Critique Me...

[pumpkincat210]

Here are a couple of retouches I did on myself. What areas should I work on? I think my teeth are too white and am also looking for a realistic way to do skin. Any other feedback is wanted too. Thanks!

http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/a...actice1/ba.jpg

http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/a...ctice1/ba2.jpg

[pumpkincat210]

Anyone want to take a shot.
For my skin texture I'm currently using surface blur on 40 and 15 then reducing the opacity to 50%. flatten image. duplicate layer then I use texture, texturizer, sandstone relief 50 and scaling 2, then reduce layer opacity to 50%. Is there a better way to do this? (i'm erasing the eyes, lips, hair etc.)

[Der_W]

Hm, you removed almost every wrinkle, but left the ones on her throat. The eyes look to bright to me in both cases (in the last one just the eye whites; if you want to make a series than you have to make it homogeneous). The best way to enhance skin in my opinion is dodge and burn by the way, there are also some tutorials here on RP: http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=272.
Another tip from me, search this forum for free images, the pictures you are working on are really low quality and there are many high quality images for free here.

[pumpkincat210]

Originally Posted by Der_W

Hm, you removed almost every wrinkle, but left the ones on her throat. The eyes look to bright to me in both cases (in the last one just the eye whites; if you want to make a series than you have to make it homogeneous). The best way to enhance skin in my opinion is dodge and burn by the way, there are also some tutorials here on RP: http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=272.
Another tip from me, search this forum for free images, the pictures you are working on are really low quality and there are many high quality images for free here.

thanks for the input. I can't believe i missed my neck wrinkles! I will also set the opacity lower when doing my eyes and teeth. I'm going to read the tutorial too. I'm using pictures of myself, taken with a canon s3is 6 megapixel camera. At the time i preferred working on myself because i know i can use them legally and free. How should I go about getting higher quality images. I don't mind working with lower quality images in the sense that i have to practice more to get them better looking. If I take the pictures too close too my face my nose looks bigger than it really is. Also they were taken at night in poor lighting.

[pumpkincat210]

oh and i downsized the pictures so I could fit two in the before and after pic..next time i'll leave them at a high resolution. what is a good resolution.. i was working on originals over 2000 x 2000 pixels.

[maxxxim]

Here is my retouch... but You are very cute also without ... Kiss.

[LQQKER]

Either the resulting images are a crop or taken by a very low resolution camera. Even with the size limitations you can post a more distinct image. I think it would be appropriate to see a higher resolution image so others could show by example, that is, if this is a recent image. The low resolution does not do justice to the hair, skin and other features making curls look like one piece instead of strands.
As far as your image example goes, I think it's apparent that you made the teeth too white. So much in fact that the tooth shape/highlight has been washed out. Due to the technique you used on the skin (which is difficult to comment on due to what is distinguishable) much of the depth is gone, meaning the eyes look flat and not natural, the smile lines are reduced, which is not logical considering the subject. The eyes themselves, you removed some shadowing which gives the whites roundness and shape.
Keep in mind, not all skin lines have to be altered. Certain lines compliment the image. Also keep in mind this is just an opinion.

[DJSoulglo]

I don't mean this in a rude way. But when you look at a person in real life, or someone on the cover of some fashion mag, do they look like that? I'm just wondering if this image is how you want it to be.

[dominik]

In my opinion, and as it has been already said, the teeth are to white. If I was doing this image I'd also not to enhance the make-up so much, the eyelids are to dark for me and it looks like the skin details has been lost. I'd also do something about the gaps in the hair plus the sticking out hair on the neck. Hope this helps.

Dominik

[spydercam]

My best advice to you is too find as many high quality photoshop tutorials out there that you can.
Here's a few, I am not sure about the quality since I just googled them.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008...hop-tutorials/

Learn as much as you can and practice on the best images that you can get. There are places like www.sxc.hu that you can get images to play with that are very high quality. Just sign up for free and have fun. Always try to learn more. Btw get yourself a decent camera.

Good luck!

[0lBaldy]

I did a real quick job of this.. just to show how I would approach these photos Lightened the shadows some
used Kent Christiansen's Skin Fix Action Paint Soft Skin (found @ atncentral.com) which employs the Gaussian blur along with the high pass filter which tends to brighten up the effects of the Gblur. You can 'paint' in the softness and use brush opacity to determine how soft a look one wants to achieve. it adds contrast and color adjustments and clone/healing capabilities which I used also.
I only brightened the Iris not the whites of the eyes and added a bit of shine to the lips but left the teeth alone
( I am working with Photoshop Ver 7 so have no lens corrections which I feel these pictures would benefit from)