First Retouching...(gulp)...

[angeloabary]

Hi All,

Just want to ask for critiques about my first retouching. after careful research and some practice i finally have the courage to show everyone what i come up with. retouching on this image took me about 1 1/2 hours to finish. the before and after is attached.

BTW photo's are not mine. i used some photographers stock raw for imaging. i wasnt able to get his name i think its in the photos as well i think i got his photo here on retouhpro or modelmayhem.

thanks for the photos!

[kav]

Re: First Retouching...(gulp)...

You're editing an image that appears to have been edited to however the photographer or whoever wanted it. I kind of like deeper skintones, although that seems a bit overdone. Is that basically the extent of what you did to it?

[angeloabary]

Re: First Retouching...(gulp)...

Hi Kav,

Yes I wanted to achieve that brown tan look thats the look im aiming for. does it overdone?according to the author of the photo its raw straight out of the camera so im guessing its not yet touched.(i hope its not)

[kav]

Re: First Retouching...(gulp)...

It looked a bit adjusted. Anyway the way you went about it makes the photo feel heavy to me, especially the blown out white that is now off white. Did you just slide an exposure slider to the left as part of the adjustment? I'm mildly curious how you got the skintone. It does look like a tan version of the model in the original. It's just you have to make it feel like the image still has some range. Right now it just feels like a dark image.

[angeloabary]

Re: First Retouching...(gulp)...

yeah i did slide the exposure down a bit. looks like a wrong move...i wanted to get more details on the blown out white but turns out it darkens the image some more. do you think this type of retouching only works on outdoor like beaches or anything like that?not inside a studio? coz i also think that retouching also needs to have a feel and this one is not the right feel for it what do you think?

[kav]

Re: First Retouching...(gulp)...

Grrr I just lost the response I was writing. When I look at it again I like the skintone, but it still feels dark and flat. Some of this is a balance issue. I can give you some notes, but your interpretation might be totally different than what I'm thinking. There's also the thing that the way these images look evolves as you work. Some of the highlights are a bit weird on the darker version. I would look at other photos for reference. You have certain highlights that naturally occur at the frontal bone of the skull and fall off prior to mid brow. It's also normal for them to occur on the bridge of the nose and below the orbicularis. I just don't like the shapes being created here or some of the falloffs. The darker image kind of emphasizes this in a bad way. I dislike the second catchlight in the eyes. I would probably want to make the gaze more focused by giving the iris more definition and evening out lashes. Knuckle highlights feel a little bright to me. I might deepen some shadows to provide better contours. Really it's just a matter of looking at seeing what shapes you like or if you like the effect of certain highlights and things. At the same time these changes made have to remain synergetic. The other important thing is that you don't let the tools themselves drive your creative judgement on things. Depending too much on the technology is one of the reasons you see so much bad work.

[angeloabary]

Re: First Retouching...(gulp)...

Yes Please I would like to get more insights, notes, techniques etc that can help me better improve my retouch skills as i would want to do more retouches in the future and maybe even get some income if some people like my work. i would really want some more experienced people like you to help me get to a much more professional way of doing this kind of work. I will try to put more examples of retouch practice that i do and hope that i am improving little by little with retouch pro's help.

Thanks so much
Angelo