Photo Retouching - - Can YOU help me make this photo look awesome?

brock20l · #1 12-16-2007, 10:51 AM

Hi guys,
I'm very new to the site, and new to photo retouching in general...I can't seem to decipher the retouching programs well enough to make any changes look natural. I'd like to distribute this photo to my family for Christmas, but I'd like it to look a little more sophisticated than it does right now. Namely, I'd like to eliminate the shininess on my face, and the shiny streak down the middle of the trophy, but I don't know how much improvement is possible. Feel free to manipulate this however you like -- simply focus on the stuff I have indicated, or show me your best glamor restorations, or whatever you like! And please, let me know what programs you use/have used and what functions and settings...I'm so lost with all of this stuff!!
Thanks so much for the help,
Lindsey

T Paul · #2 12-16-2007, 11:18 AM

What retouching software do you have? This will help focus the tips to the programs you have available to work with.

Tmax100 · #3 12-16-2007, 01:13 PM

Hi Brok201

Email me the origial camera file, and I will gladly have a go for you.
tmax at wilsonhome dot info

Cheers

Simon
tmax100

0lBaldy · #4 12-16-2007, 01:35 PM

I'm a sucker for a pretty face, but a snapshot with a flash straight on from camera and such a small file may be hard to make look "Awesome"

Tried to keep it subtle, using Photo shop V7
mostly clone tool at 20% on trophy and girl
balloons used healing tool
selected teeth cleaned with image>adjustments>Hue/Saturation>red
made a new screened layer and masked out areas I didn't want lightened..
curves, sharpened

Dave.Cox · #5 12-16-2007, 01:56 PM

Hi,
I took the hot-spots out of your face, and reduced the shine from the cup some, but where it is white, there is not information to bring back the lettering. Beside, metal will shine, and doesn't look right if you remove all of the reflection.

To remove high lights, I use a soft brush set to darken. Sample an adjacent color, and paint over the lighter area. This is done in PS CS3

superkoax · #6 12-16-2007, 02:23 PM

nice girl!

brock20l · #7 12-16-2007, 02:47 PM

Thank you so much everyone! In response to T Paul's query ("What retouching software do you have?"), I have downloaded some trial versions of various software, in order to test them out and see what is the most user friendly for the future when I purchase. If anybody has a recommendation of a favourite application I should try out, please let me know!
Lindsey

superkoax · #8 12-16-2007, 02:51 PM

try out freeware gimp!

Juergen D · #9 12-16-2007, 02:58 PM

Not exactly a glamor shot, but I thought the lighter lower background might help.

Juergen

Enkay · #10 12-16-2007, 04:17 PM

I usualy charge for extensive retouching like that but since you're cute and I'm in a christmas/giving spirit, I did it for free. I hope your family enjoys it.

superkoax · #11 12-16-2007, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enkay

I usualy charge for extensive retouching like that but since you're cute and I'm in a christmas/giving spirit, I did it for free. I hope your family enjoys it.

oh noooo *weeps* You stole my idea!

brock20l · #12 12-16-2007, 07:53 PM

Enkay, I love it! That is amazing, and I know my family will think it is amazing as well! Again, thanks to everyone that has posted retouched photos, given me tips, tricks and tools to use, and replied super fast! You guys are wonderful, and I know that I've given you a pretty lame photo to work with because it's really small, but you've all done great work! Thanks for your time!
Lindsey

shaybshay · #13 12-17-2007, 02:56 AM

Well this took forever. Probably over a hundred layers and about six hours. I'ts your body and head and trophy but as you can see everything else was added. Curtains, floor, podium, microphones, plant, dress other lady all seperate layers and worked. It's all about light, shadows and reflections. Well I hope you enjoy it. Shay. All done in photoshop elements 6.0.

Further info: The composition was carefully thoughtout. Although our subject, the girl with the trophy, is along the left verticle we see the shot is a bit tight, cutting her off at just above the ankles and the lady on the right is sliced in half. This would be a shot that is too tight which gives the impression that it was shot by a bit of an amature. Also I added noise to give the look of a cheaper camera or just simply a high ISO. Two elements to give a more natural feel, like it could have been shot by mom with her little coolpix or something.

I thought is was also important to use the microphones, not just for adding to the envrioment but also to help balance out the coldness of the trophy.

Legs: Those bit of legs are taken from the arm.
Dress: Five seperate layers of the same dress blended together to fit the shape of the body.
Trophy: A lot of cloning and some painting.
Shadows: I find working with shadows to be very difficult sometimes, after all I'm rather new to photoshop. I just copy and paste an element I want shadowed, darken it, lower opacitiy and play with perspective. Here I thought was important to have converging shadows to give the feel of a few light sources, like being on a stage.
DOF and Focus Points: Also difficult is to achieve a beliveable camera settings when working with photoshop. In this photo it looks like it was shot with about f2.8 at close distance with the focul point on the podium going diagonal through the trophy. Something like that anyway. It's not quite right here but i tried to achieve it by blurring and sharpening.
Plant: Darkened. Blurred to give a sense of DOF. Simple refletion; new layer, flip and lower opacity, same for curtains and podium.
3D: As you can see the elements were placed to give a three dimensional feel. From front to back; microphone, girl with trophy, lady at podium, plant, crutains, floor.
Floor and Curtains: As you can see the floor goes to about the bottom horizontal, seems like mom knows a little about photography after all. Another layer of black above that. Curtains placed and adjust layers as needed.

Printing: DOH! Unfortunately I scaled this all wrong for printing standard 3x5 or 4x6 or whatever. Amature mistake. I decided to open the file below and noticed it's 800x667 pixles which makes for a 11x9 print. I then copied and pasted this photo to my desktop, opened with photoshop resized the border to 16"Wx12"H then resized image to 4x6 and printed it. It actually turned out rather well. This leaves quite a border, maybe you can get creative with it. I don't know how you'll will be handing this out but it is possible to print this file, just not too big that's all.

brock20l · #14 12-17-2007, 09:40 AM

Wow, Shay! I can't believe you spent that much time on that photo for me! Thank you so much! - It's a completely different picture! I'm especially amazed by the dress because it looks totally realistic...and P.S. - good eye for fashion as well - that's something that I definitely would wear!
Lindsey

Jerryb · #15 12-17-2007, 09:54 AM

Hi shaybshay,
I just wanted to say I thought you did a oustanding fabulous job on that....

and I took a great deal of interest not only the steps you took but the thoughts about it as to how to go about it... for a beginer like me... that important... thank you for the enlightenment...

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaybshay

Well this took forever. Probably over a hundred layers and about six hours. I'ts your body and head and trophy but as you can see everything else was added. Curtains, floor, podium, microphones, plant, dress other lady all seperate layers and worked. It's all about light, shadows and reflections. Well I hope you enjoy it. Shay. All done in photoshop elements 6.0.

Further info: The composition was carefully thoughtout. Although our subject, the girl with the trophy, is along the left verticle we see the shot is a bit tight, cutting her off at just above the ankles and the lady on the right is sliced in half. This would be a shot that is too tight which gives the impression that it was shot by a bit of an amature. Also I added noise to give the look of a cheaper camera or just simply a high ISO. Two elements to give a more natural feel, like it could have been shot by mom with her little coolpix or something.

I thought is was also important to use the microphones, not just for adding to the envrioment but also to help balance out the coldness of the trophy.

Legs: Those bit of legs are taken from the arm.
Dress: Five seperate layers of the same dress blended together to fit the shape of the body.
Trophy: A lot of cloning and some painting.
Shadows: I find working with shadows to be very difficult sometimes, after all I'm rather new to photoshop. I just copy and paste an element I want shadowed, darken it, lower opacitiy and play with perspective. Here I thought was important to have converging shadows to give the feel of a few light sources, like being on a stage.
DOF and Focus Points: Also difficult is to achieve a beliveable camera settings when working with photoshop. In this photo it looks like it was shot with about f2.8 at close distance with the focul point on the podium going diagonal through the trophy. Something like that anyway. It's not quite right here but i tried to achieve it by blurring and sharpening.
Plant: Darkened. Blurred to give a sense of DOF. Simple refletion; new layer, flip and lower opacity, same for curtains and podium.
3D: As you can see the elements were placed to give a three dimensional feel. From front to back; microphone, girl with trophy, lady at podium, plant, crutains, floor.
Floor and Curtains: As you can see the floor goes to about the bottom horizontal, seems like mom knows a little about photography after all. Another layer of black above that. Curtains placed and adjust layers as needed.

Printing: DOH! Unfortunately I scaled this all wrong for printing standard 3x5 or 4x6 or whatever. Amature mistake. I decided to open the file below and noticed it's 800x667 pixles which makes for a 11x9 print. I then copied and pasted this photo to my desktop, opened with photoshop resized the border to 16"Wx12"H then resized image to 4x6 and printed it. It actually turned out rather well. This leaves quite a border, maybe you can get creative with it. I don't know how you'll will be handing this out but it is possible to print this file, just not too big that's all.