[photorp]

Any critique or advise or feedback would be welcome, both on composition and use of program.

Quite an amazing program, makes the process of touch up easy. This person was shot in the wee hours of the morning and makeup was not at it's best

[photoprofx]

(02-19-2012, 01:45 AM)photorp Wrote: Any critique or advise or feedback would be welcome, both on composition and use of program.

Quite an amazing program, makes the process of touch up easy. This person was shot in the wee hours of the morning and makeup was not at it's best

One of the interesting things about photographing subjects in the wee hours of the morning ONLY the meta data knows for sure. I always wondered where the line was on retouching a photo; I found out over a period of time, several months to be exact, there is a line. The rule I follow is simple, when you shave off more than five years then you have gone to far.
Taking a portrait is the same as owning a time machine, you freeze time and in that single moment you have recorded an image of sometning. If you alter that image too much, the moment is lost along with the truth of the moment it represents.
This photo, in my estimation, is flatering given the hour it was taken and the subject was excellent. I, again my opinion, a little too much was taken off the subject, the flavor of the subjects face is a result of years of experience. The laugh lines, around the eys and mouth are who this person really is.
Do the subject justice, don't make them into someone on the front cover of Vogue when they could adorn a fire place mantle with the warmth and personality they deserve.
PP is a great program, don't over use it... other than that it was a excellent photo and keep up the good work.
PhotoProFX

[photorp]

(02-19-2012, 03:04 AM)photoprofx Wrote:

(02-19-2012, 01:45 AM)photorp Wrote: Any critique or advise or feedback would be welcome, both on composition and use of program.

Quite an amazing program, makes the process of touch up easy. This person was shot in the wee hours of the morning and makeup was not at it's best

One of the interesting things about photographing subjects in the wee hours of the morning ONLY the meta data knows for sure. I always wondered where the line was on retouching a photo; I found out over a period of time, several months to be exact, there is a line. The rule I follow is simple, when you shave off more than five years then you have gone to far.
Taking a portrait is the same as owning a time machine, you freeze time and in that single moment you have recorded an image of sometning. If you alter that image too much, the moment is lost along with the truth of the moment it represents.
This photo, in my estimation, is flatering given the hour it was taken and the subject was excellent. I, again my opinion, a little too much was taken off the subject, the flavor of the subjects face is a result of years of experience. The laugh lines, around the eys and mouth are who this person really is.
Do the subject justice, don't make them into someone on the front cover of Vogue when they could adorn a fire place mantle with the warmth and personality they deserve.
PP is a great program, don't over use it... other than that it was a excellent photo and keep up the good work.
PhotoProFX

True. There is a tendancy to overdo it. Your comments are quite right. Unlkess a glamour shot is what your looking for, the essence of the shot can be lost quite easily in post touch up

[vedwardsphotography]

it looks like you did a lot of the editing with the brush... I can see the discolored/flawed pixels around the eyes.. they will surely show when you print this photo larger that 4x6.
The presets work great.. they do so with smooth skin.. try one preset, then another, then you can tweak the areas that you want to fix.
also you have some spill of skin that looks smudgy around the edge of the face.. try to cut back skin around the edges if needed...
I always magnify my photos to look at my results
Hope this helps

[williamting]

I generally agree on the above comments. I would ask my client on the number of years to remove. If they have good reason to remove 10 years, I will do that for them. Otherwise, I will leave some faint lines around. But generally, they want all blemishes to be taken away.
PhotoProFX, thanks for your confirmation about that 5 years thingy. I have been struggling on the number of years to remove for some time.

By the way, I use the opaque slider to recover the lines.

Coming back to Photorp, I think the retouching is well done. If you enlarge it to 100%, you will notice areas on the forehead which was not properly "airbrushed". But there is nothing to worry unless you want a huge print.

[photorp]

Good comments. Thanks. After being struck by how easily the program works, it is easy to over-do-it. Going back over with a critical eye helps. Putting a powerful tool in the hands of an amateur ( me ) can have unwanted results. I am actually trying to recreate the process in photoshop to learn the fundamentals of what this program does.

[Slynky]

Good comments and nice job on the retouch.

I generally leave it up to the customer. As William might guess, the last person I did (if you don't count my wife) said to retouch but to make sure it was "still her"--not to "go over the top". So I gave her my best guess (reducing blemishes and problem areas but not completely wiping them out). When she saw what I had done, she liked it and her mother wanted to know why I didn't make it smoother (she had some acne problems on her forehead and some small scared areas below the eyes). So, she asked me to smooth it out some more. (that's when I found out it would be nice if the plug-in version had the ability to save a file to open back up later). Then I fixed it up approaching (what I call) the "Cosmo Look" (a reference to that magazine that has been airbrushing females for decades).

In the end, 5 years, 10 years, whatever...it's really what the customer wants. Sometimes, a female (more often than male) would like to see how close they come to matching that "Cosmo Look" they've had thrust in their faces for their whole life. But back to the comment, I can quickly agree to the nice, pretty--even slightly sexy look--in the OP's image sitting on the mantle but still containing some of the "history" that has made her what she is today. She certainly has some very nice eyes and an overall look that is very nice. Whatever age she actually is, she should feel blessed.

PS: I think I've ruined (spoiled) my wife. Now, it's hard to do any photos that will be seen by others without "tweaking" something. At 14 years my junior, you'd think she wouldn't be worried so much .