# C &C on clean beauty make-up shot for portfolio



## kkamin (Jan 17, 2010)

Spent a good deal of time retouching.

The skin looks a little blue or green to me and I've been trying to add red and magenta but it's been hard to tell if it is going in the right direction. I don't want the skin too warm with red or magenta, it ends up feeling less 'clean' to me then.  If your browser and display is color managed and you are experienced in skin tone correction, let me know what you think I should do.  Thanks.

Any C & C welcome, thanks!


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## MrRamonG (Jan 17, 2010)

Nice shot, but she looks fake.


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## jnm (Jan 17, 2010)

agree, looks fake, the skin looks like it was smoothed too much.


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## kkamin (Jan 17, 2010)

MrRamonG said:


> Nice shot, but she looks fake.



why?


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## Misfitlimp (Jan 17, 2010)

I think it looks great Kkamin And it does'nt look fake IMO it looks clean and if that is your style then I applaud you sir or maddam.


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## g-fi (Jan 18, 2010)

I don't mind the retouching, I think it's pretty good for a beauty shot though I also don't think the image would suffer if you backed off a tiny bit.

What really bothers me is the lack of eye contact in the image. I'd much rather see her looking up or in the opposite direction showing more of her face or full on eye contact. 

Keep going! You're on the right track!!


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## Reyna (Jan 18, 2010)

IMO, she looks like a porcelain doll. WWaaayyy too much re-touching.


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## willli (Jan 18, 2010)

kkamin said:


> MrRamonG said:
> 
> 
> > Nice shot, but she looks fake.
> ...



Sorry but I'm agree my PS instructor always mention that the trick of retouching is just cover the imperfections but leaving the picture natural her skin do not look at all natural and remember you want that the MUA makeup look real that was the meaning of the whole photo

Do not get me wrong is a beautiful portrait nicely done and executed.


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## Dominantly (Jan 18, 2010)

I do not agree that there has to be eye contact to make a photo good. This photos works just fine with it's composition.

I do however think the retouching is a bit much. What I would recommend is that when you do your retouch, after you edit out any obvious, blaring imperfections, create a layer copy and hit it with a high pass filter. Adjust that filter to bring out skin details like pores and some lines, then change it to soft light.
When you're done editing the rest of the photo, view the high pass layer OVER the rest and adjust it with the transparency slider, to bring detail back to the face.
The way it is now, you have a porcelain doll...


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## kkamin (Jan 19, 2010)

Dominantly said:


> I do not agree that there has to be eye contact to make a photo good. This photos works just fine with it's composition.
> 
> I do however think the retouching is a bit much. What I would recommend is that when you do your retouch, after you edit out any obvious, blaring imperfections, create a layer copy and hit it with a high pass filter. Adjust that filter to bring out skin details like pores and some lines, then change it to soft light.
> When you're done editing the rest of the photo, view the high pass layer OVER the rest and adjust it with the transparency slider, to bring detail back to the face.
> The way it is now, you have a porcelain doll...



I'm not making excuses but my problem with the model was that she was for lack of a better word, hairy.  She had a fine coat of hair covering most of face, and a lot of hair starting from her neck going down her back.  I think she is very photogenic though and didn't want to scrap my shots of her.  I guess I'd rather have an image like this than no image at all.

When I do skin softening I do, do it in a few steps.  And I do create a merged layer with a high pass filter in softlight blend mode and also add some noise to it to bring back some texture.  For this image, if I used too much high pass I start bringing out hair definition again.  

I think I can go back in and add some skin pore like grain to selective areas.  ANd I think I dodged the tones in her cheek too much and that is adding a little bit to the porcelian look.  I can bring a little tone there too.


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## kkamin (Jan 19, 2010)

g-fi said:


> I don't mind the retouching, I think it's pretty good for a beauty shot though I also don't think the image would suffer if you backed off a tiny bit.
> 
> What really bothers me is the lack of eye contact in the image. I'd much rather see her looking up or in the opposite direction showing more of her face or full on eye contact.
> 
> Keep going! You're on the right track!!



I have this one too from the shoot.  I like this one but her teeth bug me a little bit.  And I've been putting off trying to go in and do something with them.  Anyone have any ideas?


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## g-fi (Jan 19, 2010)

I like this one a LOT more. It's not so much the lack of eye contact, but maybe it was the crease in her neck in the first one or that she was looking down. It wasn't a bad picture, at all, but I like the second much more. The hair is unfortunate.  

Her teeth aren't very distracting to me. I don't think I would have noticed it if you hadn't pointed it out, but perhaps just leveling the one on the far right so it's less noticable? I don't know, teeth are not my speciality lol.


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## DReali (Jan 19, 2010)

I alsö think she looks like plastic..... i think this is a good example of exaggerating in photoshop, this is seen far too often in glamour photography. here is a link to some glamour editing tutorials which allow the preservation of details when trying to eliminate imperfections (you may appreciatiate this): Christy Schuler I Retouching


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## Nic Nube (Jan 19, 2010)

Wow that is well done!


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## kkamin (Jan 19, 2010)

DReali said:


> I alsö think she looks like plastic..... i think this is a good example of exaggerating in photoshop, this is seen far too often in glamour photography. here is a link to some glamour editing tutorials which allow the preservation of details when trying to eliminate imperfections (you may appreciatiate this): Christy Schuler I Retouching



I just posted why I had to go too far with the retouching, the model had a lot of hair issues and the only way to remove it with techniques I know is to blur them out then try to bring some texture back in a grain type way.  I fully realize it went a little too far and it has been discussed.

Christy's retouching isn't very good.  Most of her portfolio is Lynda.com work files that she did along with Chris Orwig's tutorial.  She has 5 pieces in her portfolio and 3 of them are lesson workfiles.  I don't think she is experienced enough to create tutorials with any type of professional insight.  She is basically retelling what Chris Orwig taught her.  It's sort of a second hand knowledge.  I would recommend checking out Lynda.com and checking out the Portrait Retouching series.  It is a 12-hour retouching course.


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## bennielou (Jan 19, 2010)

I love the shot, the light, the model, AND the retouching.  You are doing a "beauty shot".  That's what a beauty shot should look like, IMHO.  Open a CoverGirl model shot, and you will see the same type of thing.
I love it.


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## arizphotography (Jan 28, 2010)

The retouching is alright I guess. But a little too porcelain looking for me. I prefer the 2nd photo, but her eyes are too far out. It would have been better if it wasn't so far out, by like 1mm or 2mm.


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