My kids photos to retouch

[Tareq]

Hey again,

Here are 2 shots of my 2 daughters looking for retouch.

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9387/a0001426.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/822/a0001381.jpg

[Frank Lopes]

Tareq,

retoucpro.com is basically a learning forum where members post their best efforts and others critique/guide/help with suggestions and recommendations.

Don't expect the members to do the retouching for you.

If you need guidance, post what you accomplished and the members will be more than helpful in giving you ideas on how to improve your work.

Originally Posted by Tareq

Hey again,

Here are 2 shots of my 2 daughters looking for retouch.

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9387/a0001426.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/822/a0001381.jpg

[lurch]

Hi Frank,
Tareq usually posts photos for people to practice on. He's pretty good at doing retouching himself.

And I thought I was the leach nazi!

[Flotsam]

two girls composite

[Tareq]

Originally Posted by lurch

hi frank,
tareq usually posts photos for people to practice on. He's pretty good at doing retouching himself.

And i thought i was the leach nazi!

Yes ;-)
But also from people retouching i can learn what they are retouch, not necessary how they retouch, sometimes i retouch the wrong parts or wrong way, giving guidance only by text may not helping me as not everything i can understand, the best way for me to learn is by to watch [or see samples/results].

[Tareq]

Originally Posted by MiningArt

Thanks for the practice. Two very lovely smiles.

Thank you very much for the comment!
I like your attempt, thanks again.

[pdelavigne]

Hi Tareq,

I think that work in this way is a very sensitive matter to any retoucher!
It´s a matter of taste and of what exactly the client is looking for !
Anyway, at the risk to not please you, and your daughter, I made a try !

I think that the beauty retouch must be as subtle as possible, so as accordingly to the age of the model ! For your daughter, I didn´t think nothing so glamorous as it would be for an adult model ! I hope she likes !
cheers

[pdelavigne]

I don´t know how to add the file ! Let´s try again !

[andyong]

my try on this one...cute girl.

[andyong]

and this beautiful girl...

[acsi]

I don't know, I think the best retouch was the originals, and nearly every version here blew out the quality and beauty of the originals, not adding anything really. Just my opinion. Maybe the goes to prove the best retouch is to have nice lighting like Tareq had to begin with.

[pdelavigne]

Hi Acsi,
maybe you´re right about some degradations on quality, but, about the lighting
you could see that, in every version, you could note that everyone had applyed some fill , thus everyone agree that it´s lacking in the original.

[MiningArt]

Originally Posted by acsi

I don't know, I think the best retouch was the originals, and nearly every version here blew out the quality and beauty of the originals, not adding anything really. Just my opinion. Maybe the goes to prove the best retouch is to have nice lighting like Tareq had to begin with.

I agree about taking good originals, but as far as I know originals are never used for production, they are all retouched or enhanced is some fashion. I wish everyone would use a blue or green screen for their photos. Personally, I already know that as a beginner my versions won't amount to much. Maybe after trying and learning a year from now things will improve. I appreciate the photos being offered for practice and evaluation. There are areas of the photos that could be improved upon., John

[0lBaldy]

I will breach the sensitive subject..... I believe these photos would be great practice for hair removal.. plucking the eyebrows, removing lip hair, removing arm hair, removing forehead hair.... all invisibly.. leaving the photos as is as far as skin texture and tone.. minus the extraneous hair...

I would post a sample of what I mean, BUT, I am not skilled enough at removing the hair without screwing up the original and mottling or blurring the skin, so I am using them for practice, trying to improve my skills and remove the hair whilst retaining the original texture and skin tone. (Maybe a link to a higher resolution, like the original RAW would help... what do you think Tareq?)

These are also good photos to practice on for removing the bra strap on the shoulder and under the arm, cleaning teeth, and making the eyes pop,... among other things..

Thanks for the usage Tareq!

[LonK]

Your daughters are getting lovelier everyday. And your photography is improving as well. Keep up the good work...

[0lBaldy]

Well, I'm gonna bite the bullet and post a WIP anyway!

These pretty girls were done mostly with the healing tool and the Clone tool set at lighten..

Tareq, I like the way your dishdashas provides a 3d effect in the eyes... But, in the future maybe you should be aware of your reflection when wearing white and taking a portrait.

I will work on the other beauty a bit later in the week..

[julius]

I find it in serious bad taste that some of you retouchers are removing the birth mark off the right side of this girls face. She can't even be 10 years old yet.

Tareq, please don't show those photos to your kids..

[Flotsam]

I heartily agree Julius.
Plus hair removal etc.

[mikedimples]

I think your daughter is just beautiful, not to mention the top quality photography. I wish I could take a portrait like that. Mind sharing your lighting setup?

I thought many of the previous attempts were overdone. I tried to enhance her natural childlike beauty, and I hope I didn't go too far.

Maybe I'll get a chance to practice on your other daughter if I get some free time!

[mikedimples]

I don't know why my image got darker/more orange after I posted it. I thought I'd had this color space thing figured out!

Here's how I wanted it to look. What bugged me about the original was how loud and overpowering her red blouse was because of the grey background. I don't know if you know this, so sorry if I sound like a know-it-all, but when a color is placed directly touching a medium value grey background, it appears to increase in saturation. It's an illusion, but it seriously made that red blouse RED. This intense red placed next to her skin color made it look kind of green, because of the contrast.

I decided to tone down the red top and warm up the skin tones. Because I didn't save the full resolution image and only the 100K size, repairing it from the strange mistake version took it's toll on quality. Just ignore the strange transition between her and the BG.

[mikedimples]

I way overdid it, didn't I? Looks like straight out of a kid-beauty pageant.

[Sweetlight]

First of all, your kids are beautiful, wow. They photograph very well.
A lot of nice work here. I think some of you need to watch those black backrounds as your getting a huge color shift to green and it's a bit distracting. This can happend for a lot of reasons but a lot of times it's because there is no true black in your worked image. If you want to leave it gray, that is fine but I would remove that green. Just my very humble opinion.

c

[MiningArt]

Originally Posted by Sweetlight

I think some of you need to watch those black backrounds as your getting a huge color shift to green and it's a bit distracting. This can happend for a lot of reasons but a lot of times it's because there is no true black in your worked image. If you want to leave it gray, that is fine but I would remove that green. Just my very humble opinion.
c

I didn't notice the green, but when I worked on the colors I noticed that the background was flashed. I removed the background and flooded it with black.

[mikedimples]

Looking closer at the original, the girl almost has a green cast like she was lit with florescent lighting. I wonder why that is?

[Tareq]

Hi there,

WOW, didn't think this thread will go that further way, i thought i will get only 3-5 posts as maybe no many will be interested in this thread.

Anyway, first to talk about my lighting setup.

It is only 1 light setup, only 1, no reflector or more than 2 lights, i used Beauty Dish[22"] with sock, little above the camera to the left of the camera a bit, i was looking just to work with 1 light as i am not good in lighting and working with many lights while i don't know how to work with 1 is not a good idea, and i am sure all people will say to add fill if using 1 light only, anyway, i know it needs fill light and i can use either another head or a reflector but i didn't.

Second, here are the 2 shots files in DNG, i converted from the RAW file so anyone can use it on any RAW software.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ymhzuhnbkdm

http://www.mediafire.com/?dltomjtkh21