your opinion

[Merle]

It's my first thread, so excuse me if I am doing something wrong.

Please let me know your opinion about my last work.
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/mem...ppreciated.jpg

Do you see there any mistakes? What do you think about the colors?

Thank you
M.

[Merle]

in higher resolution you can find the photo here:
http://picasaweb.google.sk/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

[Godmother]

Originally Posted by Merle

in higher resolution you can find the photo here:
http://picasaweb.google.sk/lh/photo/...eat=directlink

That's not high resolution.

You can find high resolution files to practice on here http://shutterhappy.modelmayhem.com/t.php?forum_id=76

[Merle]

I have the raw of the original, I made the retouching on the whole photo, but I don't know how and where to upload it.
I think that the "after" is looking "too fake", but I don't know why.

[Merle]

before:
http://www.toldacuccot.hu/letoltes?s...ile=before.jpg

(click on letöltés)

[Merle]

after:
http://www.toldacuccot.hu/feltoltes?...file=after.jpg

[Merle]

there was a mistake, the after is here:
http://www.toldacuccot.hu/letoltes?s...file=after.jpg

(click on letöltés)

[Godmother]

Skin wise is ok

I don't know if you're going to use the full crop or just the close up but the blur in the BG doesn't make any sense... gives an illusion of movement so it's either she is on a train or it's not real.

On another note, when you're sharpening an image would be better to do it selectively. Not to the whole image, texture like skin can be sharpen to a certain point but hair and fur shouldn't because it makes it look dry and that's not a good look for hair.

I always say that a retouch is formed in 4 aspects that you need to pay attention to:

Composition: if anything is distracting you remove it, blend it. The frame must have balance (look up "golden rule" "rule of thirds" "Fibonacci Spiral")

Texture: Must be even without looking soft being careful not to leave pattern marks or repetitive patterns.

Tone: Again, even, without being monotone. Even means that all through the image tones must match (skintones mainly -face, hands, body- Look up "color theory")

Light/shadows: Transitions must be even and you need to have information in both (you lost a lot of information in the shadows of the hair and the highlights are not even, specially in hair, highlights must be smooth)

Hope that helps.

x

[Merle]

Thank you really much, Godmother, your words were really helpful.

I want to use almost the full crop ( http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/sh.../5973/size/big or http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/sh...php/photo/5974 ) , the blur in the background should give a kind of dreamy-look . Like she was thinking on a story... Or do you think it's a bad idea?

I do not know if the first three aspects are o.k. (I haven't got a professional eye for the distracting things yet) , but the shadows and the higlights I will surely redo. Thank you for commenting them.