Crit Please

[rocco]

Hey Guys,

I'm a beginner trying to develop a portfolio to work in this biz. I'd appreciate any and all feedback you have (no holding back). Unfortunately, I started w a jpg instead of a raw file...still trying to track down some good images to work with. In the meantime, this is what I got:

BEFORE:
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/7858/beautyberfore.jpg

AFTER:
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1052/beauty1web.jpg

[oneredpanther]

In terms of tone it's absolutely spot-on, no complaints at all.

I have issues with the skin, but it's a two-pointer:

1. I can't see any skin texture at all. None. However:
2. I wouldn't necessarily say that you just blurred it indiscriminately.

If you did use blur to smooth the skin, you did a good job of masking it so as to not be totally obvious.

If not (and I'm erring on the side of not because I can see good attention to detail in shadow carving) then perhaps all you really need is to add some noise back into the image before the final output.

I tried applying 2.5% uniform monochromatic noise directly to your image and it instantly improved the texture of the skin

This will give some much-needed granularity to the image and trick the eye into seeing skin detail that isn't necessarily present.

The eye saturation and contrast is a bit overboard. Just tone down those irises and you'll be in the ballpark of realism.

Consider taking away the hair that extends from behind the ear to the top of her neck. Purely subjective, though.

--

If you're a beginner (and so am I) then this is absolutely a fine retouch to begin with. You have exercised restraint in many crucial elements and seem to have a good awareness of where light and shadow carving should be applied to subtly boost the contours of the face. There's no doubt you can use photoshop well, so in the near future you will advance from good to great... which is about nine levels above most first-posters on this board.

Nice work.

[rocco]

Maybe my photoshop skills are better than my navigation skills... I thought I posted a reply, but perhaps it was sent directly to oneredpanther.

Anyway, regarding the softening, there was more texture in the skin before I resized and saved for web. Below is a link to a closeup for some better inspection. I would appreciate how you guys feel about the noise level. Should I increase? Also, any good tips out there for adding texture to skin (I usually just "Add Noise" as panther suggested)?

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8...ty1closeup.jpg

----Thanks for the reply oneredpanther!

[Boneappetit]

You did a nice job there, considering the photo. The photo is not a good one to start with.
Here you got lots of practice photos. Enjoy !!! http://www.modelmayhem.com/t.php?forum_id=76

[rocco]

Thank you so much for the tip, I was having such a hard time hunting down practice photos.