Opinion skin retouching

[mayano]

Hello,

What do you think about my skin retouching? Does it look over retouched or you think I should retouch it even more?
I used the D&B technique and the split frequency.

AFTER
http://s29.postimg.org/6e4ytiv13/may...up_retouch.jpg

BEFORE
http://s29.postimg.org/wozz5qis7/may...uch_before.jpg

AFTER
http://s29.postimg.org/nsp71ss5z/may...touch_full.jpg

BEFORE
http://s29.postimg.org/d36wvsqzb/may...h_original.jpg

Let me know what you think.


Thank you.

[klev]

Re: Opinion skin retouching

I don't see a sense of detail or direction. In the after versions I see splotchy variations in hue. If you were going to smooth it out that much, you may have wanted to blend the colors in those regions together a bit. That's if you were going to do it like this. I think the overall is the wrong direction though. You're making things look flat.

The originals actually need very little smoothing. The kitty is extremely cute, and the girl has good skin. Now let's consider the image for a second. She has some very deep eyeliner. I kind of hate the slight post work on it, because I don't see a lot of detail there. It's so dark that it then makes her lower eyelids look a bit heavy, like she's tired. You probably picked up on that and over-corrected something that was being exacerbated by the original juxtaposition. Now they look flat.

To keep from jumping all over the place, here are a couple suggestions. First off take a look at more reference for the eyebrows. They weren't combed, but you made the end shape a bit weird. Pay attention to good eyebrow styling. When you process raws, be careful not to make things like that eyeliner look too deep. When smoothing skin do the minimum necessary. I would be super careful when smoothing out those blemishes, because you went way too far. That you ask if you went far enough suggests you need to refine your sensibilities. I think the work on the cat was misplaced. Just darkening down the left side of the photo would have alleviated the distracting portion. It's too bright relative to the rest of the image (in my opinion). The girl isn't very sharp, which annoys me. I would have wanted to see lashes and sharp eyes like the cat (such a cute kitty).

I could probably go on for a very long time, but this is something that has gotten me as well. You have to focus, because it's way too easy to do things without a sense of direction and end up with a very overdone image.

[Leon William]

Re: Opinion skin retouching

You have done a great Job...Look really nice. I feel if you could make the woman's face bit more sharp.Especially the eyes and the cat's mouth I feel its bit over touched.