Newbie Portrait - Before and After

I had a couple of my friends round today and decided to have a play around with my camera whilst I could. What was originally a crappy snapshot taken in my garden with simply a mirror for lighting turned out to be quite a decent portrait. First time I've ever taken a portrait, and also the first time I've done so much airbrushing and PP.

Any C&C greatly appreciated!

I think you did pretty good with the pp -- however in the process I think you yellow'd her teeth. I'd whiten them.

Also they might be a very tiny bit underexposed (i've been playing with my lcd brightness lately though -- so I don't know).

A lot of it is artistic, but there isn't much question that the yellow teeth are not flattering.

Aside from that, I like what you did.

Lol, I was focusing so much on the eyes, lips and skin that I didn't notice it!

I've updated it now, any better?

Jack McEntire wrote in post #8637111
Lol, I was focusing so much on the eyes, lips and skin that I didn't notice it!

I've updated it now, any better?

WOW I think you did a great job! Did you use a PS plugin or was this all done with layers? How did you get the skintone and lips to like that?

Thank you!

I don't use Photoshop, I just use a fairly old program called Paint Shop Pro 9 which is 6 or so years old now, lol, so no special plug-ins or anything, just airbrushing everything by hand! It's all I've ever used since I was about 12, so I've been using it for 4 or so years now. The only 'filter-like' things I've used are some warming, sharpening and a couple of other colour and saturation effects layered on top. Anything that looks hand-done actually is.

Looks nice. I actually started off using PSP 9 and still have it and PSP x2. How long did this take you?

All in all it probably took me around 1 hour 30 minutes. I had my friend (the girl in the shot) sitting next to me while I did it, lol, so it wasn't just intense work for and hour and a half!

I think this looks crazy good. Especially the lips.

It does look a little cartoony if I'm being honest

Lol, thanks!

I'm aware it's a bit cartoon-like, but in a way it was meant to be - my friend wanted to see just how much I could airbrush her to 'perfection', lol, even if it does look fake.

Crops to show the difference in the face:

Wow, amazing job surprised you can spend so much time on one image. I don't like what you did with her teeth though...How did you whiten them?

I recommend selecting the teeth with lasso tool, desaturating the yellow channel -70, and bring up the lightness a bit

I see what you mean actually...

I don't use Photoshop so I don't know how to do what you're describing, but I've tried to make them look a bit better, so here's the new ones:

I think you did a very good job, PSP is a good program and I still use it for some tasks even though I have CS4 too.