Critique and Advice?

[Dak Paule]

Critique and advice?

Photo of a friend... just trying to learn how to retouch. Can use some advice and pointers. Thanks!

Dak

[mistermonday]

Hello Dak, if you are just wanting to clean up the photo (fix major skin blemishes) you are headed in the right direction, although the purple irises in the eys are a very unnatural / unrealistic color and the depth circle around the iris perimeter seems too dark.
If you are heading toward a beauty retouch, you have still a lot of work to do.
Attached is a copy of the "after" image with some markups. Some quick bullet comments are:
- Overall skin tone is off - excess blue makes it look cyanotic. Other areas are to magenta. Skin should be more yellow and red. Run you eyedropper around and check the numbers.
-In beauty retouching the hair often takes as much or more time than the rest of the image. Whispy hair that adds no value should be clone / healed away. Other hairs that you keep should align with the flow of the main body of the hair. Lots of hair work to do here. There remains a line at her top right forehead where it is noticeable that you chopped off the hair across her forehead.
- The new eyelashes on her left eyelid do not appear smooth.
- Large spots on background may be wall but may be dirt on camera lense or camera sensor.
- Overall the background is distracting, unappealing, and dull. You might want to consider removing part of it and adjusting the tone or replace it completely.
That's just my 2 cents worth.
Regards, Murray

[Dak Paule]

Thanks Murray! Boy, I do have a lot to work on. I really appreciate your comments and suggestions.

[Dak Paule]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Hello Dak, if you are just wanting to clean up the photo (fix major skin blemishes) you are headed in the right direction, although the purple irises in the eys are a very unnatural / unrealistic color and the depth circle around the iris perimeter seems too dark.
If you are heading toward a beauty retouch, you have still a lot of work to do.
Attached is a copy of the "after" image with some markups. Some quick bullet comments are:
- Overall skin tone is off - excess blue makes it look cyanotic. Other areas are to magenta. Skin should be more yellow and red. Run you eyedropper around and check the numbers.
-In beauty retouching the hair often takes as much or more time than the rest of the image. Whispy hair that adds no value should be clone / healed away. Other hairs that you keep should align with the flow of the main body of the hair. Lots of hair work to do here. There remains a line at her top right forehead where it is noticeable that you chopped off the hair across her forehead.
- The new eyelashes on her left eyelid do not appear smooth.
- Large spots on background may be wall but may be dirt on camera lense or camera sensor.
- Overall the background is distracting, unappealing, and dull. You might want to consider removing part of it and adjusting the tone or replace it completely.
That's just my 2 cents worth.
Regards, Murray

Hello Murray,

I have been trying to apply your suggestions. Can you take another look at my picture and tell me what you think?

Thanks,
Dak

[mistermonday]

Hello Dak, you have made some nice improvements. I like the background, the eyes, eyelashes. You have cleaned up the hair a lot. The 1st overall impression is that the skin is too neutral, in many areas looking almost gray. Addition of a small amount of yellow would help it. The hair across the ears has been noticably chopped off particularly her right ear. I probably would leave in those hairs that cross and obstruct the ear rather than chop them off or clone over them. The circled areas look particulary gray almost grungy. Improving the skin color will offset much of that look. The two areas of hair line show some blurring where the hair was cloned away. The one on the model's right side is more noticeable. There are some color variations going on along the bottom of her chin. The one at the center has a red line going through it. The neck skin shows a lot of rough texture and could use a little smoothing. I would consider toning down just a little the vein on her left hand.
The hair on top of her head is passable but if you wanted to get very detailed you could clean up some of the flyaway hair that is in front of her pony tail.
You have done a lot of good work on the image and where you stop really has to do with how far you or your friend would like you to take it.
Regards, Murray

[Dak Paule]

Murray,

Thanks again. I appreciate your critique and will start working on those areas you mentioned.

Dak

[Dak Paule]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Hello Dak, you have made some nice improvements. I like the background, the eyes, eyelashes. You have cleaned up the hair a lot. The 1st overall impression is that the skin is too neutral, in many areas looking almost gray. Addition of a small amount of yellow would help it. The hair across the ears has been noticably chopped off particularly her right ear. I probably would leave in those hairs that cross and obstruct the ear rather than chop them off or clone over them. The circled areas look particulary gray almost grungy. Improving the skin color will offset much of that look. The two areas of hair line show some blurring where the hair was cloned away. The one on the model's right side is more noticeable. There are some color variations going on along the bottom of her chin. The one at the center has a red line going through it. The neck skin shows a lot of rough texture and could use a little smoothing. I would consider toning down just a little the vein on her left hand.
The hair on top of her head is passable but if you wanted to get very detailed you could clean up some of the flyaway hair that is in front of her pony tail.
You have done a lot of good work on the image and where you stop really has to do with how far you or your friend would like you to take it.
Regards, Murray

MisterMonday,

I am still working on this retouch and I am hoping you will take another look at it and tell me what it still needs. It would be great if you could do another "marked up" version so I can clearly see the areas that need work. Thanks

Anyone else's comments and critiques of this retouch are welcome also!!

Dak

[mistermonday]

Dak, this latest After image is 1/4 the size of the orig. At print resolution it would be only 2 x 2 inches. Do you have a larger version?
Regards, Murray

[Dak Paule]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Dak, this latest After image is 1/4 the size of the orig. At print resolution it would be only 2 x 2 inches. Do you have a larger version?
Regards, Murray

Here is one that is bigger.

[Dak Paule]

Sorry Murray,

I see what you mean now. I messed up on sizing the image. Kinda hard to critique a postatge stamp...haha

The new one is is much larger...

Thanks

Dak

[mistermonday]

Dak, you have taken the image quite a long way. I like the way you addressed the background and the top of her head.
I find the eyes just a little over sharpened. It may be my taste but they border on being a bit too sharp and glowing. The nostrils seem a bit too dark; they would not be that dark - more like in the before image.
You have cleaned up the hair well but the fly-aways that I circled do not look very natural. You might want to try removing them completely.
Finally I find the skin still somewhat anemic. Those numbers are LAB values of the B channel. The negative values indicate blue. Even if the lady has a pale complexion I would expect the values to be slightly positive.
In any case the image has come a long way and you have made some nice retouching over the original.
Regards, Murray

[Clarelight]

fascinating! thanks!