A picture (realistic portrait) to work on.

[_jason_]

Ok, here is a nice picture.

high resolution picture:
http://test.dizainer.net/makeover.jpg

The person on this portrait is a 45 years young woman. (I made this photo myself and the person on the photo, a friend of mine, gave permission to publish it.) The shot very good covers the personality of this person. This is why I picked it up for further editing.

So destination of the "makeover" should be realism and emphasis on the character this photograph expresses.

It definitely should not drive into an extreme "beauty", "fashion" or "art" style of photograph. Although a little bit of retouching makeup can be applied. It also won't be a good idea to try to shift the age of this person down to 25 or such...

But all kind of improvement including smoothing the signs of ageing is welcome.

There are some global corrections necessary too. The lighting is somewhat hard and the horizon got slightly out of angle. Some makeup was applied prior the shooting to equalize the skin and model some anatomic depth to certain parts of the face.

Emphasis of this work should be on the eyes and entire facial expression.
The person definitely has to be kept recognisable.

Able to master that?

(PS: This isn't a commercial project. For certain reasons, publishing the results of any recognisable modifications - except here - may need our explicit permission.)

Jason Webs, Germany
Makeup Artist and Photographer

[The_Leena]

What do you mean by this message? Are we supposed to work on this picture and send it to you once thw work is done? Or what?

[_jason_]

You can use it for retouching work and we can discuss the results for learning from each other. It's just that simple.

I've done a retouching of that picture already.

[The_Leena]

Still, not getting it. What could I learn from you if you don't retouch?

[_jason_]

I do retouch. And I am learning every day.

Dear The_Leena, if you do not want to participate on this thread, so please ignore it. It's just that simple.

[crazyfly1]

Man, something in the water this week I guess.
Anyway, Jason thank you for the image. Things seem kinda slow in the image help, restoration, and retouching forums right now so I appreciate the opportunity to play for a while. I'll work on it and post in a day or so.

[0lBaldy]

Not for high-end fashion but good enough for home use I think...

Luminosity masks on curves layers with a bit of healing and patching

~~Original~~My Version~~

[_jason_]

WOW! She got nice lashes, man!

I really like the hair now! It looks so glossy. Fantastic.
You did all that with luminosity masks?

Some little critics too: I think the skin looks slightly too artificial now. Maybe you could adjust the "healing and patching" layer somewhat with opacity to the original?

I often do that technique: I create a completely smoothed layer with healin and patchin and then I blend it into the original. This way it is possible to adjust the amount of "ageing" amd make the entire picture looking more natural and less artificial...
...and the model may select the amount of "Botox Injection Intensity" she wants. *smile*

I tried that blending with blurin (and masking that blur layer out) too, but the result mostly did not satisfy me...

Nice work! I like it. Some aspects that fascinate me. I definately want to learn how that hair glossing works!

Jason

[_jason_]

Ok, here is a completely different approach to the source image.

I have to emphasize that there is NO RETOUCHING in the common sense applied yet. The source picture was not edited/corrected in any way yet - except it was rotated to correct the horizon. But nevertheless it has changed obviously drastically...

The only thing I did is, to apply a "makeup" as an overlay technique.
The makeup (I am certified makeup artist too) was supposed to do the following:

- Adding more depth to the scene (in the manner of sculpting anatomic as known as "lights and shadows".

- Intensifying the expression and correcting some certain things with only makeup overlays and blending modes

- eye catching to certain parts (the eyes in that case)

- all that without modifying the source image

The thing I wanted to prove with this work is: Can smart applying of makeup as a step of retouching improve the image? Can it hide some aspects of "beauty imperfection" of a source significantly? Is it even possible to drive the view away from some imperfections?

Well, What`s your opinion?
I know, that is more a evangelistic question anyhow... *smile*

To make it clear yet.
I want to edit the source image finally to really bring to top it's beauty. This means I will correct the source image with proved makeover techniques and finally combine this with my makeup overlays (which may vary then).

So the purpose here is to learn how to modify the picture in a most appealing way.

[_jason_]

PS: I still do not know, how to add two or more pictures for a comparsion as an attachment here ...

[crazyfly1]

Jason, in the ad pic box just ad a second pic after the first is up'd

[robmac]

Given this one a go.

[_jason_]

@crazyfly1:
Well, that even seems to not to be...
I am working with Firefox 3.0.1.

But thank you very much!
(Maybe I've overseen that...)

[_jason_]

Originally Posted by robmac

Given this one a go.

Impressive!!!
Sadly it is so small.

I really do not want to steal anyones work here. Believe me!
But I'd like to do a closer look at that. (We all for sure.)

Really nice shading and the eyes are so magic!
It became so glamurous anyhow!!!
Fantastic.

Would you say samething to the techniques you have used?

[_jason_]

addition: I like the way you left some wrinkles too with this edit. This very much gives/keepes the shot (and thus the person) some character.

[crazyfly1]

Jason, I'm on the newest version of firefox. Browse, select file, upload, browse, select file, upload. Maybe you have to be a senior member, I don't remember.

Here is my try. Some basic skin cleaning and wrinkle reduction. Averaged the skin color to get rid of some yellow. Sharpened the eyes and added dark rings around them with burn tool. Shrunk the nose and bloated the eyes in liquify. Oh and I replaced one eyebrow with the other. The background is a complimentary color to the eye color I did using a color wheel action.

[_jason_]

Oh nice!

There are many aspects I thought about also. Like bloating the eyes and schrinking the nose and even the shape of the chin and neck. I like the subtility with you've done it.

Yes there was a problem with the light, intruding some yellow...

I think changing the background still needs a completley different technique or refinement, because actually it is distorting the entire good retuching work somehow (around the hair).

She definately looks younger now.

[crazyfly1]

You are absolutely right about the background Jason, the mask I used was not bad I just didn't take any time refining the blend. I like a phrase Chris Orwig uses (endlessly) "subtle yet significant". I tend to over do so I do almost everything on a layer and then back it off with opacity.

[robmac]

Originally Posted by _jason_

Impressive!!!
Sadly it is so small.

I really do not want to steal anyones work here. Believe me!
But I'd like to do a closer look at that. (We all for sure.)

Really nice shading and the eyes are so magic!
It became so glamurous anyhow!!!
Fantastic.

Would you say samething to the techniques you have used?

thank you for your kind words. She does have beautiful eyes! Sorry about the size As far as techniques go this was done using
selective adjustment curves a bit of d&b and cloning, the usual really and then some sharpening. I didnt spend that long on it so there are still many stray hairs and things i would work on with more time.
thanks

robmac

[Cupcake]

Here is my try with the realistic picture.
Pretty eyes!

[robmac]

Hi , a slightly bigger more finished version...

[haymelter]

Hi Everyone, this is my first time at loading to this site for critique please be kind,
I softened around the eyes to reduce wrinkles as the model is not smiling, ladies of this age do not want strong lines, I know because this could be me. I darkened her lips and enlarged her eyes.

[ezprod]

I always feel that a retoucher should stay true to both the model and the photog so basically this is my two cents. If a model has wrinkles she should still have wrinkles. They shouldnt overpower but she should still look like her. I did a little color balance, a reduction of flaws and smoothing of skin tone and texture .

With more time, I would fix the hair on her neck and any flyaways around the top.

[Gary]

I did make some 'glam' changes ... hopefully, not too much.

Thanks for the post.


Cheers!

[Flashtones]

I found "reality" a challenge because the starting image was so hot on the cheek and not in great focus. (oops, and I didn't notice there was a higher rez version till after the fact.) A RAW, or a flatter rendition, would have provided a better starting point.

[_jason_]

Yes, the web version of the picture has been too much blured on scaling down from the original, which actually is good in focus.

So many response!
I did not expect that.

I think, there is a clear favourit.
But each work has something interesting in it.

It is also very interesting to see, how different retouchers see things different.

Thanks to all, participating on the thread!

Jason

[_jason_]

Originally Posted by ezprod

I always feel that a retoucher should stay true to both the model and the photog so basically this is my two cents. If a model has wrinkles she should still have wrinkles. They shouldnt overpower but she should still look like her...

Good point! Sometimes wrinkles even make the picture!

It very often happened to me, that I found pictures with old people estonishing appealing and interesting. Even more interesting than those unified "super lifted" beauty models, who finally look all the same and even boring to me...

[tom60634]

Tried to keep your model's age the same.

I looking to give her a romantic, smoky (?) look.

The lushness of her hair and the way it was featured gave me direction.

[ME_wwwing]

still learning how to post

[ME_wwwing]

a tad here and there. to much for you?

http://www.pbase.com/me_wwwing/image/122333628