Retouch-Retouch

[goolug]

Here you go.
http://imgur.com/5c202.jpg

Before:
http://imgur.com/8b83d.jpg

[goolug]

Nobody's interested.

[Doug Nelson]

Perhaps if you told us what you were looking for...

[goolug]

Well, I was going to answer questions, post screenshots of curves and hue adjustments, tell people how I did this and that...

[David Stevenson]

Excellent work! I'm waiting what your workflow was. I rarely comment in writing on work done here, butb yours deserves it.

[goolug]

Thanks a ton.

I'll upload a psd of what I've done.
This one was easy and was done in about 1.5 hours. Mostly D&B and lots of adjustment layers.

I'm thinking of making some sort of a tutorial if you guys want.

[JDH]

I would be very interested in seeing a tutorial for this

[Der_W]

I like it :-).
Just one little thing: on the ground right next to his body there are little signs of cloning that I'd get rid of.

Really looking forward to your tutorial and psd-file :-)!

[robmac]

Look forward to it.

[Tony W]

I really do like this character portrait. If it is your original work congratulations a job well done.

Sorry but, seems that I am the only voice of dissent - I am not very keen on the treatment of the original. Of course this is just my opinion and I do realise that this type of 'look' seems to be popular at the moment.

The original I would agree needs a bit more punch to emphasise the character but for me the loss of highlight detail and texture available in the original is unacceptable.

I would have taken a different route with this and try to add punch without losing too much detail.

Of course it may be that a client has described the look and you have achieved exactly what is needed, and if you and the client are both happy then great!

Trying to understand your intent here - so a few of questions:

1. Was it intentional to loose texture/detail?
2. Was it intentional to loose detail in highlights?
3. The face looks quite yellow were you looking to mimic late sunlight?

Hope you do not take this too personally as it is not my intention to insult but rather to learn - in this case the mindset that led to the interpretation

[robmac]

Ah Tony W, I didn't say I liked it more than the first, just that I look forward to seeing the psd/tutorial.
I prefer the before too.

[Juice Box]

I think it looks great. Post the PSD!

[goolug]

Tony,

As for me, I'd do a whole another version of this image, but the client wanted this burnt skin, oversaturated colors and all these popular details some people're obsessed with nowadays.

So, I lost some texture on his cheeks, turned it into complete highlight, but I saw what I was doing so I assume we can call it "intentional".

I mean, I did this image and I like the result, otherwise the result would be different, right? So, everything that was done was done on purpose.This image is to be used in print advertising and the client approved it after a couple of edits. So, everyone's happy and I'll post the psd today.

I'm sorry, if my message seems awkward - I just woke up and got to work.

[Tony W]

Fair comment and understand the 'Client is King'. Message seems fine to me

Looking forward to seeing the steps you took on this one

[goolug]

Allright, here's the psd:
http://www.mediafire.com/?07y3y9k7feqq92j

I didn't include the initial retouching layer with all the blemishes removal - it's easy and was done with small size healing brush.
For initial skin tone smoothing I used Clone stamp on very low opacity - it gives you only the tone and color without copying any particular details.

The whole thing took about 1.5 hours.

[Juice Box]

Good man! I wish there were more people looking to help on this site. Thanks alot.

[Tony W]

goolug, thanks for posting will have a look tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Juice Box

...I wish there were more people looking to help on this site.....

AFAIK everyone here will help or at least give an opinion - are you sure you mean this site??

[Juice Box]

Its very possible I'm getting confused, however some threads aren't a teaching session. It's here is what I did...but I wont show you how.

[Tony W]

Have to say that has not been my experience here, forum members have always been forthcoming with help and explanation for those who want to learn more. Many threads may not actually be intended as a teaching session, however I would like to think that the majority of posters are prepared to show you how they achieved something (rather than just showboat!) - if not then why post!

[Tareq]

When i come to this website i sometimes thinking, should i convert to become a retoucher or stay as a photographer if i want to make it serious or a professional career, and always i am thinking and/or even believing that if i want to be a professional in photography then i need a pro retoucher, so all what i am looking for here is either i have to choose retouching path or to find a retoucher for my works if i want to go higher with photography, i can't become both if some of you here can.

[Juice Box]

Goolug,
thanks for sharing the PSD for your image. I have a question why are the layers clipped? Is that how you were taught? is there any benefit to this?

[goolug]

Just a good habit. With this particular image there was no need to do that.

[Lo_45]

Thanks goolug for sharing. It is always helfpful and interesting to see how others work and get their results.
Great picture and editing...!

[pelukkas]

Goolug,
Than you for sharing the PSD, good job indeed.

[garnet01]

Goolug
Might sound stupid but if you kept the colour layers above the edit layers it'll make it easier for yourself to make future edits.
I've attached a png
Gareth

[goolug]

Originally Posted by garnet01

Goolug
Might sound stupid but if you kept the colour layers above the edit layers it'll make it easier for yourself to make future edits.
I've attached a png
Gareth

Can not agree at all. I first fix separate parts of the image like hat, eyes, lips, boobs, whatever, and then I do color correction for the whole picture - this way I can control everything and all the parts will be in one color tone.

Thanks.

Sasha.

[garnet01]

So if you need to alter vibrance 1, colour balance 1, hue/saturation 1 or curves 1, you will have to alter the colour of the drawn blue sky RT. All I'm saying is that if it was repositioned to be above blood for example it would be simpler for you. Keep the overall layers over the top, the masked layers below and the retouching below that.
Gareth

[lkroll]

Learned a lot of lessons while trying to fake a Dave Hill (of course, I pushed the Saturation a lot more here). Used a similar flow that I posted a XCF (GIMP) file at the following thread.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/gmic/di...7625738397752/

[secretagents]

5 minutes of tonemapping fun.

[crater]

Here is my atempt on this photo.


if somebody is interested here is PSD file.