My portrait to share

[TommyO]

Ilona,
Thanks for sharing a raw file with us. It is always nice to receive a larger file (especially raw format) to work with.

I only thought about a few steps... (a) overall color correction;(b) general cleanup of blemishes and a few fly away hairs;(c) and, some selective tonality changes.
This image has no retouch of eyes or skin, nor any lighting enhancements.
So, basically it is very close to "as shot".
From this point, it is up to everyone's own taste to make further changes.

I basically used raw to adjust the exposure and reduce a few saturated areas.
I then used Photoshop with multiple curve adjustment layers w/ masks to bring back the tonality in each major element.. skin, eyes, hair, lips.
That's it. Very quick and easy. Took about 10 minutes.

Good luck and thank you!

[skauskas]

TommyO, your portrait looks very natural.. how did you make the skin color like this? she looks taned but not yellow.. anytime I'm trying to correct skin color I ended up with skin being yellow or has some non-skin color

you are welcome btw for raw photo! I will post raws later too..

[swarbees]

Not sure if removing the bench was a good idea but this is mainly dodge and burn selected areas and a skin color change. Cloning and healing minimal blemishes and increase saturation. Too much maybe??

[skauskas]

thank you for ur retouch swarbees.. I like how you did eyes.. little bit less lipstick I think.. IMO it is not a "make up" photo.. more soft natural look..

I kinda liked the bench because it made nice diagonal along the whole picture.. the whole picture actually is placed diagonally.. that's was my idea when I was taking the photo
The light on this photo is not good.. it's really hard to retouch it.. but it is one of my first tries on photography!

[TommyO]

Ilona,
The way I changed the skin was rather simple.
- Added a curves adjustment layer.
- Ctrl click a light area of skin, and ctrl click a darker area. Basically selecting two points of skin, where you wish to adjust the contrast between them.
- In the curve, move the points based on what you want to do. Sometimes you must lighten the light point and darken the dark. Othertimes you must darken the lighter and lighten the darker. In your case, I ended up doing the first.. a basic S curve.
- Then, invert the mask (Ctrl-I) so it is black. Use a soft large brush with about 20% opacity to bring the effect back onto the skin areas only.
- Repeat for other small areas, each on their own layer.

Hope this helps. Again, it avoids any colorization and leaves it very natural.

[swarbees]

I thought the bench was a good element with the lines of the original photo too but I really like the crop that olbaldy did and the bench lines didn't really work as well there. So I copied olbaldy's crop and went for a glamour retouch. I don't normally like the glamour look for photos but I always get carried away. Anyway, here is my cover of olbaldy's crop

[skauskas]

Originally Posted by TommyO

Ilona,
The way I changed the skin was rather simple.
- Added a curves adjustment layer.
- Ctrl click a light area of skin, and ctrl click a darker area. Basically selecting two points of skin, where you wish to adjust the contrast between them.
- In the curve, move the points based on what you want to do. Sometimes you must lighten the light point and darken the dark. Othertimes you must darken the lighter and lighten the darker. In your case, I ended up doing the first.. a basic S curve.
- Then, invert the mask (Ctrl-I) so it is black. Use a soft large brush with about 20% opacity to bring the effect back onto the skin areas only.
- Repeat for other small areas, each on their own layer.

Hope this helps. Again, it avoids any colorization and leaves it very natural.

Thanx for this advice.. I was trying it yesterday but it didn't work the best I wanted .. for now.. But I understood the idea and will work more..

[paisajca]

Thank you for sharing, beautiful picture
I got rid of the imperfections but I kept some glam and pores hope
(sorry about my english)
my try
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5358/girl3zp4.jpg
jhony

[skauskas]

Originally Posted by paisajca

Thank you for sharing, beautiful picture
I got rid of the imperfections but I kept some glam and pores hope
(sorry about my english)
my try
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5358/girl3zp4.jpg
jhony

she looks a bit scary in your version because of the eyes.. I think they are too dark..

[sabine_monica]

Thanks for the photo Skauskas.

Here is my attempt.

[skauskas]

Originally Posted by sabine_monica

Thanks for the photo Skauskas.

Here is my attempt.

good retouch sabine_monica! What techniques did you use?
I would add little bit more texture and some color though.. then it would be perfect

[johnnycorcoran]

Hope you like this one!girl.jpg

[johnnycorcoran]

2nd one with cropgirl2.jpg

[johnnycorcoran]

...and finally black and white,..well abit of sepia!girl3.jpg

[johnnycorcoran]

...Closer look


closer.jpg