Retouched But I need some help

[taylor2nd]

This is my first post here been lurking + this is where i learnt the basics of photo retouching.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/taylorg/3459450108/

Okay I retouched this image i shot last night n there are 2 things

@home it look quite bright however everyone else tells me the image seems a bit dark.. looked at it on my work pc this morning n it does in fact seem dark.. So i think my monitor is too bright.

Secondly I can see a clear difference in the colors on the left edge of the models face.. (original color n color after smoothing and masking in details with black brush on white layer mask.

[MooNy214]

For the monitor - get DVI cable! Urgently. (DVI cable practically auto-calibrates EVERYTHING on your monitor so what YOU see is the actual image, the actual colors, etc)
For the image i think you should increase the contrast of the red channel (just a few points arround five) and lift a bit the rgb curve.
I think the outcome is a bit better (on yur original size would look gorgeous)
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gx1M_O40

[chillin]

Originally Posted by MooNy214

For the monitor - get DVI cable! Urgently. (DVI cable practically auto-calibrates EVERYTHING on your monitor so what YOU see is the actual image, the actual colors, etc)

... + spider or huey.

[taylor2nd]

Originally Posted by MooNy214

For the monitor - get DVI cable! Urgently. (DVI cable practically auto-calibrates EVERYTHING on your monitor so what YOU see is the actual image, the actual colors, etc)
For the image i think you should increase the contrast of the red channel (just a few points arround five) and lift a bit the rgb curve.
I think the outcome is a bit better (on yur original size would look gorgeous)
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gx1M_O40

Thanks for the help. However I'm already using a dvi cable. I will try the other steps you advised me to try.

Originally Posted by chillin

... + spider or huey.

Yeah somehow i think i need to invest in one.