[missvanessa22]

Hi Everyone!

This is my first "real" attempt at glamour retouching. I am just learning and I would greatly benefit from your expertise, critiques and suggestions. It is for personal use, not any type of paid work, it's a self portrait of my sister and I and I am not necessarialy trying to achieve a natural look by any means, I was going for a more glammed up, over the top fantasy type look.

I am a total newbie to doing this and I have learned a lot about photoshop while working on this picture through the tutorials on this site and online but I need help to go on as I have come to something of a standstill on further improving the picture. I would like critiques and suggestions as to how I can further improve this photo. I want to improve the lips in the photo, but can't figure out how to make them look right, I've tried the plastic wrap filter to make them glossy but I can't really figure out how to make it look correct so I discarded that layer. Is there a better technique to use to add shine and or color to lips? Also I want to add more volume to the hair and have NO idea whatsoever how to do that.

Please feel free to play with either photo! I simply adore seeing everyone's different takes on the same photo. Thanks in advance for your ideas, critiques and advice!

Vanessa

[sunfly]

Hi Vanessa,

I am not in the glamourizing department at all... but to me... for your very first attempt I think you did a great job! The other folks who specialize in glamour will be able to help you out .

In my humble opinion, the 'beauty' in your photo is a natural. :-) With respect to that aspect of your wonderful photo... I took a quick stab at it.

-Smoothing
-Colour correction
-Cloning
-Layers to lighten eyes, fix brights on teeth and nose, dulled silver ring etc.
-Crop

Cheers,
Sherry

[Dave.Cox]

Hi MissVanessa22

Really great job with your glamour retouch. Especially for your first attempt. You should feel proud.

As far as the lips go, do you mean you are trying to get a wet look on the lips? Take a look at my example. This is actually pretty easy to accomplish. (Of course anything is easy when you know how. lol.) I selected the lip area and on a new layer, I filled it with 50% gray. In the gray area, I used a soft brush set to about 10%, and painted in white where I wanted the shiny lips to be. If it looks to crisp, you can blur it some with the blur tool. Once you have it to your liking set the layer mode to overlay, and Presto Magico, you have wet lips.

You can bulk the hair up some with some careful cloning. Just be sure to follow the current hair directions, and don't overbuild the part.

[DCobb]

Lovely photo of you two girls. You did a nice job. I only do this as a hobby, but gave it a try.

-cloning
-skin
-teeth
-color

dc

[chillin]

Here is my attempt:
Healing & cloning
Liquify on eyes & mouth area
Portraiture plug in for a glamour look
Add just a bit color to eyes
And plenty of adjustment layers: saturation, color balance (shadow & midtones)…

[missvanessa22]

Sunfly - Aww! You are too sweet! Good calll on the lightening of the eyes and nose... I tried to lighten the eyes myself and wasn't able to get them to look natural like you did, and I was afraid to tackle the light spot on the nose. Did you dodge & burn or use an adjustment layer or both? I LOVE the crop and frame you used! What a neat effect! Can you explain to me how you did it?

Dave.Cox - Thanks for the tip on the lips, I'm going to take a wack at it here shortly... Stay tuned for results...

DCobb - I love the color adjustment you did, it really warmed up the photo nicely! That early summer tan color is very pleasant.

Chillin - I see you said you used liquify on the mouth and eyes. Do you have a good tutorial for how to use that feature? I've been looking and I have yet to find one that makes sense to me.

[kombizz]

I believe you did a very good job for your first attempt.
I am looking forward to see more images from you.

[missvanessa22]

Ok, I've changed lip color and added some shine... I used a soft pink as the highlight color on the lips instead of white, it seems to look a tad more natural... Now if I could just figure out how to get that highlight off my sisters nose... I've tried cloning it out and also dodge & burn, but I can't seem to get it to look seamless. I'll keep working on it, but here is the lipcolor/shine adjustment update.

Thanks for looking!

[lurch]

It's getting better all the time - but while you're working on your sister's nose either straighten or clone out the tilted horizon line. It immediately pulls the eye away from the faces.

[Dave.Cox]

The bridge of the nose can be a really tough area to repair, as there are so many contours in that area, it is diffacult to get it to look just right. That kind of fix usually should be made before softening the face, since that will help smooth over the repair. But you have a lot to work with in this photo. What I did is build it up a little bit at a time coming in from the sides with the heal brush, paying close attention to the existing countours around the area to be healed. Too smooth it out just a tad, the skin on the sister's forhead is close enough that a low opacity layer just over the bridge of the nose helps to blend the repair.

I agree with Lurch about the horizon. It is distracting, and adds nothing. It looks better without it.

Great job on what you have done!

[sunfly]

Vanessa... nice work. :-)

The frame is a free action from ePaperPress. To lighten the eyes I selected them out on a separate layer and used levels.

I agree about the background. I had, at first, cloned it out. Then cropped it out... which I prefer... since it adds nothing. The cropping focuses the viewers attention into the subject. Just my opinion. Some folks like tight crops and other don't.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Sherry

[missvanessa22]

You are totally right about the horizion line... I masked it out and put some clouds in using a gradient layer to adjust the brightness of the cloud photo I used. What do you think? Does this look natural enough? Or should I do a different type of background photo?

I still have to do the nose yet, but maybe tomorrow.

[chillin]

Originally Posted by missvanessa22

Chillin - I see you said you used liquify on the mouth and eyes. Do you have a good tutorial for how to use that feature? I've been looking and I have yet to find one that makes sense to me.

The best source I found is Lynda’s “Photoshop CS3 One-on-One Beyond the Basics”.
There are 9 video chapters about liquify.

[missvanessa22]

Originally Posted by chillin

The best source I found is Lynda’s “Photoshop CS3 One-on-One Beyond the Basics”.
There are 9 video chapters about liquify.

Wow! Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out. I have PS7 though...

[missvanessa22]

I think I've got the hang of Liquify... A little digital plastic surgery never hurt anyone... lol