Portrait Retouching Challenge

[ALB68]

Mike the young lady (and I do mean young) now on Chris's first post.

 

[Paul]

This threads turned into a right sack of rats:banghead:

 

[Paul]

Chrisdesigns new image for retouch guys:

 

[Paul]

Thanks Chris i enjoyed this one.

:mrgreen:

 

[ibclare]

She looks like a pretty porcelain doll. Very cute.

 

[Paul]

Thanks Clare that was sort of the intention, my trouble is i rush everything lately.

 

[ibclare]

IDK about rushing it. The only thing I would like to see on second glance is a bit more of the procelain doll treatment on her neck and chest area. That would complete the impression. Otherwise, I think it is perfect.

 

[Paul]

Thanks clare it was literally a twenty minute thing

 

[Tom Mann]

Since Chris is the undisputed master of skin retouching in these parts (especially, with the frequency separation technique), I pretty much ignored her skin, and, instead concentrated on larger scale photography issues such as giving her a better separation from the background by darkening and slightly softening it, un-abashedly changing the color of her hair from a nearly blown-out platinum to a light red, attempting to fix the fairly flat lighting, slenderizing and lifting her face a bit, adding a bit of shadowing under, and blush on her cheekbones, giving her just a bit of the old fashioned glamor glow / stocking-over-the-lens look, etc.

Although I realize that most people don't share my preferences, I prefer skin and hair that is more towards red than yellow, so, since this was a fantasy and I could indulge my own preferences and completely ignore the reality and preferences of the model and/or art director, guess how she wound up.

Unfortunately, when I was all done, I went back and discovered that I had forgotten to take care of a couple of things that had been bothering me: the very dark line separating her top and bottom lips is too prominent, and IMHO, her eyeliner is too dark. I didn't feel like putting any more time into this, so I just let these issues stand, but if I ever came back to it ...

T

PS - BTW, I wish the original photo had been more sharp, but all in all, this was a very nice choice, Chris.

PPS - After I stared for a while at my version (with the darkened background), I realized that the phrase that kept going through my head was, "What's an angel-like girl doing in a dungeon." I must confess that this wasn't intentional on my part, but I don't mind that it happened.

 

[Paul]

Ok going loopy now.

 

[chrisdesign]

Sorry everybody for the confusion!:frown:
Please use the new image.

 

[chrisdesign]

Excellent treatment Tom. Yes, the image is slightly out of focus. But you took care of it.

 

[chrisdesign]

Ok going loopy now.

I can see you're having fun with this one. Great Job Paul...though don't go too far.

 

[Tom Mann]

BTW, nothing against your very nice and very interesting work, Paul, but FWIW, in the version I posted, I was trying to be true to the request stated by Esther Honig, the journalist/artist who started this:

"The standard of what is considered to be beautiful is geographically relative, varying across cultures on a global level. in a project which manifests these tendencies on a visual scale, journalist esther honig has created a photographic series ‘before & after’, in which she contacted 40 individuals, from more than 25 countries and made a simple request: ‘make me beautiful’. "

IMHO, we do plenty of funny PS edits here on PSG, so, for a change, instead of coming up with a humorous or oddball version, I simply tried to make the subject more beautiful using my own preconceptions about beauty, some of which I explicitly stated in my post.

I don't want to hijack Chris's thread, but I personally think it would be very interesting what each of us would come up with if we all adhered to the original artist's request.

T

 

[Tom Mann]

This was an alternative rendition that I came up with, and was debating whether or not to show it. The more I look at it, the more I like it, so here it is...

Tom

 

[chrisdesign]

Thanks Tom, that's exactly the intention of this thread: Make this girl more beautiful.

 

[Tom Mann]

I just had a thought ... Why in the world did we not simply use the photo supplied by Esther Honig?

I haven't done any searches, but I wouldn't be surprised if many people are not already doing exactly that. This could turn into a real widespread viral effort among PS'ers around the world.

T

 

[fotograffiti]

I just had a thought ... Why in the world did we not simply use the photo supplied by Esther Honig?

I haven't done any searches, but I wouldn't be surprised if many people are not already doing exactly that. This could turn into a real widespread viral effort among PS'ers around the world.

T

that's a great idea. But I think the original image can only be found in a rather small size??

 

[chrisdesign]

that's a great idea. But I think the original image can only be found in a rather small size??

You got a point here.

To keep it simple for everyone, please use my picture on the first page of this thread.

 

[fotograffiti]

well, I found a HR pic of Esther, o well, I will try both. Never ever done such thing...