Beauty retouch - ice queen

[einfallspinsel]

Hello everyone,

this is one of my first attempts on beauty retouching and I would love to know what you think about the result. Tell me what you like/dislike and what I can do better and how I can accomplish those improvements. If you know about any helpful tutorials that would be great, too!

ORIGINAL PICTURE:
1024px http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2544/...0f589238_b.jpg

RETOUCHED PICTURE:
1024px http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2791/...56feef79_b.jpg

GOAL:
A photo promoting the imaginary fantasy movie "The Ice Queen".
A photo for a fashion editorial on "Winter Wonderland".
A photo for an advertisement on the jewelry that she wears.

I wanted the picture to look more freezy and slightly supernatural.
Still I tried to maintain the models look/character.

WORK DONE:
- removed hairs on face
- smoother skin while retaining texture
- haircut and color changed
- nose smaller
- mouth smaller and now closed
- lips repaired
- new makeup and more contrast on eyes
- enlarged right eye
- new eyelashes on left eye
- eyebrows shaped
- emphasized shape of face with artificial light
- made jewelry shine
- fur collar adjusted to fill the frame
- color adjustments for a cold look
- I also tried to achieve a cross processed fashion mag style

The original picture was taken by pretty-kitty and offered for retouch on flickr. There are some other approaches on a retouch here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilblackcat/4062087692/

Looking forward to your thoughts! Thanks in advance!

-Alex

[CathyH]

I like it very much, well done.

[einfallspinsel]

Thanks Cathy! What do you like most and what do you like less?
I'm looking for some ideas and thoughts... Thankyou!

Maybe a more specific question:

I'm kinda unsatisfied with the lips, they look a little unreal to me.
Any ideas on how to retain more structure when the original lips look so rough?

My approach on the mouth/lips was:
1) clone out only the most distracting things
2) dodge&burn on wrinkles until almost flat
3) dodge&burn to get back to the original shape
4) adjusting colors
5) painting in new highlights (stolen from another pic, the Amy Dresser way)
6) Make lower lip smaller
7) Close mouth using transform/warp (didnt' like the way the teeth looked and a black hole didn't look good)

Anyone know some lips tricks? Or lips tutorials?

[CathyH]

I like the way you changed the hair around the face, and removed the fly aways best.
With a closer look the lower lip on the sides it seem distorted or not exactly like it is real. This is were drawing skills would be helpful. I'm not sure how to tell you to fix it though, sorry.

[einfallspinsel]

Thx Cathy! Most of the new hair is actually painted. Flicking back and forth between original and retouch I can't really see any distortion on the sides of the lips. In my eyes it's rather the texture than the form that makes it look unreal!?

You have some nice pics on flickr btw!

Maybe someone else has ideas on retouching the lips?

[rsvrdogg86]

nice work! I like how you worked the fur/hair around the chin. Just a few things...
I would clean up the eyebrows just a little more on the tops.
Personally I would like to see a little more shine on those lips, they are looking a little dry. It is one of the tougher things to do in retouching, so you just have to play with painting in some highlights. Finding a good shimmery lip and copying it from another photo is certainly acceptable too..nice work.

[einfallspinsel]

rsvrdogg86: thanks for your comment! I think you're right about those lip highlights. I'll have another try there! Maybe I should try painting this time! Regarding the eye brows I'm not a fan of the super clean look here. When I removed the lil hairs above it looked too photoshopped to me. Also it had sort of a calender-girl feel rather than a fashion protrait feel (hard to explain). Anyway I might try to bring in a little more order and lighten the upper hairs a bit. Thanks a lot!

[crabbyphoto]

cool I like the job.

[CathyH]

I gave this a try, first just to retouch it, then I wanted to see what it would look like more symmetrical.

[einfallspinsel]

Good work, interesting to see your detailed approach on the lips, Cathy! I must say I like the natural symmethry better, though. I like your artistic retouch of her skin color and makeup! You should post your version on the photographer's flickr channel. I am sure that she will like it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilblackcat/4062087692/

[CathyH]

Thanks einfallspinsel.
I started with the lips to see what I could do, and it just kept going.

[dmeadows]

Just seen this and I'm impressed

If you look very carefully around the very edges of her jawline there are a few small light/shadow lines (really small details) that could be D/B'd but this looks great

[biskit27]

Just a couple quick tips:

clean her eyebrows more especially the top,

perhaps adding a bit of a frosted feel to her eyelashes and even a bit on the eyebrows might really accentuate the feel you're going for

the white liner on her left lower-inner eyelid is muddy, perhaps youd like to redraw that all in white(like the other eye)

the chain thats on her seems a bit flat, perhaps some sort of frost or subtle glow or sheen to certain parts may help, it looks a bit out of place

Your retouched image would only load the top half for me, so thats all i have for now, lol.

[holgaman]

Very nice, definitely the best of the bunch on Flickr. I wonder if evening out the thickness on her lower lip a bit would help (she's not straight to camera, so they shouldn't be perfectly symmetrical). I did a quick, uneven job, but maybe this is the direction? Can't put my finger on it.

A wonderful interpretation, I love what you did to the hair and the extra fur. It might be fun to add a glow to the 3 white snowflakes in her hair to knock down the contrast there and just add to the overall beautiful airiness you've created. I just selected them, copied to a new layer and used gaussian blur at 50 px, the change is pretty subtle.

[TopiToo]

Thank you to Alex I had a play with this one, as it’s a great image, adjusted the lower chin, lips, nose, RHS eye as it looked slightly opened more. I think as stated previously the original shot if off centre, so I tried to bring the face back, maybe not a good idea? Any feedback would be most appreciated.

[_jason_]

I think, making faces completely symmetrical is mostly a complete wrong way of retouching.
Source and original retouch is pretty good!

Readjusting the facial expression in that case is not necessary in my opinion too.

I do not know why most retouchers always tend to change things that are not necessary. You should work with the sources to get best out of it. Give the retouch just the little bit it needs. Nothing more and nothing less.

Even small inconsistencies, nice human differences in symmetrical expression make a photograph alive.

If you do not like that, so go buying "Poser" & Co. and create your perfect synthetic virtual human instances and retouch that. That's probably all you need then. No dirt and no scratches, all perfect. Even no life at all.


What I wanted to point out is:
Many (bad) retouchers tend to blow out the life from pictures. And they do not even recognize that.


Jason

[TopiToo]

Hello Jason
Very constructive comments and I must agree with you symmetrical retouching images destroys alot of the life in an image, my image case in point. Personally I would like to see an image with very little work done to it, but being new to all this I feel I have been drawn into what I think people want to see rather than what needs to be achieved. I will endeavour to take on board your comments for the future thank you.

[_jason_]

So here's another hint:
A true artist never asks what peaople want to see.

[7retouching]

I agree with you Jason... Nice said ...

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by einfallspinsel

Hello everyone,

this is one of my first attempts on beauty retouching and I would love to know what you think about the result. Tell me what you like/dislike and what I can do better and how I can accomplish those improvements. If you know about any helpful tutorials that would be great, too!

ORIGINAL PICTURE:
1024px http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2544/...0f589238_b.jpg

RETOUCHED PICTURE:
1024px http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2791/...56feef79_b.jpg

GOAL:
A photo promoting the imaginary fantasy movie "The Ice Queen".
A photo for a fashion editorial on "Winter Wonderland".
A photo for an advertisement on the jewelry that she wears.

I wanted the picture to look more freezy and slightly supernatural.
Still I tried to maintain the models look/character.

WORK DONE:
- removed hairs on face
- smoother skin while retaining texture
- haircut and color changed
- nose smaller
- mouth smaller and now closed
- lips repaired
- new makeup and more contrast on eyes
- enlarged right eye
- new eyelashes on left eye
- eyebrows shaped
- emphasized shape of face with artificial light
- made jewelry shine
- fur collar adjusted to fill the frame
- color adjustments for a cold look
- I also tried to achieve a cross processed fashion mag style

The original picture was taken by pretty-kitty and offered for retouch on flickr. There are some other approaches on a retouch here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilblackcat/4062087692/

Looking forward to your thoughts! Thanks in advance!

-Alex

I like the soft tone of it nice work