Critiques please..

[suryapuranik]

Hello Friends

Please let me know your opinion about my recent retouch. To be honest, I've used 95% dodge and burn and 5% inverted high pass. Please view the image in highest resolution possible (options available at the top). Any suggestions are welcomed. Thanks!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/469004...n/photostream/

[DianaPolitical]

Re: Critiques please..

Good - The skin. It has a retouched look, but if you're going for that then it's good.
Suitable for Beauty campaigns~

Bad - you didn't touch the hair, which looks distracting and a bit too wild. Need to balance the retouching. If there is wild messed up hair, there should probably be some messed up skin. if the skin is hella cleaned up, you should treat the hair the same way

[klev]

Re: Critiques please..

Hair needs work as was mentioned. I don't know if I like that background color in the final. I definitely don't like the final lip color. Eye work should be a little more subtle. If you looks almost like you just circled the inner portion of the iris and applied a curve there. You lost some transition going into the lower eyelid, and they still look a little puffy. That might be difficult to adjust though. You really need to start looking at that patchy discoloration from your adjustments. It may be inevitable, but that doesn't mean you have to leave it that way. Look at the shadow side of the nose for that. I think the lighting used by the photographer is ugly, so that isn't helping you here. The final really messes up her nose. It doesn't look right at all. I might have tried to provide some transition as it goes into that eye area. I'm not sure what I would do with the shadow overall there. It feels grey and blah, but I'm not sure I would be comfortable deepening it in such a key area as I might otherwise to draw attention away from it. On the bridge of the nose, you can't make it such a straight shadow down as it is here. In this case it just looks weird. The other portions around that nostril sort of lost their definition, which wasn't great to begin with. I really do think you should pick an easier or better photo. It's a terrible photo, and you may need more practice to learn what makes it terrible (if you were the photographer I would probably be gentler with those words). In this case the lighting used doesn't work well with some of the shapes of her face, especially the nose. The work looks like you weren't sure where to take them from there, which I understand. I'm not sure what I would have done.

Oh one more thing, you should pay real attention to eyebrows. They're an important detail in such a makeup oriented shot.

[suryapuranik]

Re: Critiques please..

Thanks Diana! You are right, I'll try to make the hair look tidy, at this time it is not at all complementing the image. Thanks for your valuable feedback.

[suryapuranik]

Re: Critiques please..

Klev, thanks a lot for taking time to write such a valuable feedback, I truly agree with the points you have mentioned. I'll take into consideration all the points while revising the image. I'll be very thankful if I always get your critics on my every retouch Thanks a lot!

[klev]

Re: Critiques please..

I'll take into consideration all the points while revising the image.

Unless it's for a job, I don't think it would be a bad idea to try a different image. There are just some things that I really dislike about the photo. I hate the way they did her eyebrows. Her lower eyelids are very puffy for that kind of makeup, and you can do something about that. It's just that it won't be the greatest thing possible. It's more making the best of what you have to work with here. Then there is that shadow on the bridge of the nose into the brow. I just don't like that shadow there, yet it's part of the photo and lighting to the point where you have to make use of it. If this is practice for you, I think a better starting image would help you learn more. You can still improve on your application of some of the technical details, but I think you're going to learn more of your learning will be from improved aesthetic judgements. That's why I think you need a better photo. I googled the photographer. Some of his stuff is very nice. The ones I dislike are similar to this. There a couple similar ones where the shadows are handled a little better with similar lighting. I just really really dislike it here. The nose kind of blends into the face on one side. On the other it's an unattractive shadow which interrupts part of the eyebrow, and I have no idea what they were going for on the brows when they look almost dimensionless and ungroomed against this very high contrast eye makeup. Hopefully that makes some sense. I don't like to just tell someone that I dislike it without providing reasons.

[kkamin]

Re: Critiques please..

I like a lot about his image. The dodging and burning must have taken quite a while. The skin does look a little stylized but I think it could work for this photo if other elements are pushed in a similar direction.

I agree with the hair comments. It will be a pain, but making it look cleaner would help.

The eyelash gaps could be filled in.

I'm not sure about the lip color. The image has areas of intense saturation like the eyes, so to me it doesn't make sense why there would be an intense unsaturated area like the lips. Or maybe their tone needs to be shifted slightly to a more warmer tone. Idk.

I'm being a bit nit picky but overall I enjoyed the image and I see a lot of skill and vision. Thanks for sharing.

[aprill]

Re: Critiques please..

I'm new to retouching so not qualified to critique but still wanted to reply to your post. I think the skin looks realistic & not overly retouched. I liked the shadowing & the eyebrows look natural. The hair did have the fly-a ways & some broken hairs that you can get rid of easily. Wondering if you chose the model & did the photography & the lighting too. Hope I have something soon to post & get some comments/advice....

[InfinityWork3]

Re: Critiques please..

I think the skin can be toned down a little. It has a slight haze/blurriness to it that needs to be taken a step back. Really look on professionally retouched images in order to understand how the final look should end up.