what would you do?

[agillette]

What i suggest you do, is to take her to a professional photographer, and get a set done for her. She's a beautiful little girl, and only having something proffesional with work justice for her beauty. Once the photo's are done, then post them here, and see what results for can get.

She has great looking eye's, but your lighting, and camera are doing the proper justice for them. Her skin tone is also great, but without the proper lighting, your not going to get what you need.

That's my two cent's worth.

Regards,

AG...

[Punkydoodlebug]

I thought I would give this a shot as my first post on this board.

I have a pair of eyelashes that I'm working on, I hand drew them and they still need a lot of tweeking, they work much better on larger photos. I added them to this photo.

I filled in the teeth and brightened them up a bit with the dodge tool.
Made the top lip a bit fuller and outlined the lips with the burn tool.

I used the sponge tool set on saturate at a low opacity for a hint of eyeshadow, very light.

For the skin smoothing I have the Kodak Digital Gem Airbrush Professional filter that I used on it.

Background change I lassoed the current background and filled it in.

Cropped.

I think that's everything. All done with Photoshop 7. The photo wasn't very large to begin with so it was rather difficult.

[Flora]

Hi agillette,

I do agree with you ... particularly when it comes to photograph children ... I think it's an art on itself!!!

Hi Punkydoodlebug,

Welcome to RP!

I'm definitely no expert on the pageant field ... but, for what I saw of it, you are surely on the right track!!!
I know grafx does pageant retouching professionally but, surely, you have read her pointers already!!

[ajava]

Just starting out at photo retouching, and absolutely loving it!! I didn't want her to look TOO fake, though that may be the intention with pageant photos. Anyway, I have a little girl and I kept her innocence in mind while working on this photo.

[WhidbeyPix]

I agree with agillette, I think if you really want it to look good it would help to have a photographer redo this shot. It is not a bad photo but it's easier to redo the shot than to retouch it, and it will look more realistic too. Being a photographer myself I can tell you that lighting is everything. Well, almost everything... It would help to have a slightly more natural smile. My daughter loves to pose for me and it took a while to get it into her head that I don't want a fake smile, I just want a nice relaxed smile.
On the other hand I don't know why people do this to kids anyway. I hope I don't offend anyone, it just makes me sad to think of what message this sends to a kid.
As far as taking a photo to achieve the glamour look, here are some tips:
- don't ever use camera flash... those little flashes on the camera are the devil!
- don't take photos in full sunlight, if you're using existing light, wait for a partly cloudy day or find a place with soft even shade (beware of trees and places where there might be hotspots as the sun comes through the branches)
- indoors you can use a couple of 500 Watt halogen work lights and bounce them off a big white wall or something. Set the camera to incandescent white balance. Careful they're hot.
- One or two umbrellas will work wonders when it comes to creating soft light. I'm finding that I like the effect you get when flashing through the umbrella as well as bouncing off the umbrella
- you can use one of those thin black silk scarves to put over the camera lens. http://www.garageglamour.com/tips/articles/scarf.php
- read the tips here: http://www.garageglamour.com/tips/tipsmain.php
- use nature's softbox, it's free: the light comming from a north facing window (without direct sun).
- focus on the eyes. Everything else can be slightly out of focus except the eyes.
- use a tripod to put the camera on to prevent shake

[WhidbeyPix]

in this photo she is a bit close to the background (a wall?)
it would help if she was as far as possible from the background. at least 3-4 feet if indoors.