Portrait Retouching

[RexK_Cozumel]

Here is a shot from a friend's wedding that I shot. Just looking for general thoughts on the retouching. What looks good and what looks like I need to work on. Thanks in advance.



EXIF Data:
Camera: Nikon D700
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 1600

**EDIT** retouched the photo again based on suggestions by ppl.

[lputman]

What a lovely bride! I would suggest toning down the bright spot on her forehead a bit.

[RexK_Cozumel]

Alright. I will take a look at it. Thanks. Anything else?

[Snowdust]

To me the skin tone looks just a little off. Almost has an olive tint to it. Not being able to view this any larger, I feel in a larger view, the teeth may be whitened a little too much compared to the rest of the tone and stand out too much. Did you PP the skin colors, or is that color cast from the natural light?

[denja]

I love the pose and perspective on the image. I have to agree with other posters about the hot spot on her forehead and the skin tone, I'm not sure about the teeth. The other thing I noticed was that I wonder if a little tighter crop might not work. I took the liberty of addressing these three issues and did some quick PP on the image. Let me know what you think, and if you want me to take this down I will immediately if you prefer.

[RexK_Cozumel]

While I like the crop it will make the printing ratio different. I did a 4x5 crop version as well and it looks good too.

[denja]

Great - I wasn't sure what printing ratio you were looking at - what did you think of the other change - the skin tone and the hot spot on her forehead?

[Pierre81385]

Over all I think the photo looks good. But from what I can see there are some wrinkles around the chin and lips that I would smooth out as well as a number of stray hairs I would remove.

Going further, depending on the preference of the client and your own ability, I might match the color of the light blond hair above the left ear with that of the rest of the hair a bit better, as well as enlarge the teeth to diminish the ammount of upper gum that was visible for a more idealic smile. Though those changes may affect the recognizability of the subject to a certain degree that might not be acceptable.

Just throwing around some ideas... :-) I personally like the photo just fine as it is too. Looks like a classic wedding photo.