Before/After Skin Retouch

[ChrisAdval]

Looking for primarily critique on the post processing, more specifically in the skin/subject being retouched.

BEFORE

H. Love 04 - BEFORE RETOUCH by Chris Adval, on Flickr EXIF

AFTER

H. Love 04 - AFTER RETOUCH by Chris Adval, on Flickr EXIF


Camera Body: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure/Shutter: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Manual
Lens: EF50mm f/1.8 II

[Liz Caldwell]

Hi Chris,

First off, thanks for sharing

It looks like you have everything in the right place, but the skin and blush colors are just not right for her... You gave her cocoa, when she's really more of a rose... you're a boy, so we'll forgive that

When retouching skin you always want to start with the lightest color you can pick out, then build up from there. A little goes a long way, so apply each the colors on a new layer, so you can adjust the opacity later

[Liz Caldwell]

This may sound a bit silly, but you might want to check out some woman's magazines, or do a google search to get tips on choosing the right foundation color for different skin tones, and the best ways to apply blush

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by Liz Caldwell

Hi Chris,

First off, thanks for sharing

It looks like you have everything in the right place, but the skin and blush colors are just not right for her... You gave her cocoa, when she's really more of a rose... you're a boy, so we'll forgive that

When retouching skin you always want to start with the lightest color you can pick out, then build up from there. A little goes a long way, so apply each the colors on a new layer, so you can adjust the opacity later

so the burning I did on left of her face where its a big too bright was a good idea or not?

[Liz Caldwell]

I personally don't think the face is too bright in the first one. She's just a pale girl (like me) so she'll naturally be light in the photo... but I don't see any blown highlights, and the contrast between light and shadow looks good to me. It's a lovely portrait all on it's own.

If you wanted to do skin smoothing just a touch of the healing brush here and there and she's good to go

[Liz Caldwell]

I should add that I do like the darkening effect you have everywhere else besides the face...

[BigFuzzy]

The one thing I noticed right away was that she now looks like one of those women that put on so much make up their face color is noticeably different from their neck/rest of the body. That to me is no good as it screams "I have a tone of make up on" which i'm sure those women don't want. There's not a gradual enough shift of color from her face to her neck to make this a great job in my opinion. In the original the skin tones throughout her (amply) visible skin were even. In the after, they're not.

Overall I'm generally not a fan of skin smoothing techniques because they generally look bad. Having said that, yours isn't so bad. I'm ultra picky, so I don't love it, but it's by far not the worst I've seen today even.

The problem is that people worry about smoothing instead of focusing on evening out skin tones.. that's where the line in between good/bad skin touching up in my opinion.

PS I moved this thread to the "Before & After" section since it's more appropriate there i think.

[ChrisAdval]

thx for the honest input guys, this was my first attempt using dodge and burn, as I never used them before and wanted to explore a new technique in retouching if you didn't notice her eyes are burned in a tiny bit you won't notice it on the web but in print 8x10 you may.

[autofocus]

Chris, Here's a tut I posted a while back on selective skin smoothing or sharpening. Don't know if you saw it, but you may want to take a look. Before I use this procedure, I typically make some fixes on obvious blemishes, hot spots, skin tones and levels adjustments. Along with the healing brush and clone tool, I'll often use the patch tool to fix hot spots, wrinkles, and dark circles under the eyes. I'll use the dodge and burn tool a lot more sparingly because use of them with a heavy hand, more often than not, will yield some undesirable results.

How to - Selective Sharpening & Selective Skin Softening

[Lisa H]

No offense, but the before looks much better. She looks like she's got dirt on her face in the after.