Diver bg ok?

[MoonFizz]

Hi all and may I take this opportunity to wish everybody
a Happy New Year.

Just a quickie: I had a client wanting an existing image from
the web enhancing a little. The original is on the right and the
background I matched on the left.

He later remarked that he loved the new location, but could I
pls later restore some of his wrinkles etc as in his view they
displayed maturity and experience.

Gary.

http://www.moonfizz.com

[[email protected]]

looks great but . . .

That is a common complaint when you remove wrinkles, some think it is great but most clients really don't like it, especially if you make them aware that you touched up their face.
Perhaps you could remove some of the touch up so some of his age and character show through.
It is a very nice job either way.

[MoonFizz]

Point taken Platscha,
next time I'll ask before I do a mini make-over.
Might save me some precious time he! he!
Happy New Year and all the best

[DJ Dubovsky]

Excellent job. Yeah, I've noticed men are a bit more fond of their "character" lines than women but I've done the same thing and got the same results. Now I ask.
DJ

[Ed_L]

The new background looks great! You might find that most people will not complain if you just subdue the wrinkles a little. They probably won't even know that you've done it, but for some reason it just looks better to them. Removing wrinkles completely is asking for problems.

Ed

[Stephen M]

I like to use a basic 50/25 rule of thumb.

I too like character forming lines, so it may not be best to totally remove things.

So if asked to remove lines, full retouching would be performed but the layer would only be set at say 50% opacity for females, or 25% for males. This way lines and wrinkles are reduced, but they are still there (less reduction on males than females if in the same shot). If this is not approved, it is a simple matter to increase the opacity - but the less you can get away with the better.

Of course situations differ, but that is the general approach I like to take.

A small amount of noise/grain can help too, although with lower opacity retouching it may not be as critical.

Stephen Marsh.

[Mig]

It's possible the touched-up version has made him feel he looks a touch overweight/bloated. It does appear to me that the man on the left is carrying more weight than the same man on the right.
Also, for some reason the touched-up version is quite smudged/blurred without reason. The original background should allow you to pluck him out of it without any problem, so you might consider redoing the whole thing.
The new background is a big improvement over the other.

Mig

[phili1]

Hi Moon fiz. I down loaded your picture and used the magnetic lasso and dragged the face from the original to the new one and that put the wrinkles back. I belneded the colors and it looked good. Quicker then redoing the qhole thing.

[MoonFizz]

This is better I think

Thanks every one especially Mig, I did blurr and smudge way to
way to much.
Any way in painter I target cloned the original face and did a
make-over in reverse.
I'm actually quite pleased as it looks more natural.
Thanks everyone again.
Gary.

________________

http://moonfizz.com

[Vikki]

One final comment (on an otherwise nice job).
I think I see why his face looks fuller. You've changed his hair. The top has been rounded off. I think if you add his original hair back on to the top, it will make his face look slimmer.
Vikki

[MoonFizz]

For Vikki

Right on the nail Vikki,
Now I can see the difference adding the hair has made.
It's pretty difficult trying to work with already compressed
graphics from the net, but I think it's just about done now.

Phew! ......time for a coffee break :-)

[phili1]

Great job Moon fizz. It looks really good. Its amazing how a little hair can make such difference.