Critique Reprocessing an old fashion shot

juggler

juggler

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Simon
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Every now and then I go back and wince at my early attempts at fashion retouching, and have another go. Perhaps I'll come back in another year, wince again, and give it yet another attempt, but I'm fairly happy with where this one's got to. As ever, I'm trying to strike a balance between super-magazine-shine and plausible.

It was taken during a shoot to showcase the hair and makeup artists' work (we did some other shots which focused more on those elements rather than being a portrait). It's a very trad pose and I've gone off the whole 'hands resting on the face' thing these days but I still like it.

The trickiest bit was dealing with a gazillion stray hairs - which is partly why I've dropped in a replacement background.


Four Seasons: Spring by Simon Carter, on Flickr
 
Looks fab to me. One can only wonder what the first looked like :)

Gaz
 
Really like this one, Simon. There's a lovely feel to the processing and the colour matching accessories, make-up and dress makes it a very striking image in my opinion. I'm pretty impressed that you dropped in a background - there're so many jagged edges and fine hair detail. I've not had much success trying this on a light background!

I like the placement of the key light and how it has given really pleasing shadows and brought definition to her cheekbone and jawline. I need to try this in my next shoot ;)

I know you said you aren't trying to get a super polished look, but you may wish to take care of the pigmentation(?) on her top-right forehead and blend the shadow on her bottom left cheek a bit more.

Thanks for providing a full-size image on Flickr - it makes it so much easier to be pickier ;)
 
Thank you all :)

dTEA said:
Me too...go on, share the original as well.
Click to expand...

I deleted the original edit before starting this one so I wouldn't be tempted to bodge it still further. The colours were a bit wangy, and it was too contrasty, dark & blotchy with (more) obvious patches where I'd ruined the texture. The eyes were definitely overdone, too. Imagine this one run through Portrait Pro and then with the clarity and contrast turned up :hungover:.

gbmphoto said:
Really like this one, Simon. There's a lovely feel to the processing and the colour matching accessories, make-up and dress makes it a very striking image in my opinion. I'm pretty impressed that you dropped in a background - there're so many jagged edges and fine hair detail. I've not had much success trying this on a light background!

I like the placement of the key light and how it has given really pleasing shadows and brought definition to her cheekbone and jawline. I need to try this in my next shoot ;)

I know you said you aren't trying to get a super polished look, but you may wish to take care of the pigmentation(?) on her top-right forehead and blend the shadow on her bottom left cheek a bit more.

Thanks for providing a full-size image on Flickr - it makes it so much easier to be pickier ;)
Click to expand...

Good call on the forehead, thanks, but I like the shadow on the left cheek as it is :).

The background.. as shot it was light grey. Lighter than I would have liked, but still dark enough that I could use soft light blend mode for the texture layer which doesn't require such precise masking. In fact I deliberately blurred some of the edges, which is probably obvious if you're attuned to that kind of thing.
 
Very nicely done indeed. You'd never tell the background had been altered, well I can't, others more in the know about how this is done might, but joe public wouldn't.
 
Lovely portrait, her eyes are so magnetic that to me they overcome any small defects in the processing.
 
Livin The Dream said:
Great job Simon. Are you dodging and burning primarily here or FS? I must practice.
Click to expand...

It's a fairly even split between frequency separation and dodging & burning, though I'm moving to doing more of the latter than the former. It requires more precision and practice I think but seems to get better results. I've also used the healing brush, the clone stamp in various blend modes, targeted curves adjustments & the dust & scratches filter.
 
"Excellent" bit of work Simon, It's so nice to see a portrait presented in what I would call a traditional style. It makes a very pleasant change.(y)

George.
 
That's just gorgeous! What wonderful lighting and processing!
 
•
This is sweet all through: model, tonalities, colour palettes, contrast, etc.
In my work though, I would not let highlights shine brighter than the ones
I choose for the face. Good work!
 
juggler said:
It's a fairly even split between frequency separation and dodging & burning, though I'm moving to doing more of the latter than the former. It requires more precision and practice I think but seems to get better results. I've also used the healing brush, the clone stamp in various blend modes, targeted curves adjustments & the dust & scratches filter.
Click to expand...

The last two Christmas breaks I had planned to use some of the downtime to practice D&B but didn't happen. I must find the time to improve my PP. Top work though and thanks for sharing.
 
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