My wife..

C&C appreciated as I am still new!!

lovely lady
nice headshot
was a simple blur tool used for her skin? if so, you're lazier than me
i use layer with portraiture plug-in or retouching by hand via bluefiltered b&w adjustment layer if i am in good mood

she is one pretty young lady! The lighting (on my monitor) appears to be just short of blowing out on her nose and forehead which caused you to lose a bit of detail there. WB also appears, (and again, could just be my monitor, but it's pretty accurate) a tad on the orangey side. Great highlights on her hair--came out great. Also, her eyes have plenty of light.

If this is a first effort, or you're relatively new to portraits fantastic effort! After another review, crop might be tight for some, but it works for me!

dave

First - congrats on such a beautiful wife (let her know). Personally, I want her head to be turned a bit more toward the camera so that I could see a bit of white in the corner of her eye. I also wish her head was tilted ever so slightly to the camera's L. That would tilt the line through her eyes away from horizontal (giving a more dynamic pose) and would give her hair on the far side a bit of space to fall into. You'd need be careful though that the hair on the near side doesn't fall down.

Thanks for the complements guys. She's loving them.. LoL... As for a bluring tool... Yes and no... My wife has GREAT skin, but I do a slight adjustment to it. I blur then skin slightly and then I use a highpass filter to bring in the pores. Here is a link as to what I am talking about... http://www.christyschu​ler.com/retouching.htm​l

As for the lighting. I'm not seeing the blowing out on her nose and forehead as you are... Maybe I need to recalibrate my monitor.

And thanks for the insight N1as. I've been trying to work on my directing posing technique. I'm still new to all of that but I will have to keep the eyes and whatnot in mind for the next time.

Love the shot, the color, the DOF and the model.
Just one bit of critique: when doing PP be sure to soften/blur the skin in a separate layer mask and then paint back the original eyes as they are now unsharp. I bet they were sharp in the original =)

I agree with these guys.. I also want to ad, is that her fake smile? because she looks uncomfortable.

Pretty pretty lady.. good hair too and amazing eyes!