples]

That's a nice big image you've got there Ilene, nice job! Looks just as realistic as the smaller one. I can probably learn a thing or two from you.

If the shape over her shoulder wasn't meant to be on her skin, I'd suggest moving it to a place that makes it more clear. If you were trying to make it look like body paint or something, it needs to follow the curves of her body, like Tommy mentioned. I tried molding the shape to her shoulder with the warp tool, but I wasn't totally successful. Can anyone tell me why it looks funny? I have a feeling it has to do with the edges, but I can't put my finger on it.

Good job leaving the shadows on the whites of her eyes, keep up the beautiful retouching!

[mikedimples]

I forgot to mention one thing: the entire image looks mildly oversharpened, you save the highest level of sharpness for your focal points -- in this case her eyes, lips, nose, and bangs.

Usually there are three kinds of sharpening for photographers/retouchers: sharpening for input, output, and effect. Input is the sharpening you do to a RAW image fresh from the camera, and is the most subtle. Output sharpening is deciding how sharp the overall image needs to be for it's medium: computer screen or print. This step is where the retoucher decides how much detail he wants in the image, and is moderately applied for screen and heavily applied for print (detail is lost when it's printed). Your sharpening is for print, and looks "crunchy" on a RGB monitor.

In the before, it's sharpened enough as is for RGB monitor. What you could do is sharpen for effect. Duplicate the image, then smart sharpen it zoomed in on the eyes. Sharpen until you see halos start form around the lashes. (halos are bad) Next, mask out the sharpened layer, and paint it on only her eyes, nose, and lips. Her hair is plenty sharp already.

Besides sharpening, you may want to go through and lens blur some of the areas of the image that are distracing or too detailed. I'll show you what I mean.

[TommyO]

Originally Posted by mikedimples

I tried molding the shape to her shoulder with the warp tool, but I wasn't totally successful. Can anyone tell me why it looks funny? I have a feeling it has to do with the edges, but I can't put my finger on it.

Mike,
To me, it's a combination of little skin texture showing through and the shape still not following the curve of the shoulder area.

Skin texture - play with opacity and blend mode, maybe hard light at 70% or so.

Curve - create a displacement map (gray scale copy in PSD formay) from the shoulder, enhance with curves a bit, then use that in a new layer of the tat with Filter>Distort>Displace.

Irene, this outlines one method of adding a 3D effect to a 2D image. A displacement map is just a slightly enhanced grayscale image saved as a PSD. The Filter>Distort>Displace command asks for the PSD, which is used to offset the pixels in the layer. Light areas move up and right; dark move down and left. If you need the opposite, invert your displacement map. Sometimes you need to blur a displacement map, but with skin not too often. However, you sometimes need to enhance it a bit... the end result is really just a matter of playing.

Hope this helps !

[Irene Law]

Hi, Tommy & Mike, once again, you gave me many professional comments and ideas in improving my skills. Thanks so much!

Mike, regarding the sharpening for output, you've mentioned that different level of sharpening is needed for screen and printing. Can you show me some samples of these two different level of sharpening? Sometimes, while i adjust the level of sharpening and contrast, i don't really sure in what level of adjustment will give a fine output (for printing or for screen). Many Thanks!

Tommy, thanks for your method of adding a 3D effect. That's really useful. I will try to make some body paint effect with this method. i think body paint is beautiful... ^^...

[mikedimples]

Unless you're shooting in RAW format (doesn't get any sharpening in-camera like jpegs), you don't have to worry about input sharpening.

Output sharpening may or may not be needed for screen, but most likely needed from print (because images lose clarity when printed, so you must overcompensate beforehand.) Pictures of people generally require much less sharpening (we don't want to bring out skin detail) than inanimate objects.

Effect sharpening is a tool we retouchers can use to direct the eye to parts of the image we want looked at, and kept away from things we don't want noticed. You may or may not need to do this step, but I usually do it. If you want to learn more about the path that the eye takes when viewing an image and other ways to control it, read up on composition. I'll see if I can find a nice link for you.

[mikedimples]

Oh, I almost forgot! TommyO, thanks so much for teaching me about dispacement maps/displace command. It's amazing, I can't believe I didn't know about it!

[aus]

Hello, Irene Law,
Just wonder did you meant to have this red 'line' in between lighter and darker sides of the cheak, or it is side effect from Portraiture plug-in settings when applied (if you used portraiture plug-in)

[mikedimples]

Funny you mention Portraiture aus, I always use it on quick critique retouches to simulate dodge and burn -- looks pretty good for the two minutes or so it took me to calibrate the settings and mask it in. RetouchPro's 100k image size limit provides nice artifacting that covers Portraiture's weakness: high-rez detail! http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/att...7&d=1246414263

For serious retouches I use dodge and burn.

[aus]

When i was trying first times Portraiture plug-in, this plug-in gave me very similar side effect with red colour line (that's where my previous question came from) To be honest Im not a big fan myself at all of skin smoothing plugins, but, (as you also mentioned, Mikedimples), for quick retouch (or for inexpensive bulk orders etc.) this is probably still is an alternative to more time consuming manual skin retouching work.

[Irene Law]

Hi, Mike. Thanks so much for teaching me on the different level of sharpening with the thumbnails. Very clear and detail. Thanks! ^u^...

[Irene Law]

Hi, aus. I haven't use plug-in in my photo retouch. May be i didn't make the color blending smooth enough, so there're the "red line" you mentioned. I'll try to keep an eye on it next time. ^^...