Photo Retouching - - Glamorous? Let me know what u think please :D

yelhsaneerg · #1 03-13-2007, 04:10 PM

hey ya'll! i just retouched a photo for my cousin who wanted to be "glamourized". I did a quick run on the photo and i thought it turned out pretty nicely. what do u think? what could i have done to make it better? i'm all ears for opinions as i'm always striving to get better...practice makes perfect!
what i did: cleaned up her skin...glossed the lips a bit (not sure how to do that but did the only way i could make it look decent), changed her shirt from green to blue to bring out the eyes, cleaned up her eyebrows a bit, made the top of her hair less yellow, touched up her roots of her hair, thinned out her nose slightly, thinned out the face on the lower side to make it more asymetrical, blurred the background so she would stand out more, used the diffuse glow filter to add to the angelic kind of feel to the picture by bringing out some of the highlites already present...and i think that's it anyway....feel free to try ur hand at it or just critique me.....i'd really appreciate it! thanks in advance!
love always....ash

yelhsaneerg · #2 03-13-2007, 08:38 PM

50 views and no replies? i'm kinda disappointed...i try to comment on other ppls stuff can someone please gimme some pointers?

Mike · #3 03-13-2007, 09:49 PM

Here's my 2 cents worth:

The hi lites on the forehead, cheeks and chin are too bright and the skin is too smooth.

You have given her "racoon eyes" which is quite a feat since you are using an on camera flash.

I do not like the pose at all. The angle of the head against the angle of the forms in the background does not work for me. Even after you softened the background, it did not really help.

On camera flash is about the worst thing one can use to photograph a pretty young lady.

MBChamberlain · #4 03-13-2007, 10:06 PM

Don't take it personally, a lot of the views are from computers and bots. Lots of pictures have 200-300 views and only a couple posts.

All things considered, let's go back to the basics. In order to have a glamour retouch-you need a glamour photo. On a snapshot it just looks wrong. I agree the skin is WAY overdone, and also the pose is not at all flattering.

I didn't take very long on this, but I recontoured the face to flatter the jaw (bad angle) reduce the size of the nose (wide lens, too close) and make her smile a bit more. Killed the bra strap very fast, heal and cloned the skin, SLIGHTLY softened the skin (probably a little much because I'm in a hurry) changed the color of the shirt as you suggested. I personally don't think the fake blue contacts really work for her.

I usually draw the hierarchy like this:
Snapshot - color correct, eyes, teeth, blemish removal, possible monocular correction,
Portrait - Snapshot + cleaning up, skin softening (minor), color fine tuning, minor recontouring of the face, minor eye enhancement
Glamour - Portrait + advanced skin smoothing, major recontouring of the face and body, highlighting and lowlighting, full eye enhancement, digital hair and make-up

Now- all that being said, a good start. a bit heavyhanded, but it takes a lot of time to learn not to overdo things. Keep it up and I think you will do well.

Cheers,

Michael

yelhsaneerg · #5 03-14-2007, 05:33 AM

thanks for u opinions....i know it's an opinion thing but i like the "overdone" look...not all the time...but most of the time....and i really liked the angle of the picture.....it just grabbed me......i don't know why :P i do like to do different versions though.....some more natural and some a little overdone.....anyway.....how do i do it better as in looking more natural but also almost flawless lol did that make sense?

Syd · #6 03-14-2007, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yelhsaneerg

anyway.....how do i do it better as in looking more natural but also almost flawless lol did that make sense?

Don't make global changes to the skin such as a blurring of its entire surface area will bring about. Rather look at the skin and decide what areas need to be fixed. Not every part of it is going to need retouching. I always start out with the Healing Brush and/or Clone tool and remove the obvious blemishes first. Don't be too heavy handed here - you can always come back and do some more right at the very end. Next Dodge and Burn the skin trying to smooth out the transitions between the light and the dark areas. This will give the skin a pleasing appearance. Accentuate the highlights (on the nose and on the lip and on the bottom chin and lighten any dark rings under the eyes). Darken the eyebrows, eyelashes and shadows if more contrast is desired. Don't rule out the Smudge tool...it can be very useful for eliminating small blemishes and smoothing harsh transitions and has the same effect as blurring but it is much more controlled and localised. Finally, you can use the Healing Brush again to blend here and there fixing areas you missed the first time. Do everything on a new layer.

I like your photograph but as Michael said it has a few problems. (wide lens, too close) so I fiddled with the liquify tool to get it more natural. I don't mind the background but those black verticals and horizontals have to go. They are way to distracting and my eye just gets so caught up in there that I can't leave that area. So I cloned those out and then blurred the background. I also added a bit of contrast to the midtones and reduced the amount of red in the skin. I made the pupils slightly smaller and, like Michael, cloned out that bra strap. Finally I did some selective sharpening to the eyes and mouth.

Sincerely Syd

yelhsaneerg · #7 03-14-2007, 12:46 PM

is this one any better....it was hard for me to keep a light hand on it lol....i always wanna add more!

MBChamberlain · #8 03-14-2007, 01:29 PM

When you reshaped the face, you put all of the facial features off center. (the whole right side of the face looks squished)

This thread talks about skin smoothing quite a bit. It may be helpful.

Michael

oceanstarr · #9 03-14-2007, 01:48 PM

I like the overdone version personally. That's just my taste though. I never stop when the skin is still the right COLOR lol. If it were my cousin, I would have made her skin blue and her hair red... but that's just me.

yelhsaneerg · #10 03-14-2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oceanstarr

I like the overdone version personally. That's just my taste though. I never stop when the skin is still the right COLOR lol. If it were my cousin, I would have made her skin blue and her hair red... but that's just me.

i like the overdone look too.....and i like to do crazy pics too :P color makes life fun!

grannysdc · #11 03-14-2007, 04:29 PM

My try at "Glamorization"

The changes are pretty apparent .. changed position a little.. added a background.. changed bone structure.. fuller, bigger lips.. smoothed skin.. brought hair line down a bit..

Cassidy · #12 03-15-2007, 08:10 AM

Well if you are looking for soft satiny image, yep you have bagged it, personally I prefer a little more distinct detail

grannysdc · #13 03-15-2007, 01:05 PM

Cassidy,

I totally agree with you.. The more details and natural looking the better.. I much prefer skin detail that looks un-worked.. BUT, I figured that this was soooo overworked as it is, that I would just leave it that way... so instead of moving the slider to bring back some details, I saved for web and went to bed.

Granny

superfrasky · #14 03-15-2007, 03:24 PM

Glamorous? Like Barby girl... plastic. I think that before is better

Xaran · #15 03-16-2007, 11:16 AM

I think if it were me I'd go more for the black and white look with this one.

Christine