First retouch attempt

[bshifflett]

I am trying this first time to retouch a photo, the client wants the shine removed on her forehead and things to be a little cleaned up to make her look a little younger. How did I do? Too much PS?http://shifflettenterprises.com/imag...33-compare.jpg

[pierresplace]

Retouching

Hi Brad,
Well it's not bad for a first attempt but retouching is a delicate task. It's very easy to go over the edge and distort the image. Faces are very challenging in that regard. I, myself, am an avid student of the retouching artform. Primarily I use the airbrush tool at a 10% opacity. I approach my clicks very cautiously and make every effort not to "flatten" the color and maintain the natural contours a photograph displays. In that regard, I feel that the artist is using the skills of the painter. The use of light and color to maintain the appearance of depth which is easily seen in photographs. I hope I was clear saying that.

As far as technique goes, if I may contribute, is first use the eyedropper tool to sample the tone in a given spot, then I go to the airbrush tool using a brush size of about medium radius, and then click until the area is smoothed. This doesn't take many clicks, usually about three. I then move to the adjoining area and repeat the process. I am very careful not to distort anything at all. When the entire face is completed I use the marquee tool, oval shape, to select areas of the face and use the blur tool. I repeat the application of the tool until the "pools" of adjoining tones blend into each other so that they appear natural. I've recently uploaded some current work to illustrate my results. I learned this technique from a tutuorial I once found on www.about.com. In addition, my particular interest is in faces and digital makeup artistry so I read the books of Kevin Aucoin, a rather famous makeup artist to celebrities. His instruction with actual makeup artistry is very instructive for we who do retouching digitally.

I do sincerely hope I have assisted and look forward to more of your work!

Best Regards,
...Pierre...

[Leah]

Brad, My first reaction was that her nose seems to have disappeared! So I would say probably too much PS. You need to improve the skin texture without blurring the actual facial features too much. Could you maybe post a higher-resolution before and after version of just the face? It's kind of hard to see on the resolution as posted.

[Vikki]

I think the retouching is too obvious.
Take your finished image and add it as a layer on top of your original. Add a layer mask and reveal the retouched areas just to the spots that need it.
The key to a good retouch is to keep it subtle.
Vikki

[Vikki]

If you try for something in between, it can still look better, but less obvious. Something like this:

[Doug Nelson]

The differences in her eyes distracted me more than the shine on her forehead. This is a sensitive issue, and I'd never do it without consulting with the client, but you might consider opening her eye a bit.

[Paulie]

I've been experimenting on retouching techniques myself recently, & i applied the following to this image. Changed background, took a new snapshot, added gaussian blur of 5, then took another snapshot. Reverted to snapshot 1, then using history brush set to the blurred image, retouched the skin. I then added a bit of texture back with the noise filter. I then did a selective colour adjustment to even out the skin tone. Duped the layer, then added gaussian blur of 15, blending mode to overlay. Adjusted H/S/L to tone down the colour. flattened image. Used new photo filter adjustment in CS to add a warming filter. I then duped the layer again, gaussian blur of 15 on top layer, blending mode to soft light. Again adjusted H/S/L to tone done the effect of the blending mode. Flattened image. Finished off with some level, colour adjustments.

[ajcutler]

Brad:

I think the face in your retouching looks somewhat overdone and facial details are unnaturally blurry. But I know you are on the right track by seeking feedback and trying to learn from others, and RetouchPro is a great place for that.

There are many ways to approach this type of work, but with any approach it is very important to find a balance between making a face look smoother/younger and retaining some of the detail and texture of the face.

I find the best way smooth out areas of the face and control texture is to create a new layer as a copy and apply a gaussian blur just enough to have wrinkles and blemishes disappear, and apply a layer mask with hide all. Then with a small soft brush at 20-30% opacity, and with white as the foreground color, carefully paint the specific areas you want to smooth.

There are also a number of ways to remove shinny skin areas. A technique that will work if you don't have version 7, is to select good skin areas adjacent to the shinny areas with liberal feathering and place them over the shinny areas and adjust the opacity to your liking. By using good skin areas you retain a more natural texture. With version 7, healing and patching can be used.

Like Doug, I was bothered by the half-opened eye, so I opened it a bit.

If you are interested in the specific steps I used, just let me know.

Alan

[ajcutler]

Brad:

For even more smoothing/de-aging all you have to do is use a higher value for the gaussian blur, and paint in the smoothness in the image as I described above.

Alan

[Duv]

Hi Doug

It's important I think that you get more specific information from your client. She appears to prefer wearing a minimum amount of makeup. Is she generally happy with her skin tone and appearance? I thought that it looked a little ruddy but maybe that's what it is like. When she says a little younger does she mean 3, 5 or 10 years. Minor youth improving techniques might require nothing more than improving tonality below the eyes and reducing the wrinkle on her neck. Perhaps to reduce the shine, try choosing a soft clone brush, set it for darken and 40% Opacity. Sample a non shiny area of forehead and clone carefully over the shine.

Cheers
Duv

[Leah]

OK, this is a genuine question as I've been out of the flow a bit recently - is the critique quideline

ask before uploading changes to someone's image. This mostly applies to when you see a post by a new member. Some people may take offense to any altering of their images and a quick "is it ok to make and upload changes?" could prevent a confrontation.

still applied?

I'm just asking since I didn't upload my version because of the guideline but I see that lots of other people have - so I wanted to check. I say again - this is a genuine question, I am not trying to criticise anyone who has uploaded anything...

[Doug Nelson]

Oops

I didn't even notice this was in the Critiques area and not the Help Requested area.

My apologies to bshifflett and everyone else.

[Duv]

Leah. I think that's a good question. I would think though that it would be a rare person to take any kind of offence, especially in the Critique section. It's a natural instinct to work on an image, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words and learning is on both sides of the fence. Ouch. I think I'm mixing my metaphors.

Duv

[bshifflett]

Wow, I feel such a work welcome to have so many people look and take a stab at this image. I been on alot of forums and never have experienced this. Thanks so much for the tips and stuff. The first thing I think I notice is I could not keep the details on her nose, Seems as I kept applying the smooth skin texture (using the guassin blur method) I would keep adding and adding and all of a sudden lose any facial detail. Now that I have seen what others did, I can see where I messed up. Thanks so much! I have not even started on opening eyes, the skin is the first spot I wanted to improve first and the shine on her face was the clients biggest complaint she wanted mainly removed. Plus she said she would like to see less blotches on her face. So, that is why I focused on removing the shine and then working on skin.

[Leah]

Since you're happy to see uploads, here's my attempt - cleaned up skintone using Lee Varis' Perfect Makeup technique from the second edition of Katrin Eismann's book. Reduced lines slightly. Tweaked the eyes to get them more even. Added color to roots of hair where it seemed to be lacking. Added volume to hair. Blurred background. This would all produce better results on a higher-resolution image, obviously.