Retouch this Picture to your hearts content

[204studios]

I figured I'd release a untouched photo for the world to try their hands at. Retouch the photo and repost it back here. I did this photo for the model in the picture this afternoon and will post my attempt tomorrow. I love doing this to other peoples photos so why not let others have fun with mine. Please credit Michael Herb and 204Studios if it ends up anywhere other then retouch Pro.

Thanks and happy photoshopping.

Oh by the way the preview is for PREVIEW PURPOSES! do not try to retouch that 100k POS. thanks

Click below for full res download

FULL RES DOWNLOAD

tiff-proof.jpg

Additionally if you would like critique from either myself or anyone else please put "what do you think" at the bottom of your post.

[LloydM]

Thanks for your generosity..

[Nasturtium]

This is the first time I attempted anything of this scope.

- changed catchlights according to Katrin Eismann's book. I think I need to find some other light patterns to emulate
I tried the clone tool to get rid of the unruly hair but the patch tool seemed to work better
dodged and burned the skin and color corrected it
to smooth the skin I used the patch tool mostly (I tried some other things first noise reduction filters/blurring but wasn't happy with that)
added a little bit of texture back with some blurred noise
I patched the left corner of her mouth where the lips were stuck together with a warped copy of the right corner, same method was used with the bit of skin than hung down in the center of her lip.
Smudged the unruly eyebrow hairs and the leftover hairs in the dark portion to the left

I need to study more. Thank you for this opportunity.

full res version on my Flickr account

Nancy

reuploaded Jan 29, 2010 - I restored the original catchlights and was a bit more aggressive about her neck. As far as under the eyes - even newborns have that little fold...

[aartist]

Normally I only do restoration work.
My first time working with a beautiful girl.
Gosh how I like them!

Maybe I should venture into retouching.
The girls sure do look pretty.
Thanks for the fun...

[masterlizzard]

Thanks you for letting us play with such a beautiful picture. I got lazy on the neck.

[lkroll]

Enjoyed the play (mainly like doing photo-art, but still need to keep my hands dirty with photo-retouch work too). Did some ACE, Grain Extract Overlay degrunging followed by Wavelet Decompose degrunging. Added some glow (in GIMP, dup, Grain merge with the resulting layer set to Saturation and then the resulting layer of that set to lighten) and did Dup Overlay blend to help with the contrast. Also some necessary healing brush work (where degrunging alone wasn't cutting it).

[MiningArt]

Gave it a try.

[ice7]

here's my "hyper-real" try.

do you mind if I use it in my retouch-port?

edit: added less baked version

[daitri]

well here is my try

[LloydM]

My try at it......... New to this type of retouching
Thanx 'Studio 204' ..

[leuallen]

My try.

Larry

[204studios]

I'm happy to see so many responses. Its great to see what a different set of eyes and hands does to my image. I'll give my critique to any of you that want it. I will not just start slinging out opinions unless there wanted. Let me know if you want and I'll tell you what i think. I'm no expert and I'm not claiming to be. I'm learning as are all of you. Here is my attempt. I delivered this retouch to the model and she was very happy.

I welcome comments and constructive criticism. Thanks to all. I look forward to seeing what else people can do.

Tiff-Retouch.jpg

Full view available at

Large Preview for the ultimate detail!!

[MiningArt]

24studios, It looks pretty good. The only distraction is the bright white circles in the eyes, so maybe take those out.

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by 204studios

I figured I'd release a untouched photo for the world to try their hands at. Retouch the photo and repost it back here.

Thanks and happy photoshopping.

Michael, Thank you for your Generosity!!

I had fun playing with your Photo!

Giant, Larger version here

[daaniieel]

I tried,I don't know.
I regret the lips.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/236/retoucht.png

[204studios]

Originally Posted by MiningArt

24studios, It looks pretty good. The only distraction is the bright white circles in the eyes, so maybe take those out.

"I'm going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there" - Office Space

Anyways catch lights are an important aspect of a photo. They are the specular highlights. they give depth and life to the eye. Without them the eye looks flat, lifeless and cartoony. everything reflective or wet gives off specular highlights. its essentially the light being reflected back towards your eye or camera lens. Below is an example of with and with out catch lights. I'd like to hear peoples opinions on the subject.

catch-light-example.jpg

[204studios]

Originally Posted by daaniieel

I tried,I don't know.
I regret the lips.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/236/retoucht.png

I agree with you 100% lips are just um... ya i'd say get rid of them and go back to the natural color. Your retouch could use alittle more time under the photoshop microscope. I picked this photo because it had alot of annoying fly away hair and posed a decent challenge. The hair is distracting and reduces the quality of the retouch. you also smoothed the face but not the neck. when this is done it creates a separation and draws your eye (or at least mine) to the unsmoothed area.

Michael

[lkroll]

Well I took you at your word this time. lol

Needs more work, but too lazy to go further.

[204studios]

Originally Posted by lkroll

Well I took you at your word this time. lol

Needs more work, but too lazy to go further.

LOL! golden girl for real! her eyes look like mini universes. I'll ask though... is your heart content now or should we expect a alien green bug eyed chick! wait.. maybe that will be my project!

Michael

[Nasturtium]

Originally Posted by 204studios

I picked this photo because it had alot of annoying fly away hair and posed a decent challenge.

thanks for the explanation. I thought maybe that was why you choose this particular picture. Those fly aways could have been much more easily dealt with before the capture. I like the sparkles you put in her eyes. If you have chance I'd like some C&C on mine

Can I invite the others to artify (yes it is so a word! :-)) my retouched version?

- Nancy

[daaniieel]

Originally Posted by 204studios

I agree with you 100% lips are just um... ya i'd say get rid of them and go back to the natural color. Your retouch could use alittle more time under the photoshop microscope. I picked this photo because it had alot of annoying fly away hair and posed a decent challenge. The hair is distracting and reduces the quality of the retouch. you also smoothed the face but not the neck. when this is done it creates a separation and draws your eye (or at least mine) to the unsmoothed area.

Michael

Thank you!
I had never had critics on my work,I appreciate it very very much.
And yeah I usually make some mistakes like those you already mentioned.
other than that is there anything in the photo that you think I should work on?
Actually,I might do it again later.so I'd like to know what else you/you guys think it needs to be done
And thanks,Michael.

[lkroll]

Green is my favorite color. lol

[204studios]

Originally Posted by Nasturtium

thanks for the explanation. I thought maybe that was why you choose this particular picture. Those fly aways could have been much more easily dealt with before the capture. I like the sparkles you put in her eyes. If you have chance I'd like some C&C on mine

Can I invite the others to artify (yes it is so a word! :-)) my retouched version?

- Nancy

V. artifies, artified, artifying, artification.

To make art.
To apply artistic techniques.

are you asking to have other people retouch and "mess" with your retouched version of my photo? if so then by all means, i just want credit for the photograph. if you meant something else please clarify.

As for you photo first off i notice the catch lights. they just don't work for me. They are to transparent, they should be near pure white as the lights would be the brightest object in the picture. In order to get catchlights where you have them you would need a large round very soft light source coming from both left and right sides positioned slightly above model. you would also need three small lights placed directly under the camera facing up. in short... the lighting doesn't match the catchlights.

Your skin smoothing is good, smooth yet retaining some texture. I would of fixed the bags under her eyes as perfectly smooth skin and bags don't really go together.

Excellent job at fixing the lips. I wasn't sure if she was trying to bite her lip or it just got stuck but it is something that in my opinion reduces the value of the image. Nice work

You smoothed the face but not the neck. Normally i don't smooth the neck nearly as much as the face but i still smooth it a little. Personally i feel its distracting.

The flyaways were removed nearly 100% however when at 100% zoom I see a few spot on the upper right side of the forehead that were missed. but that's just the perfectionist in me!

This picture originally wasn't selected for several reasons mainly the hair and the lips. but from what I've seem most people have done a great job at bringing this shot up from the bottom of the barrel.

[ice7]

here's a bit cleaner version, what do you think?

[204studios]

(sorry wrong quote!!!!! this is for daaniieel)

Ok... last one and I'm off to bed. I don't work much but when I do i like to be awake!

I'd say your on the right track with the retouch so far. Its just not done. go back and fix the hair, tone down those fire engine lips and smooth the neck a bit. Don't smooth the neck as much as the face but maybe at least 50 to 70 percent. Look at other photos in magazines and of course the internet. See what they have done.

I'd also say that her teeth don't need to be that white. That's Paula Deen white and that is bad! At least you could white balance off from them!

give it some more time and you will definitely be happier. I spent 3 days off and on with the image. I just couldn't decide on tones and whether or not it was "done"

Michael

[daaniieel]

Honestly,I'm a bit confused about what of these advices are towards me!

[ralph257]

Here is my try at it.
left the right eye for comparison of the doughnut .

[aartist]

OK, 204studios, let me have one of your critiques.
Please say something nice before the awful truth.

[amica999]

Thanks for the play. I am actually not retouching, but I thought I play for practice. Kindly comment if you please

Larger size here: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2522/...4292a279_o.jpg

Just uploaded there for comparison. Will take it down in a few days!

[204studios]

Originally Posted by ice7

here's a bit cleaner version, what do you think?

I have to say i like the "less baked" version alot better. I still think its abit to much. Perhaps reducing the saturation just a bit to reduce the red splotchyness <---i don't know if thats a word. perhaps adjust the red channel on a curves adjustment. but as I said before be careful as this can be tricky as I've found out!

You fixed most if not all the blemishes and areas of question except for the slight bags under her eyes. The skin looks alright. However, a full res version would give me the ability to look alot closer. I'm not sure how much texture you took away.

You cleaned up the flyaway hair very nicely.

This picture is a good example of how Less can be more in the end.

Good job

Michael