First Before and After Post Portraits

[BSMPhotography]

First Close up was taken in a barn, low lighting (it was getting late)





Darkened the background and played with levels. brightened eyes and smoothed skin all on gimp...


this one was in the field backlit with nature lighting





changed levels to brighten up a bit. copied layer and changed blend mode to overlay and reduced opacity to 40% added new layer colorized with color you see there and turned down opacity a tiny bit. adjusted color and contrast a small bit. added new layer and used gaussien blur to blur background and then added a layer mask to bring her back up sharp.


So what yall think? I'm new and practicing like a crazy!

[Nakean]

The eyes are way to bright in my opinion and really looked "shopped" Every month I seem to take this affect down a bit as I start realize they are just too bright and white. If you are asking yourself if it doesn't quite look right, then it doesn't! It's really easy to let these little changes get away from your when you have been staring at the same photo for a while. Take a break and look at a few other photos (not your own) to compare.

The skin retouching looks like she was swiped in her right cheek by three fingers. This is work that difficult indeed. Until you get a really good handle on it, I think this type of retouching should be left alone. There are a lot of great tutorials out there than can help you get good result. Just search on You Tube.

The second image looks wonderful. I love the processing you have done, because it looks so natural. Great work and thanks for sharing! Keep shooting!

[BSMPhotography]

Thanks for the critique. Im basically a super newb. All I have to shoot with at this point is a P&S. Also with the headshot I see what you mean =/ now im embarrassed of it lol. Gotta start somewhere though and if you dont dabble with smoothing skin and getting other people to find your mistakes how are you supposed to learn it? Not touching it until you get good is kind of like saying dont date until your married lol.

[Weird Girl]

Totally agree- I have been way over editing and have really realized I need to stop looking at the same picture for too long.The whites of the eyes are too bright so I would tone that down. Did you run the smoothening tool over the eyes? Something just looks off like I can't see the separation between the pupil and the iris as well. I really like the second photo! Did you do all the adjusting on your own or did you use an action is Photoshop? I think you did a good job of not overdoing that one!

[GuruBhai]

Editing done in 2nd pic is too good,

[Melio]

I made the same mistakes too when I first started really trying to clean up pics. I way overdid it on some of them, pretty funny when I look at them now. It's like you said, you only learn by trying The second shot is really nice. Great edit there!

[Jaer007ll]

thanks all the same

[jRobertoAlvarez]

Love the second photo, but I agree with the previous comments. The first picture is a bit over done with the eyes and smoothing.

Hope to see more captures from you!

[LKMP]

[QUOTE=Nakean;1402097]The eyes are way to bright in my opinion and really looked "shopped"

I agree, eyes are a little over done, but gaging how much is too much will come with time. Keep up the practice, you're doing great!

[yogiwake]

Don't you think so that the shallow depth of field which u have created in photoshop is looking artificial ?(in 2nd picture)



Thanks
Yogesh Arora