I need your opinion

[igiturf]

Hi, I have been learning retouching technics (like frequency separation or dodge and burn) for the last months and wanna hear your opinion about 2 images I have retouched the last week. Mainly I have been learning with internet tutorials.
I hope you can help me. Please be honest and I am sure I can learn with your comments and crictics. Thanks in advance.
Photo 1 after http://i1330.photobucket.com/albums/...ps88a47360.jpg
Photo 1 before
http://i1330.photobucket.com/albums/...psf4f2f65d.jpg

[igiturf]

Re: I need your opinion

Photo 2 after http://i1330.photobucket.com/albums/...ps75d11c6c.jpg
Photo 2 before http://i1330.photobucket.com/albums/...psa97fdca0.jpg

[chillin]

Re: I need your opinion

I would say-work on color correction.

[igiturf]

Re: I need your opinion

Thank you chillin

I think it could be better if I reduce the tan layer opacity. Do you think so?

[shumicpi]

Re: I need your opinion

I think your learning process in going in right way and very good job in doing that retouching. I am appreciating you.

[Mike Needham]

Re: I need your opinion

Hi igiturf. It seems like you are willing to use the right techniques to further your aims, I would now concentrate on mastering them.

More d&b is needed to even out the blotchy skin tones that you have introduced by the cloning/healing process. There is also the issue of a slight magenta hue to the skin, I'm not confident this is the right tone for the image.

If you want the PSD you are more than welcome to it for learning purposes, some of my colour layers are a little messy though!

I might add that beware of over retouching images of men especially, the character of the person with some flaws should shine through. The image I posted could be scaled back by a mask to lessen some of the retouching.

[shumicpi]

Re: I need your opinion

I do appreciate your try and I guess its pretty good.

[John Wheeler]

Re: I need your opinion

Hi igiturf
Since some comments were based on color correction, there is an underlying assumption that you are using a color managed workflow part of which is having a calibrated and profiled monitor. Otherwise, the colors others will see on their monitor will not match what you see on yours. So I suggest if you have not done so is to to the calibration/profiling process and best to use a solution from Xrite or Datacolor as I have found adjustments by eye to yield high variability in resulting accuracy. Just a suggestion.

[klev]

Re: I need your opinion

The things I see wrong here aren't the important point. What I see is the work of someone who copied things they saw on a youtube video of someone adjusting photos in photoshop. There is absolutely no regard for the choices made, and I don't see any real confidence in the actions. For example you pushed the girl's hair down yet it's not clear why. It still doesn't form a clean line. You also painted something to look like higher cheekbones, yet the way it's done doesn't work at all, and I don't think it's even a good idea. The color correction on the guy was obviously that silly set layer to softlight and desaturate, which was already tired and overdone ten years ago. My only advice here is to rethink what you believe would improve upon the base image, and what you are trying to convey to the potential audience of that image. Beyond that if you're trying to adjust facial structures, you should really have some idea what they look like. Otherwise just avoid doing so. It's far better to make progress toward mastering something conceptually rather than repeat what you saw others do. If you really do need to learn by repetition, you will at least need better reference material.

[Vernon]

Re: I need your opinion

I agree with klev's remarks, igiturf.

It's alright to begin learning retouching through online tutorials and sites such as RetouchPro; mimicking the methods gets you familiarized with the tools that will provide the respective effects, alterations, and changes you wish to apply.

But you ultimately need to incorporate those techniques so that they become yours - and in doing so you find that you can't just rely on applying an effect and expect it to be acceptable.
You have to have an idea/plan/intent/purpose/look/style/theme/expression/emotion in mind when you start a retouch project.

Some will be simple and straightforward - those will be accomplished with only a little forethought.
More complex images will require far more planning; you will need to have a conscious approach as to why you are doing something, and what the expected result should be, then strive to accomplish that.

Like anything worthwhile, it will not be a quick click-a-plugin-and-voila solution. If you try to do that the result will be obvious.

Having said all that, I would encourage you to continue practicing. Heck, we all started somewhere and with similar ideas in mind.
Take what is said in this thread with a grain of salt and distill it to the cues and advice that will help you achieve the retouching results you are pursuing.
...and post it here.

[klev]

Re: I need your opinion

Having said all that, I would encourage you to continue practicing. Heck, we all started somewhere and with similar ideas in mind.
Take what is said in this thread with a grain of salt and distill it to the cues and advice that will help you achieve the retouching results you are pursuing.
...and post it here.

Blah I like your explanation better. I think it irks me slightly when someone puts forth work in any area involving creativity that merely copies something else from start to finish. I think if I was going to suggest practicing one thing at the very beginning, it would be masking. Being able to do that with some precision helps out quite a lot at the technical level with control. Other than that I think the priority should be on building up some artistic sense. I should have added in the initial one that some reference material would benefit the OP, but not just looking at retouched images. If the primary subject is people, looking at and learning to recognize facial structures would teach him quite a lot.

[Mike Needham]

Re: I need your opinion

I think if I was going to suggest practising one thing at the very beginning, it would be masking. Being able to do that with some precision helps out quite a lot at the technical level with control.

Do learn masking, but try to nail down not just the expected masking routines, but get down and dirty with apply image and calculations, learn how to mask based on luminosity and hue. The amount of time a good mask can save and the work it also saves makes it worthwhile. It also helps in other areas of routine PS work too.

[klev]

Re: I need your opinion

Do learn masking, but try to nail down not just the expected masking routines, but get down and dirty with apply image and calculations, learn how to mask based on luminosity and hue. The amount of time a good mask can save and the work it also saves makes it worthwhile. It also helps in other areas of routine PS work too.

I was thinking more along the lines of painted masking work. There are two reasons. One is that he will build up a steady hand allowing work to be accomplished without zooming past 100%, which really helps with productivity. The other thing is that it encourages experimentation when you can separate an image into components. I wanted to suggest something that would encourage the OP to break away from just copying what he saw on a video, because it's likely that much of that content impeded his progress as opposed to contributing to it.