Portrait Attempt, Please Help

[midnitejam]

Hi everyone,

Here is my attempt at a portrait. I shot the photo with an Olympus 3.4 mpxl using flash and default settings.

In Photoshop, I copied the background layer. Did the standard layer routine to smooth the complexion. Added yellow to the eye ires' highlight to bring out the "Hazel" eye color. Used an eliptical marquee to make a selection around the model's head and neck. Selected quick mask. Gausean blur equal to 75 pixels. Exited quick mask. Inverted selection. Selected Hue/Saturation image adjustment and moved the lightness slider to the left until I was satisfied with the result.

I would love to see what some of you PROs would do with the original.
Original





ThanX
mnj

[Flora]

Hi midnitejam!

I'm not a Pro but I had a go at your picture anyway ....

After changing the background completely, I decided for a 'glowing' softer look.

The posted original picture is quite small, therefore the details to work on aren't many, but... I hope you like it ....

[midnitejam]

I really liked your rendition. I'm sorry about the image being so small, but I wasn't permitted to upload a file larger than 100k.

Can someone tell me how to insert an image into a post?

BTW: here is my edited version

[IMG]

Thanx for your version

[Flora]

Hi!

Thank you so much for your feedback!

I really love what you did with your picture!!!

Originally Posted by midnitejam

Can someone tell me how to insert an image into a post?

....This is how I do it... (sorry about the low quality of the images, but the 100KB limit is a killer!)

.... as for size & resolution, you can find an excellent Tip from Jeaniesa here ....

...Hope this could help ....

[DigitalinDC]

Hi midnitejam! This is my attempt at your picture. I would suggest not shooting this from a lower level of the subject shooting upwards with the head cocked back as it has a tendancy to add "weight" to your subject (and none of us want that)

[midnitejam]

Originally Posted by DigitalinDC

Hi midnitejam! This is my attempt at your picture. I would suggest not shooting this from a lower level of the subject shooting upwards with the head cocked back as it has a tendancy to add "weight" to your subject (and none of us want that)

Nice! Really nice!
My original was never intended to be a portrait. It was merely a hap-hazard snapshot shot "from the waist" in of a room filled with Christmas-day guests. I outcropped this particular section and I wanted to see if I could create a portrait in photoshop. My result above is the best I could do with my limited PS abilities.

You can see full size and full detail of this pic if you visit the Gallary section.

I like your version more than mine.

ThanX for your feedback.
PS: I was wondering if you could share your technique--I'm still trying to learn.

mnj

[DigitalinDC]

[Hi, I'm glad you liked the pic. I'm still fairly new to this too. I've been fortunate to have been able to attend two of the PhotoShop World workshops which have been wonderful. I had so many "Helen Keller" moments at these events "Aha! that's how you do that."
I selected her from the background using the pen tool and placed her on a white background temporarily. I cleaned up the face of blemishes and under eye sag by using the healing brush, next I tried to whiten her eyes a bit by selecting the whites with the marquee tool->image->adjustment->hue-saturation at a 3 level. I followed that by going into "select->color range and selected her shirt and colored it black which I think then left her necklace looking more like pearls. I ended up uisng the paint brush for areas that I had missed. I reselected her and then chose select->inverse, on this layer I applied a gradient to the background. Afterwards filters->texturizer was used followed by image->canvas size which I think I chose 0.5 for both sides. Lastly, edit->perspective was used until I got the slant that I wanted and then edit->stroke applied at a 1px range with black chosen for the color.
I do like the glow of your rendition and wish I had gone into filters->render->lighting effects.

[ajcutler]

I like trying to make people look their best, so here is what I did:

Enlarged the image by doubling the resolution. Isolated her from the background, and created a new one. Opened up the highlights with a levels layer. Ran a guassian blur and with a hide all mask, painted in smoothness to selected areas. Added more blue to her eyes, more color to her lips, a liitle red to her cheeks, and lightened her eye brows and hair.

Alan

[midnitejam]

WOW! I never considered my daughter with blue eyes. I like all of the edits. My favorite is which ever I'm viewing at that moment. Which ever pic I'm looking at becomes my favorite. Is that because the subject is my daughter?

ThankU for the beautiful renditions.
mnj