My first retouch - Natalie Portman

[aquw 776]

I've decided to have a go at photo retouching. I wasn't sure where to start so I found a high resolution picture of Natalie Portman.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, along with any suggestions.

Before:
http://img160.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_893lo.jpg

After:
http://img11.imagevenue.com/img.php?...122_1146lo.jpg

Thanks in advance.

[amica999]

Welcome to RetouchPro, aquw, look around and enjoy. I am by no means a pro and have to admit that I looked at your before/after pics and it's hard to tell any difference, the skin color is still much too yellow and there are a lot of stray hairs around. Maybe it would help if you tell us what you aimed for in your retouch?

[aquw 776]

Hi thanks for your reply amica.

I wasn't aiming for anything drastic when I did this. If anything I wanted you to look at the after picture without seeing the before one, and not know that it'd be retouched. You've probably done this already, but you'll see best what's changed by opening both pics and flicking from one to the other. You probably won't notice much if you don't see them straight after each other.

As for the yellow, thanks for the suggestion. I'll have a go at that and re-post soon.

Thanks again!

[igot2pman]

Hello and welcome...

As for the clean up of the hair, you can see where you healed and have lost texture. As sugested, the flyaways should also be removed, not all but most.

The D&B on the other hand, is better (although simple).

The major thing here is that the white balance if off making her yellow. If your going for that, keep as is; but I corected her below. Didnt do anything elce but a light sharpen.

Hope it helps,
-Keven

[nevie]

I gave it a shot too. I agree that the stray hairs should be removed but I got a little lazy, ah well. I also really didn't like that purple background so I just made it neutral. I was just looking to color balance really. I lightened up a little too.

I think that you can make adjustments and still have the image look natural or like it wasn't retouched if that is what you are going for, You just have to be able to know when to stop.