Does this retouch look ok?

[fantacmet]

Does this look ok? Where are the mistakes, and what area's could uuse more? Marking them out in red is acceptable.



Original
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...f/redhead1.jpg


Retouched
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...ad1retouch.jpg

[garibaldi]

it looks like somebody beat up her face with a pipe. the burning in on the shadows esp on the rt of her chin and the left of her nose across her cheek and under her lip. she looks bruised and like she took a 2x4 to the face a few times

[MrRyan]

fantacmet,

It looks like you gave her the old dodge and burn treatment. On one hand, you have a pretty good understanding of D&B'ing something from one light source. Mostly you made good choices in where to add highlights and shadows.

I'd ask you to try to retouch more of the image. Play with a few different ideas you have, or techniques you've learned from others. There is RARELY a WRONG way in photoshop. You just have to be able to sell YOUR look to the client.

As for your overall technique on THIS image: Typically, the image gets a "fix-up" before it gets a "beautify." Go through the unretouched image, and clean up the skin (removing imperfections), clean up the hair, clean up the background. Then, work on the exposure of the image a little bit, getting the balance right for what you're trying to achieve. Then, you can work on a color a bit, and THEN you get into the smoothing of skin, etc.

Think of it like a recipe. You want to ensure you have fresh, clean ingredients, before you try some culinary wizardry. Keep it up!

[NitaNZ]

To me the colouring is overdone. I would ty & lighten it & then soften the photo. The end result will be what you yourself like best.

[byRo]

I'm sorry, but I'll have to say it....The original looks a lot better than the retouched version.

This is a delightful image and you missed a great opportunity to do something special because, it seems, you were only worried about (over)using D&B.

There are so many other things more important, like cropping, colour (& histogram) balance, lighting, composition.

Attached is a version with no D&B at all (just a touch of deGrunge to calm down the skin).

Rô

[fantacmet]

It's not that I was worried about overusing it, but rather that I've never considered using D&B before. Even if ti was only a start, I doubht I will be using it again. I have other ways to retouch. As for the color tone, balance and lighting those were all done how I wanted them. Depending on the photo I prefer the cooler end of the color spectrum, as opposed to most who seem to try and go as warm as possible.

This model is great, and she has good ihgh res photo's, but they usually tend to be rather grainy. Still working on how to get rid of the grainy part of a digital photo. I'll upload another one soon, of a normal retouch for me. This was my first and last time with D&B.


Ok this is more in line with how I usually retouch.
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...1retouch-1.jpg

[byRo]

Originally Posted by fantacmet

This was my first and last time with D&B.

That's not quite what I meant. D&B is a great tool, and it is well worth the time spent to master it. The problem is that some folks end up thinking it is the only way to go.

Rô

[Aleksman71]

I would recommend to remove some hard shadows.

[fantacmet]

Originally Posted by byRo

That's not quite what I meant. D&B is a great tool, and it is well worth the time spent to master it. The problem is that some folks end up thinking it is the only way to go.

Rô

Dang the daults of text, LOL. I know it's not what you meant, but after trying it I really don't like it and I feel that I can pretty much get the effect I'm looking for without it. I kept hearing everyone talk about how great it was(yup media hype LOL) so I thought I would give it a shot.

While I did post the pic here asking, I thought it looked terrible, but then others see things in a way we don't. For instance I build plastic models, mostly tanks and the like. When I try to replicate scratches on my own stuff, to me it just looks like stray paint, but as happens when I view other peoples works, to them it looks like scratches. Perhaps because I'm the one who put it on, so my minds eye can't get over the fact of what it is. While I thought the pic looked terrible, I figured what the heck, maybe someone else will see it differently.

As for the stark shadows, sometimes I like them, and sometimes I don't. I felt it fit with this image, but of course there may be some bias there as this is only PART of the image, the rest of it is not appropriate for this site and forum.

Speaking of which I kind of forgot on the copyright of that, but I know the model so she won't kill me for being late, her name is lockstock on deviantart.com. There we go, now in compliance with her copyright.