Critique my sailor girl please.

I have been working on improving my portraits. What did I do right? And what did I do wrong? All constructive criticism welcome. Thanks, Myrtle

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it looks a little bright.

I hope you dont mind but I edited it to what I think would help it.

From here you can do what you like with the subject.

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i like Blender7's edit on the portrait.

Blender7 wrote in post #5076025
it looks a little bright.

That was my thought as well. Nice edit.

Nice capture too, very cute! Lighting looks pretty good also.

First, you have a very cute daughter. ... That's a fun age. I can (almost) remember when my daughters were that age!!

Second, it looks like you have some dust on your sensor. I cloned it out, but it appears on all of the previous edits in the black BG just to your daughter's left side.

I loved the picture, but the reflection on the lips & nose were a bit distracting, so I did a slight adjustment with 30% skin smoothing. I also did a (very) slight tweek on the eyes.

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elguapo wrote in post #5076523
Silver,

Nice edit. I missed the reflections on the nose and lip.

How did you do the 30% skin smoothing? I'm not familar with that technique.

1. Copy layer, remove reflection via clone
2. Apply Gaussian blur @ 0.5 pixel
3. Layer mask & reveal @ 30% opacity

Thank you for the compliments, this is my grandaughter and I only get to play once in a while as she lives 900 miles away. I knew that this photo needed more post processing
than what I did, but wasn't sure how or what. I love your edit Silver, I did not know how to remove the reflection without ruining the photo. As for the spot to my gd left, I think what you removed was the edge of her collar. I love that you smoothed her skin also. I must learn more editing I think. I really do apprecieate everyones edits. Silver what did you do to her eyes, I don't know what a slight tweak is or how to do it. Was is brightening the whites or adjusting the blues? Thanks again. Now is there a way that I can download your edited version to my computer for printing?

I just wanted to say that your GD is very cute.. You took a wonderful photo and with a little tweaking on the pp you have an awesome portrait.. These are some wonderful edits above. Thanks for sharing your photo with us. She is a doll.

Here is my edited version

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Mercy... the fine-tuning everyone has added looks great and I'm sure you've learned a few things. Be sure though that you take it as a HUGE compliment that so many people wanted to touch up her portrait - it's because you had such an excellent capture (and subject) to start with. Absolutely adorable.