Fixing a Bridal Portrait

[ImagineTNT]

I went to my friend's wedding (not shooting it) and just took a couple quick snaps. Of course I didn't get any of it right so I did what I could in photoshop. What do you guys think? I'd love C&C for both the technical element of the shot as well as the post-processing.

1 Original:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0096_1.jpg


1 Touched-Up:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0096.jpg


2 Original:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0098_1.jpg


2 Touched Up:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0098.jpg


And Another Touched-Up Shot:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0097.jpg

[form]

Looks plastic. Blue skin tone and uneven lighting are difficult. Some like to keep the blue tone, and some like the plastic skin, but neither of them work for me; however, that's subjective. The uneven light draws attention to brighter areas, and they aren't always where you want the attention to be.

Assuming I was editing in photoshop, I might do something like this:

[Tiberius47]

I agree with the above post about the skin tone - people generally look better when they have a warmish skin tone. A good way to do this is to set your white balance to shade or cloudy.

When doing edits like what you did in the OP, a good idea is to duplicate your background layer, do the edits to get rid of wrinkles and all that, and then reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer to let some of the wrinkles from the unaltered background layer show through. That avoids the plastic skin look, and gives you a lot of control over the strength of the effect. I use it alot.

[Svetlana]

Your skin retouching looks a bit fake, too much smoothing going on there...Also try and find open shade next time in order to avoid the shadows on her face...I tried to lighten it and warm it up a bit and used a ProRetouch from TRA actions. How about this:

[Valjoy]

Svetlanas edit above looks great. Take a lead from this .

Form...your edit looks very yellow to me...maybe just my computer.

[form]

It is more orange, yes, maybe a little too much. My main goal was to make it not look cold, followed by limiting the bright spots from uneven lighting.

[JMHPhotography]

Looks plastic. Blue skin tone and uneven lighting are difficult. Some like to keep the blue tone, and some like the plastic skin, but neither of them work for me; however, that's subjective. The uneven light draws attention to brighter areas, and they aren't always where you want the attention to be.

Assuming I was editing in photoshop, I might do something like this:

with all due respect... I'd consider recalibrating and profiling your monitor. This edit makes the whole image look unnaturally orange.

[stathunter]

Ok - here is my edit - for your personal use I would edit it like this - for the bride I would do a little less. But here is my finished edit:
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g303/stathunter/shelby_derek_052309_0096_1edit.jpg

[muscleflex]

wow - i like your edited pics - wish i knew half of how you do these!!

I went to my friend's wedding (not shooting it) and just took a couple quick snaps. Of course I didn't get any of it right so I did what I could in photoshop. What do you guys think? I'd love C&C for both the technical element of the shot as well as the post-processing.

1 Original:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0096_1.jpg


1 Touched-Up:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0096.jpg


2 Original:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0098_1.jpg


2 Touched Up:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0098.jpg


And Another Touched-Up Shot:
http://www.imaginetnt.com/images/portfolio/photography/weddings/ShelbyWedding/shelby_derek_052309_0097.jpg