Critique of PP Technique

I have learned some valuable tips about post processing in photoshop (I am a beginner with Elements 8) from here and tried them out for the first time. I would like some constructive criticism on my work. The left side of the face has been retouched, the right side is completely untouched. How did I do?

Thanks,
Teresa Darlene

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Im not sure how Elements compares to Photoshop.

Im no pro, but I prefer the right side. The left side looks too 'painted' on.
You blurred the hair and teeth way too much, the eye brow is completely painted. You thickened the lashes awkwardly, and the eyes themselves arent natural.

Check out the dodging and burning tools for the eyes, skin plugins and actions (I use Skinfix by Chip). Dont touch the hair or eye brows unless it's dodging, burning, or if needed cloning.

Dodging and Burning are 2 of my most used tools, the have great advantages over the paintbrush. Keep sharp areas sharp (Eyes, Lips, etc.).

It appears to me as if you would have used a blurr filter much more than really retouching. There is way to much blurr for my taste.

The more you retouche properly the less you would need any kind of blurr. Hmm, dunno if this was good English but hopefully you can guess what I wanted to say.

Martin

You are headed in the right direction. The skin still looks a little harsh to me. You shouldn't soften the eyes or teeth. I also rarely soften hair. The skin doesn't appear to really have much of a glow. It also depends on your intended use for the photo. The left side is a start for portraits and the right side is ok for National Geographic.

no. Not sure what tools you have in elements, but this is overdone. Most people want you to make them look a little better, too much and they will not feel like they look good, but like that is not them at all. I edited the original (right) side, with my standard workflow. Here are the tools I use in photoshop, you can tell me if they are available in elements

1. levels adjustment
2. dodge tool
3. heal brush
4. Clone tool
The skin smoothing is an action I created from the Muzino tutorial that I found on POTN years ago.

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I did the right side...
I zoom in very closely and clone out blemishes. Used a hue saturation layer to remove a little redness due to irritation. Slightly brightened eyes and teeth. Used levels to adjust exposure. Did some dodging and burning. Sharpened eyes and lips.

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Little bit of playing around. Hard to do much with this size, better to work on the original. As far as critique - it's a blurry mess. The eyebrow looks completely painted on and unnatural as do the lips. Teeth, skin work, and hair are all blurry. On a positive note - I do like what you did with the iris, the added catchlights look pretty good.

Smoothing, dodge/burn, teeth & eye work, curves.

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post processing is great, it can hide blemish, incorporate creative effects, correct exposure errors, and much much more

but

the key to a great post processed image... is to start off with a good image, meaning lighting, composition, DOF management, and all that. i would encourage you to read up more on portrait shooting and setup


as for the pp, everyone else is doing a great job with the right side. it looks natural. vs the left side where the eyebrow was drawn with a sharpie

keep trying!

This poor woman, if she ever saw this thread..lol

LOL! I know, right! Everyone else's right side just makes my left side look scary! And I thought I did good! But that's why I'm here, right? You guys all did such a great job. Any one up for giving me a detailed step by step?!? Or at least a link to a really good tutorial that shows the process from beginning to end. I really want to learn this! And, btw, Elements 8 does have dodge, burn, levels, ..... I just don't know the correct way to use them yet.

Thank you all so much. This is soooo fun!

Ok, I gave it another try. Here I posted the untouched before and the after. The only thing I couldn't get was the skin softening without using a blur filter, so I skipped that part. Also forgot to try adjusting curves (remembered that just now). I downloaded the CSpringer Skin Repair Action. It's in my downloads. Now what do I do with it? LOL!! Can you tell I'm a new newbie?

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There are a few minor things I'd still fix like small blemishes around the chin and maybe reduce,but NOT remove entirely the wrinkles, but honestly I wouldn't go any further.

Skin smoothing is taken overboard so often, I think what you have strikes a good balance here. don't try to go for the plastic look unless she has a professional makeup artist and she's in her late teens/early twenties or it's just not going to look good at all.

here is my trial...

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mikekelley wrote in post #10575381
There are a few minor things I'd still fix like small blemishes around the chin and maybe reduce,but NOT remove entirely the wrinkles, but honestly I wouldn't go any further.

Skin smoothing is taken overboard so often, I think what you have strikes a good balance here. don't try to go for the plastic look unless she has a professional makeup artist and she's in her late teens/early twenties or it's just not going to look good at all.

Agreed. You don't want to change what the person looks like. Wrinkles are part of them. Reducing is fine, removing is wrong.

That's really good. How do you get the skin to "glow" like that? Mine just looks flat and it doesn't seem to make the face look thinner (for lack of a better word) as in the other pictures.