First Post/My retouch for you to see

[InspireImagine]

second attempt


http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20...ow-d52sh4c.jpg

[Phaeton]

I’m going to be honest with you here ¬¬– I do not like it. The criticism here is meant to encourage you rather than being dismissive of your efforts. I can’t comment on the photography as I have no knowledge of it beyond its aesthetics.

The main issues I see are:
- You over-plugged the shadows (specially on her face and hair ROC) whereas I think it might have been better trying to recover those plugged areas from the RAW and try to achieve a better balance. Her left eye (ROC) needs to lighten up on the eye lid to match the other one a bit better.
- The hairline could use a bit more tidying up. The hair needs a lot more work overall; right now it feels like a big mass of overly plugged and saturated areas, try to recover it with multiple exposures from the RAW file. Try to somehow brig its texture and shape out. Right now it’s starting to blend in with the background.
- The pupils are overworked to the point of being unrealistic and “cartoonish”. This might have been your intent; I personally do not like it since it is incongruent with the rest of the image.
- The skin is quite heavily blurred (not entirely sure which method you used) and quite subpar in terms of final “polish” – there are some areas where cloning and healing are needed. The effect of the blur on her arm hairs is quite bad in my opinion.

I’m not a fan of her wrist in that position, it’s a bit jarring – I would have liquefied it a tad to make it less prominent.
I feel you pumped up the contrast quite heavy-headedly, rather than taking a more subtle approach. The skin feels very over-saturated and a tad too magenta.

I think you tried to “carve” some of her features but again on the heavy side – her right side of the nose (LOC) is quite prominent and attention grabbing; and her forehead has become much too rounder with that excessive highlight. Same goes for the highlights on her arm and hand.

I do prefer the original colour of the shawl – but those colour decisions can be subjective.
As a whole I would say this is one of those images that feels heavily retouched. My advice would be to try again and be a bit more subtle, take your time (for the most part this is not a quick business) and analyse your decisions. Question what you see and the choices you’re making while retouching. Zoom out of the image and see it as a whole – which direction is this taking? Are the colours complimentary? Is the light hitting the correct areas?

Cheers!
Ed

[InspireImagine]

thanks for the comments...here's my second attempt

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20...ow-d52sh4c.jpg

[retAndre]

How u like this:
hd_retouch_updated_byjsux5.jpg

[srphotography]

I realize this is an older thread, but here's my opinion. As I can't see the "first" attempt, or the original for comparison, I can only comment on the second.

You need to do more work with your D&B, it's a bit uneven. It looks like you made some of the shadows brighter on the right side of her face, which gave you some oversaturated areas, like the top right of her forehead. You can help compensate for this by adding a hue/saturation adjustment layer and selectively applying it. Depending on how you did your D&B there are other ways as well. I like the lighting in this shot, but you need to shape the shadows a bit more and even them out. Her right cheek is too dark closer to her nose and under the cheek bone, for example.

You also need to do a bit more blemish removal, especially on the left side of her face, but there are a few places all over that still need work. Make sure you take your time at each stage.

To me her eyes are a bit overdone. It looks like you used Kelby's "kicker" technique here, where you put a white half moon shape over the eye, blur it and set it to soft light. I like the look, but would tone it down about 50%. Either that or try bringing the iris exposure up, using a screen layer or dodging it to make it brighter overall.

I agree with Phaeton on the wrist. I think it's the radius bone sticking out that makes it look harsh. Maybe use the liquify tool to bring that in a bit.

I think you're on the right track though. I'm fairly new, so these are newbie comments, so some more experienced people may disagree, but that's my opinion.