Help! working with poor quality image

[lvphoto]

I have these two images I'm working on. They are of poor quality and I'm having a hard time getting results that still look natural.


Suggestions?


(FYI- I'm fairly new to photoshop)

I need as much detail brought out as possible.

[lvphoto]

Here is where I've gotten so far on one of them

[Swampy]

Welcome to RTP, lvphoto.

Well you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. You've done a great job getting the result you have.

[lvphoto]

Thank you..

but I'm a perfectionist.. and so I HATE working with low quality images. Because so much detail was lost in the face I did some painting and some dodge/burn using a slightly better quality image of the subject as a guide.


Here's what I have now.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2112/...3b2482de58.jpg

(Sorry, having trouble posting it this time around)

Should I stop here, or do you think there's more I could try?

[lvphoto]

and here is the second one so far...


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/...e0d4aae7_o.jpg

[Swampy]

Excellent work, lvphoto. You've managed to pull a lot out of the original photo.

[Ronnie.]

I had a go at this. Not sure if its what you where looking for ?

Ronnie.

[lvphoto]

That's great!

A big problem I've had is her feet. I noticed it in the one you did as well.

I think I'll liquify on mine and drag the background so it looks like it did in the original more.

[Ronnie.]

Glad you liked it. Yes the feet look to be sunk in to the floor or the cover is around them.
So i put a bit of cloud around them but feel free to change it.

Ronnie.

[johnboy55]

Hi everyone this is my first post. I'm a retoucher and photographer. The first
thing humans look at are the eyes. That's where I used to focus my camera.
Concentrate on eye sharpness and it's surprising how much better the rest of
image will look.