I Need Your Opinion

[alshaiji]

Hello all
I need your opinion about my retouched image attached.
It took me a while so i really need your comments

Thats it

BEFORE

AFTER

Thanks

Alshaiji

[DJSoulglo]

I think you said it best yourself:

"As you said about keeping some "realism" i like that so much. Let us see the before and after so we can see how much "realism" was kept in the final image."

Apply those thoughts to what you've done here and what do you think yourself? Does this look real? Does this look like an actual person?

I think if you can't answer those questions yourself, than me giving critique will be useless.

[pumpkincat210]

I think you should have kept her natural skin tone. As well as giving her skin more texture. (a problem i myself am working on). Also her skin could use some evening out in color, yet still have the shadows in the proper places. You also lost some of her hair highlights which were pretty. And I think the glasses were cute on her, no need to get rid of them, but it's really up to you.

[alshaiji]

DJSoulglo
pumpkincat210
Thanks for the comment
the main challenge was removing the glasses. when doing so I ended up with mixed skin tone which was hard to even out.
I totally agree with you about the realism part, if i kept the glasses I would get a more realistic look.

this is a version with the glasses on

let me see what do you think
thanks

alshaiji

[pumpkincat210]

I would also clean up her hair frizzies around the edges and work on evening her skin tone and smoothing it out. You probably will have to go back and add texture. I like the clone stamp tool for getting rid of blemishes. After that depending on the photo, I make sure the image is flattened, duplicate the layer, then go into filters>>blur>>surface blur and put the top slider on 40 and the bottom on 15, press okay. Then in my palette box i reduce the opacity to around 50%. With a soft round eraser brush I set the opacity on 70 and go over her facial highlights. Then i switch the eraser to 100% and go over her hair, eyes, lips, clothes and background. This method works on some photos, but there are a million ways to smooth out skin. You just have to find the one that works best with the photo. I still have alot to learn though.

[alshaiji]

pumpkincat210
thanks for the tip

alshaiji

[Cuervo79]

First you have to answer what results you're interested in. A specific look? Fantasy? Realism?

Each technique is for a certain result, the surface blur technique pumpkincat mentioned works to achieve a certain look.

Here are a couple of other techniques that will help you get other kinds of looks.

Link for the degrunge tutorial
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=213

Link for the D&B tutorial
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=272

[alshaiji]

Cuervo79
you are 100% right about asking yourself about the results first
I kinda narrow it down to "clean output" to start with then I go from there

Thanks for stopping by


alshaiji

[aartist]

I like your example with the glasses on. Nix for the other.