Retouching young man

[sirespen]

Hi there! I`ve retouched this image recently. I have real problems with the front. I also noticed that maybe the D&B i did maybe gives the guy a too soft look... What do you think?

Andy advice how to do a better retouch?

Here the RAW: deleted

My try: deleted
Thank you in advance!

P.S. i noticed that the nose looks much bigger after i have done the D&B. Probably because now the face is narrower...

Ciao ciao Sebi

For personal reasons I have deleted the source images. 22/11/08

[R_Leszczynski]

In my opinion the guy looks to soft (skin areas) I'd not use any skin softening technique on this picture, only manually remove blemishes. Next thing is that whole picture looks to me like some cartoon on animation art (it's no real) just my opinion. I've been doing small photo session with a young rock musician recently. As soon as I'll get his release I'll add some samples here.

BTW I've just started similar topic here:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...ching-men.html

[sirespen]

Well, i only used a bit of High pass... I wanted this kind of look, but the front looks so bad and i have no idea how to do it better...

[santajuana]

Ciao Sebi, i've found this link very usefull, they have 3 before-after examples of retouched men, and it doesn't hurt anyone to look at their portfolio. http://www.iwanexstudio.com/
Un bacio,
Silvia.

[sirespen]

Oh cool! Grazie!

Ciao!

[Verywierd]

Is this something like what you want?

Skin and hair clean up using mostly patch tool to retain skin texture.
Contrast adjustment to individual areas using several curve layers.
Brighten the area around the eyes slightly, increase brightness and saturation of eyes.
Applied merged layer in soft light blending mode to increase overall contrast and saturation and sharpness.
Applied a light grey layer in soft light blending mode to desaturate a bit.

I left the background in place as I felt it looked better than a floating head.

[sirespen]

Yeah, I try another one without floating head. But your picture looks really weird on my screen...orange and the white blown out...is it my screen?

[skauskas]

Originally Posted by santajuana

Ciao Sebi, i've found this link very usefull, they have 3 before-after examples of retouched men, and it doesn't hurt anyone to look at their portfolio. http://www.iwanexstudio.com/
Un bacio,
Silvia.

great link.. alwasys great to see otiginal photos of stars))))

[Verywierd]

Originally Posted by sirespen

Yeah, I try another one without floating head. But your picture looks really weird on my screen...orange and the white blown out...is it my screen?

Possibly. The image I posted is sRGB and it looks ok using both my image viewers and my browser after I uploaded it. It could be my monitor, but no one else had mentioned a problem with other images that I have posted. Also other people's images look fine on my screen too.

Can anyone else confirm whether the image looks blown out on their screens?

[R_Leszczynski]

These are photos of young musician I've been doing recently. Actually it's my first attempt to retouching.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2292419...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2292419...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2292419...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2292419...n/photostream/

[sirespen]

Nice photos Roland

[sirespen]

@Verywierd: I tried to open it in safari and it definitely looks better. Later i open it on the other pc i have here, maybe it's only my screen.

Ciao!

[R_Leszczynski]

Verywierd: I'm using safari on macbook pro calibrated with eye one display 2. As I can see You picture is blown in forehead and nose areas and the looks yellow/orange (a bitt strange for my taste but if You want such a look it could be ok)

[Verywierd]

Originally Posted by R_Leszczynski

Verywierd: I'm using safari on macbook pro calibrated with eye one display 2. As I can see You picture is blown in forehead and nose areas and the looks yellow/orange (a bitt strange for my taste but if You want such a look it could be ok)

Thanks for the feedback.

Odd though, according to PS, the whitest points on the forehead are around R244, G232, B220, which is very light, but not white. As for the skin tone, I started using Fujichrome almost since it first came out very and I like warm skin tones. I find the current trend for greyish desaturated skin too corpse like for comfort. I guess it just proves that I'm not keeping up with the times :-)

[R_Leszczynski]

Ok I should say it different way. This highlights on forehead are not blown i clipped meaning the are jus too bright for my taste. When it comes to skin color I've checked RGB and CMYK values in Photoshop and it's really high on yellow. In my opinion he looks really strange, like having some skin illness or sth different. Of course it's dramatic and has some kind of effect (maybe for editorial work or some crazy promo shot but for everyday portrait I would not accept such skin color as a client. It's just my opinion an I'm not a pro in this business.

[grannysdc]

Could you possibly have some barrel distortion in your pic?

I tried your picture but did not go for the Dracula look.. A couple curves adjustment layers could probably achieve that look though. hope it looks Ok.. I have nothing calibrated as this is just fun for me

[sirespen]

Hi! Why do you think there is any barrel distortion?

[qbic]

Hi. Here's my version of the image. It has less dramatic look than yours. But the proportions of face parts seem to be preserved.
What do you think about it?

[sirespen]

Hi! Can you please upload it in full resolution on imageshack? I hate Low res photos.


The color looks awful, i don't know why.. i also checked it on a other Monitor.
Can you upload your psd file so i can look at it? I hope it's not my Monitor? Did you start from the Raw file?

I did a second version, because my first was relly crap. Not a lot better, but a bit. I think the front is still to bright...A honest and severe comment by a pro would be much apreciated Maybe it's still to smooth?!

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5...076copylr3.jpg

Thanks!

Ciao Sebi

[sirespen]

The Hair looks nice! But you know, on this resolution it`s difficult to take a closer look

[Verywierd]

Your skin is too soft, especially around the forehead. His ears have disappeared (unless that is what you wanted). The veins in his eyes could do with a little toning down. The absolute black background is neat, but looks a bit like a painting or CGI render and has hidden much of his head and hair.

I decided to do a bit of checking in the RAW file on the orange/yellow cast that seems to be a problem. It appears that there was a tungsten light somewhere in the background and it was not totally eliminated by the flash and shutter speed. This caused an orange cast only in the shadow areas of his face.

Anyway, I decided to redo the image, and remove the tungsten cast at the same time. Since you have a problem with 800 x 600 images, I have uploaded the full sized image here:

http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.p...wbhsra&thumb=5

[sirespen]

Hola! Finally a decent comment! I wanted that the ears disapear, but not the to smooth skin! I have to work on it! Hehe, very good! In fact where was a small tungsten light!

I don't have a problem, but it doesn't make sense to critique 800x600 files where i can't see anything. Probably the most of us have broadband internet so it shouldn't be a problem. I wish the clients would accept 800x600 files But here whe should take the oppurtunity and post high res files (My personal opinion!).

If i was to harsh in my last post, I'm sorry for that. I'm a outspoken person and due to my bad english maybe sometimes I'm to harsh...

Ciao ciao Sebi

[qbic]

Hi. You wanted a closer look at my version of the image, so here's a link to it at full resolution.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/8...highresje1.jpg

Regarding your second version of the image, it seems there's some kind of softening applied on skin. And, of course, the front part of the face seems to be too light, but I think, this looks so because you darkened the background so much. Try less harsh effect (not so much contrast) then the lightest parts should be balanced with the darker ones.
As it comes to the tones of my version of the image, I checked it up on three different monitors and it looks good. And yes, I worked on raw file.
Rgds

[sirespen]

I didn't used any blur filter. Mistery of color calibration...

[sirespen]

I like how you removed/added the Hair on the right!

[qbic]

Glad you like my retouching.
I looked at your picture once more, it seems the whole image is soft. I'm not saying you did any bluring, but, for sure, the image's not sharp.

[santajuana]

ciao sebi, why don't you try to burn a bit the forehead, do it on a new softlight layer, do it step by step to see how much you like it, i know your image will look even better. by the way, just do the contour not the center of the forehead.

un bacio,
silvia.

[sergio2263]

I am no pro just a newbie at this, but nice photo to have a go.



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/...6f76bede_o.jpg

helen

[igot2pman]

Saw the picture and got inspired. So I took it a different way, inspired by the look and lighting on the model.

I think the softness looks odd because the model almost looks evil.

[Aleksman71]

My try.I like harder look for man