Loosing brilliance while retouching ?

[bullys1974]

hi all...

i´ll post 2 pics for comparison...
the first one is the original file .. the 2nd is the retouched and finished file...

i like desaturation and after skinretouching i desaturate a merged layer and duplicate this layers twice...put one in blend mode screen and the middle layer to blend mode softlight... with the opacity slider i dial in or out my colours...

some photographers i know have brilliant sharp images... like these:
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/ex...isplay/7481603
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/my...isplay/6718093
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/ex...isplay/7477132
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/ex...isplay/7471051


and i know they do not do much retouching...

i like my pics but i find that the last kick is missing... is it the sharpening ? is it the retouching workflow ? or even the lightning itself.. ? i sharpen my pics with smart sharpen, bu the eyes do not have brilliance.. the skin looks flat and not shiny.. but matte...dont know what i do wrong...pls help

i work with a canon 30D and several lenses.. had them at the service... no front or back focuses ... so thats not the problem ...

whats my problem with the retouching ? what can in do better ?
would like to have some more glamour and fashion look in my work... even the lips are dry. they wont get glossy pls help..

[miguel]

imo, you are on the right track and may be being to hard on yourself. i think the problem with the eyes in this pic is that they are very dialated...the black center is large and don't see the iris much.

[Swampy]

The desaturation has taken much of the contrast out of the picture. Add a Curves level and set an "S Curve" by taking down the 3/4 tones and lifting the 1/4 tones. Even though you're using a soft palette, the photo lacks pop or contrast.

[KR1156]

discard my message

[bullys1974]

Originally Posted by Swampy

The desaturation has taken much of the contrast out of the picture. Add a Curves level and set an "S Curve" by taking down the 3/4 tones and lifting the 1/4 tones. Even though you're using a soft palette, the photo lacks pop or contrast.

the s-curve helped a little bit.. the image looks fuller .. the person healthier... thats good... but the grainyness remains... the matte look is also not gone...

i´d like to have little contrast... fine lines.. but sharp eyes... like this one...
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/my...isplay/6843063

or this one...
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/my...isplay/6438685

but overall.. i´d like to do really sharp eyes... sparkling eyes... my eyes always look unrealistic... although i dont do much moore than little dodge and burning ...

thx for ur help btw...

[admirer]

Is this what you wanted? I used the blue channel as a mask gaus blurred the image in a new layer with the mask and set to soft light. The layer above i used highpass filter to taste with the same layer mask set to overlay.

[bullys1974]

Originally Posted by admirer

Is this what you wanted? I used the blue channel as a mask gaus blurred the image in a new layer with the mask and set to soft light. The layer above i used highpass filter to taste with the same layer mask set to overlay.

thx admirer.. this technique was one of the first tehcs i learned..) but i lost it totally out of my mind... this makes the skin also healthier... thx a lot .. that helped...

can u give some more advice on how to make the lips mor shiny and the eyes realistic ...?

[KR1156]

sorry i started to comment earlier, got caught up and forgot what i was commenting on!

I was messing around with the image, desat. a little and did a little painting with light to bring back some highlights to the face and chest area. just to give it some dimenssion and allure to her skin, but my color is off, i have trouble with my color when i save for web, it's always way off from my monitor...i click on add profile and everything...not sure hwat it is.

I also did a little blurring then sharpening on the image with the custom filter.

i would just be careful with the contrast curve that you dont totally blow out the white parts of her eyes.

[CathyH]

here is my try on this photo.
I used a selective color adjustment layer to take out the reds in her skin.
I changed the background color too, to match the over all colors.
the I used Dodge and Burn on a 50% gray layer set to soft light. here I added highlights and shadows to her hair.

[superkoax]

well, I just tried for 2 min...I know the cut out is bad

But I tried to desaturate and add a warm brown filter...and a new black background with halo!


gerry

[HandMadeGod]

I made a different version Hope you like it

[superkoax]

maybe this?


Gerry

[superkoax]

to comment your selection of pictures that you like, the picture you uploaded from your own photoshoot versus the collection, the other picture have more "bang" to them due to background, make up and lighting...the lighting is direct to face/body (or highlated more) , background is more dark...Then desaturated and facial retouched...Your picture works in completely different areas then the other pictures...Not negative way, but to enhance this picture to be similar to these isn't possible IMO(!!!)...I have seen people try this with patrick hoelck...Next time use real life background...Maybe I misunderstood your deires towards the retouching bit...

Gerry

[DCobb]

Let me start by saying I am not a photographer. I do this type of thing for fun. On the first one I did a brightness/contrast and the second one I moved to the LAB colorspace to make my corrections. I don't know if this even comes close to what you are looking for.

dc

[BillFrey]

Hi bullys1974,

Based on your samples I adjusted the midtone contrast and changed the eyes.

[Lasa]

Beautiful eyes..
Lasa

[bullys1974]

Originally Posted by superkoax

to comment your selection of pictures that you like, the picture you uploaded from your own photoshoot versus the collection, the other picture have more "bang" to them due to background, make up and lighting...the lighting is direct to face/body (or highlated more) , background is more dark...Then desaturated and facial retouched...Your picture works in completely different areas then the other pictures...Not negative way, but to enhance this picture to be similar to these isn't possible IMO(!!!)...I have seen people try this with patrick hoelck...Next time use real life background...Maybe I misunderstood your deires towards the retouching bit...

Gerry

i took pics with real life background and my probem is the same... when it comes to retouching the images become matte and not glamourous at all... patrick hoelcks work is great and i like his style...

my images are simply not brilliant .. they look stump ... not popping...
so i want to add more contrast but then my black lines are too thick ... but i like to have filigrain lines... esp for the eyes...lashes... and so on... other retouchers or photographers have so brilliant looking eyes... i´d like to learn this reouching technique.. no one tells ist... my retouching work on eyes is... dodging and burning... creating the halfmoon and make the lines a bit darker.. but the always look unrealistic... is there a real good tutorial on this ?

do u understand this ? hope so

[exp5]

fast retouch

[bullys1974]

thx for all the retouched images.. but that doesnt help me for now, cause u dont know which style i want to create...

ltake a look at this image from amy dresser:
http://www.amydresser.com/pages/violette.html

its crystalclear and brilliant.. eyes with smooth lines but sharp.. lips glossy... skin perfekt..

or this artist.. he is also member here:
http://www.dennisonbertram.com/

look his beauty portfolio... eyes and lips.. phenomenal sharp... how to get this clearness into a picture ?

[makeovermagic]

I gave your image a try. I worked from your after image and did some work on her eyes/lips and some color adjustment.

Marsha

[makeovermagic]

I did another one, working from my previous post... I thought this one had some pop.

Marsha

[bullys1974]

hair looks very fine...eyes are poppy... thx..marsha

[exp5]

deep deep deep

color is the key!

fast retouch

[bullys1974]

i got it.. not only color but light is the key pwl and all my sorrows were gone...thks to the amy dresser file i painted highlights and shadows.. and the image really popped

first thing solved...
but its always graini and not quite clear and brilliant...

thx for ur help guys...

[Syd]

I missed this post while away on holiday. Perfect lighting. Great shot. I would love to see your final reworking of it. Perhaps some accented highlights and selective sharpening would make it 'pop' just a little more.

By the way it also took forever to download your webpage and I am on fairly fast ADSL connection. I really like your work.

Sincerely Syd

[aaRonology101]

what always impressed my about amy dresser, is how she makes her images look flawlessly clean. all the colors and pixels blend extremely well, and she also maintains a natural feel by keeping textures in tact.

amy dresser is great at what she does, and i look up to her and all her accomplishments. she is indeed very inspirational.

i went ahead and played with the image myself, and i hope its something you might enjoy.

didnt do anything crazy, just my own standard retouch. i concentrated mainly on her face, and not much her body on this image mainly because its only a JPG, and we all know the kind of pain comes along with JPGs. this is for sampling and sharing anyways, so i figured there was no point to go all out.

this is a GREaT shot to work with though. i wish i was able to work on the original RAW file so i can get the real potential of this image out. working with JPGs just sucks with all those JPG artifacts and broken pixels. but nonetheless, it was still fun to play with.

hope you guys like it!

enJoY!

[grannysdc]

Took your retouched desaturated picture and made a new layer with it over a copy of your original picture.. used the eraser to bring back the original lips and eyes.. Overlayed a copy of the original and reduced the opacity to 74% ... healed the moles and patch that showed through... but cropped them out to save size....

when you desaturate don't you lose the POP you seem to want?

[Syd]

Originally Posted by grannysdc

when you desaturate don't you lose the POP you seem to want?

Not necessarily. Black and white photos can have 'pop' too. 'Pop' comes from contrast and that could be a contrast of color or a contrast of dark and light or a contrast of subject and background. Bully's first retouch has neither a contrast of color nor a contrast of dark and light areas. That is why it is 'flat' even though it is an excellent picture.

To illustrate what I meanI have arranged three pictures just as you did in your attachment. I desaturated too but went for more of a contrast between dark and light. I think you will agree desaturated can have 'pop' too.

Sincerely Syd

[grannysdc]

Thanks for the presentation.. I sit corrected (to late to stand).. My view of desaturation was a weakening of the colors and if you were to desaturate a B/W picture then I figured it would be like lowering the contrast, Sortta like using #2 paper instead of #5.. Guess I was wrong.. .. Your pictures look pretty good.. Manipulating photos in photoshop sure is different than in a darkroom.. I just keep on learning new things daily within this forum.. Ain't life great??
Granny

[unimatrix001]

First i changed the mode to lab color
duplicated the layer
selected the lightness channel
clicked on the eye to show all channels
used apply image choose the a channel and overlay hit ok
press control 2 to choose the a channel
apply image again using the same settings
press control 3 to choose the b channel
apply image using b channel rest of settings the same
and came up with this