Beauty retouch - critique appreciated

[gse123]

I would be very greatful for comments on this retouch. The original source photo was from another site, just using it as practice at the moment until I can get some more original portrait shots of my own.

Anyway, all critique taken on board and appreciated. Thank you.

[c.hamilton]

Nit picking here - you might consider lightening the shadow under the chin a bit. Nice skin.

[gse123]

Sorry a bit of time has passed since I replied to this! Additional work done - eliminated some more cross hairs, fixed shadow under chin, a couple of subtle tone corrections around mouth area, and added complimenting background.

[Boneappetit]

Hi: Although I'm not a pro, here is my opinion. You did a good job, maybe you went a bit overboard in some parts with the dodging, and it looks a bit blury. But that's just me. For my taste the 1st version looks less blury.

[gse123]

To be honest, I think that is more down to me forgetting (oops) to sharpen the recent uploaded image.

[Boneappetit]

I guess it happens to everyone. I believe to sharpen a portrait is a must. When I started on the D&B technique, I thought it was only D&B and I was done, all my images looked blury and I became a bit frustrated, then I realized that it is not only D&B, sharpen is necessary, and it involves further steps like; Color adjustments, split frequencies among other details, and like some pros say, every detail counts. I come here (to RP) very often because there is always something to learn, which I keep doing.

[gse123]

Definitely. I think even top level professionals will always continue to learn new tricks, techniques and methods. This site is a great resource!

[kav]

I'd try to get back a bit more texture, go for a more neutral shadow transition on the neck. clean up the facial hair, and get a smoother shape to the outline of the hair. The eyes are also lacking some roundness and I rarely leave the bottom of the iris coming up like that. With the hair I'm not sure if it's a masking error as I seem to see some color bleeding over in the jpeg onto the background, and a couple odd bumps not there in the unretouched. The eyebrow could use a little work in shape and consistency, and the transitions above and below the eye camera right feel a little imbalanced. It's retouched heavily below, then above still a deep shadow, which makes it feel a little fake. She has an interesting face. If I was doing the image I'd also look at the transition around the lips so it doesn't feel like quite so much of a line (this is more subjective), look at the shading on the nose, even out the line of the collar, strengthen the lashes, and even out the tone of the hair a bit. That's just me. I must post something one of these days if I can find an image that won't get me in trouble.

[gse123]

Fantastic comments - thanks for taking the time to post that! I really appreciate it.

[Stormy]

Hope you don't mind, I loved the picture; so I had to play with it! I think yours turned out very good! I am new to the site so not sure about everything yet. How do you think I did with it?

Thanks,
Stormy