Portraits - Some of my work for critique.

[norhaji]

Hello everyone.

First of all, I'm sorry for my English. :
Second, I want to present some of my work, and hear your opinions about it.
I want to improve my skills, so don't spare me.

All photos are taken and retouch by me.


1.
A:http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/7578/3po11.jpg B:http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4333/3przed1.jpg

2.
A:http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/7837/4pos.jpg B:http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7233/4przed.jpg

3.
A:http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/7491/7mg6709.jpg B:http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/6304/7przed.jpg

4.
A:http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6321/8mg6673.jpg B:http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/2020/8przed.jpg

5.
A:http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8500/2ponf.jpgB:http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5596/2przed11.jpg

6.
A:http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9243/1mg7431.jpg B:http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5004/1przed.jpg

7.
A:http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/9638/6mg7495.jpg B:http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/3671/6przed.jpg

8.
A:http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8421/5mg7471.jpg B:http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6651/5przed.jpg

[Boneappetit]

Hi norhaji: Your shots are great. Let me ask you: What technique are you using on the retouch?

[norhaji]

Thanks. I'm using standard healing and mix of silkforce(for skin smooth and discoloration) and dodge & burn(i think thats the name of it xP) techniques.

[Boneappetit]

That's good, and I can see you have a very good sense of retouching, but, you got to be careful not to over do it, because even using dodge and burn, if you over do it the texture looks blury. Try to sharpen a couple of works and see what happens, it should add a bit of boost to your works. But even there, my advice is to go easier on the dodging, so you can retain more texture and make your works look more natural. I'm sure you are going to receive some more feedback from members here. Keep up the good work !

What is silkforce?

[norhaji]

Ok, i'll try to play little more with sharpening. Thx for advice.

Sorry, i mean Slickforce(u now stamp tool on low opacity). I was writing in midle of night so i was little tired :P.

[Boneappetit]

Originally Posted by norhaji

Ok, i'll try to play little more with sharpening. Thx for advice.

Sorry, i mean Slickforce(u now stamp tool on low opacity). I was writing in midle of night so i was little tired :P.

That's ok, I was thinking, it must be a retouch program hehe...

[norhaji]

No, no. I like to do everything my self.

[daygraphics]

Norhaji...
You definitely have a style thing going there, but as someone has mentioned, I would try not to burn out too much detail and facial toning. You need something to define the shape and contours of the face - so I would back off a little bit on the tone reduction. If you need to add some texture back to areas that look soft and blurry - you can try a loose lasso, feather appropriately (20 pixels or so for a higher res image) and try adding some noise. On the flip side, I would also watch that I don't darken my shadow tones so much that I clip detail that would otherwise come through. This I noticed in the lips with black lipstick. Cool stuff...