I need Critique

[Heavynne]

Hi there,
I just joined- though i have been here for a thousand times for reading. I like retouching, i do it for fun. Though it is not really important, i love doing it and i would like to become more advanced. I've been reading and watching billions of tutorials. Most of it say "Blur" or "Median Noise" and since i'm over my that fase now (lol) i learned just not to. I have been trying to master the D&B technique but it requires a lot of time and practicing, and i never get the result i would like to have. Oh well, to say it shortly: I need critique! I really want to be betetr at this ! files below. Any questions about it are welcome. Please take a look and critique, i would be glad

~Heavynne.
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After:http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/692/afterehr.jpg
Before:http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/775/beforee.jpg

[crazyfly1]

Re: I need Critique

Very restrained retouch. What you did, you did well. I think you could have evened (not smothed) the skin texture more. There is a dark line around the corners of the mouth that bothers me. I would take out the shiny spot above the top lip under the nose. You could do more to bring out the eyes, sharpening and ringing the irises for example. You might also want to even the hair line at the forehead.
All depends on where you want to go with it.

[Heavynne]

Re: I need Critique

Very restrained retouch. What you did, you did well. I think you could have evened (not smothed) the skin texture more. There is a dark line around the corners of the mouth that bothers me. I would take out the shiny spot above the top lip under the nose. You could do more to bring out the eyes, sharpening and ringing the irises for example. You might also want to even the hair line at the forehead.
All depends on where you want to go with it.

Okay, thanks much for the comment. Usually i do much more with the eyes such as change color, brightening etc. I tried with this one but it just got a fake look around it so.. As i said, i'm not yet really good or something, so for the eyes i can't really do different techinques.. Getting a right, realistic colour can be so hard. thanks !!

[0lBaldy]

Re: I need Critique

I worked on your retouch.. Hope you don't mind..
loosely selected the Iris's with a 3px feather then ctrl+J to put them on their own layer then just sharpened them till the popped just a bit..
Got rid of the distracting highlights that seemed to draw the eye away from the girls eyes..

Like Crazyfly said the retouches were very subtle but in my opinion she lost the nice cheek bones so I brought them back just a tiny bit..

Oh yea I smoothed the bump on the ear that was in the light..

I think other than the above... you did great in leaving most of the pretty model as the natural beauty that she is.... Good Job!

YourRetouch~~MyPlay

[crazyfly1]

Re: I need Critique

Nice job OlBaldy, I didn't notice the cheek till I saw your before and after.

[Southbay]

Re: I need Critique

...she lost the nice cheek bones so I brought them back just a tiny bit..

Good call. Not such a subtle difference when you point it out like that. Really changes the face, IMO.

[cruel.frames]

Re: I need Critique

Hello,
Nice work! I appreciate the time you put in it. I also like the original photo, the model also has flawless skin.
There are a few things that bother me a bit. First of all, it's the "soft darkening" of all edges of the face. It does create 3D feel to the image, but in a fake way. It seems quite unnatural to me. I friend of mine showed me a training dvd that was supposed to teach people to do high-end retouching and this "technique" was also used there, and I found it quite misleading. Instead of creating your own shadows, I found it better to just modify the real shadows of the face in case I need contrast. Changing completely the shadows will eventually change the structure of the face itself and as far as I know, this is not considered *pro*.

The other things are minor. I think you could have worked more on the eyes and lips. Bring more contrast to them, make them more "sparkling"

Well these are the things that come to my mind. I hope that you'll find something useful there
Take care and continue working!

[DJSoulglo]

Re: I need Critique

I never do critiques, but here goes.

I like what you've done, however I've attached a difference between the original and the retouched version and it's just not very much.

Your skin is still quite blotchy as in there's weird red bits and it's just very uneven. Also you need to put a visualising curve on top to check what's going on (very dark or very light so you can see things you don't normally see) then you'll notice that there's still a weird kind of fabric or something in the background.

Her hair's a bit of a mess, flyaways everywhere and loads of crosshairs.

Her lips need a bit of smoothing, just taking out little spots, skin underneath her mouth is very bumpy. The hair on her forehead is distracting and can easily be removed.

Also the hair behind her head (ponytail or bun) is a different color than the rest of her hair. The skin above her mouth is very shiny which can nice, but it's a bit too much away from the highlights.

Also have a look at her jawline, which is nice, but seems a bit bumpy on the left side (right side of her face)

Here's a quick retouch map of areas that you could look at:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/DaWiel/afterehr.jpg

Not trying to be rude, just sayin that you're on the right track and with some more tweaks (timeconsuming ones) this image could look really good.

[Heavynne]

Re: I need Critique

Thanks all for the comments. I'm trying to use all of the critiques for my coming ones..