Before-after, results not good?

[fotogen]

I spent 6 hours editing this image that I photographed myself. At the very end, I do not like the results and I can not put my finger on what is wrong with the image. Can you please critique this image, be honest please? Originally, during the D&B process, I had destroyed some of the natural contours of the face and the face looked very flat. I brought some of that back and added some additional contouring. It looks better but still something is wrong. Any opinion will be highly appreciated it.

http://www.pbase.com/image/124618554/original

[secretagents]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

Honestly I don't think it's bad. The only thing I see is that there are those "blotches" on the arm that you could have perhaps gotten rid of.

[fotogen]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

Honestly I don't think it's bad. The only thing I see is that there are those "blotches" on the arm that you could have perhaps gotten rid of.

Thank You for your opinion

[Panpan]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

In our culture, makeup is often applied to the face only. This does not work in this case. The rest of her skin is darker and of a different color. Sync skin luminosity and color; the neck in particular should be a close match.

You should also get rid of the low frequency patterns on her skin.

[kajak]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

great work fotogen the only problem i see is in the edges of the hair, they r too blurred.. you may want to reduce the skin effect to make it look more natural and i'd do some work on the eye as well

[krypticide]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

I agree, the face looks great but the rest of the body does not really match in terms of color and blotchiness.

[Der_W]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

I'd also say that her nose has lost some definition (although it didn't have to much to begin with), therefore it looks kind of flat and bumpy.

[Boneappetit]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

I'd say, it is a good work, but incomplete. You applied D&B only to her face, and the chest and arm does not match the D&B work. I understand it would have take you a long long time to do the whole picture. By the way it is an excellent shot, and I really like the fact that it has a natural look, almost any makeup.

[fotogen]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

I'd also say that her nose has lost some definition (although it didn't have to much to begin with), therefore it looks kind of flat and bumpy.

Can you please elaborate on what you mean by "nose has no definition", meaning shadows are not well defined? Any idea as to how to fix it. Do I make the base of the nose brighter to give it more definition and have it stick out more?

Thank you in advance

[fotogen]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

You should also get rid of the low frequency patterns on her skin.

What do you mean by low frequency patterns on her skin? Can you please point me to where you are taking about? Also, please advise as to how I can fix it.

Thank you

[Der_W]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

Yeah, shadows and highlights are what I meant :-).
E.g. you have removed a slight shadow on the right side of her nose, so it looks a little flatter now.

I'd probably go on and paint in some shadows on the sides of her nose (like a MUA would do, take a look here: http://yourfinishingtouch.blogspot.c...-tutorial.html).

[Quantum3]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

Starting to lkook good. The body needs retouch too

[fotogen]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

Is this any better now?
1. Matched the color of the body with the face using Curves.
2. Contoured the face more and defined the nose a bit more
3. Did more D&B on the pores of her left cheek and upper lip to match the smoothness of the other side of the face.
4. Did NOT work on hair, any good tutorials on hair retouching please?

Any opinions will be highly appreciated

http://www.pbase.com/fotogen/image/124652648/original

[Quantum3]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

It looks much better now. There is a little of light inconsistency between the face and the body. Both have the same brightness but not the same shininess. You need to D&B a bit the body because the face looks much more polished and airbrushed while the body looks more natural looking. It's hard at the first time, I also used to put lot of effort on the face and not so much on the body, but in order to achieve unity you need to pay the same attention on the body than in the face.

Regarding the hair, I'm clueless but I do lot of cloning in darken mode for the stray hairs.

Regarding the time taken by the retouch, for this particular pic, it shouldn't take more than 3 hours. That's another thing to keep in mind for further editings, but don't think too much on that, that's something that you will achieve through practice and experience.

[Quantum3]

Re: Before-after, results not good?

Can you please elaborate on what you mean by "nose has no definition", meaning shadows are not well defined? Any idea as to how to fix it. Do I make the base of the nose brighter to give it more definition and have it stick out more?

Thank you in advance

I guess by "no definition" he means that it looks a bit blurred and the color/tone quite similar to the surrounding areas.