12-31-2011, 12:46 AM
Don't worry about your "critique" post. 
You're likely to get differing opinions on what's too much and what isn't. Personally, I like the results to improve the image (prettier/more handsome and younger) but in a believable way--not totally fantasy. BUT, having said that, there really is no rule against how much you can change an image. Mostly, whatever the subject likes is all the approval you need. 
BTW, the backgrounds are nice but they will still require some extraction technique. Also, if the subject(s) stand too close to them, they get the light off the backgrounds. Besides reading about this in books, some of the portraits provided to me (on a green background) to work up advertising/CD case/jacket, etc. have shown a green fringe around the edges of the subjects. So, one has to be careful.
You're likely to get differing opinions on what's too much and what isn't. Personally, I like the results to improve the image (prettier/more handsome and younger) but in a believable way--not totally fantasy. BUT, having said that, there really is no rule against how much you can change an image. Mostly, whatever the subject likes is all the approval you need. BTW, the backgrounds are nice but they will still require some extraction technique. Also, if the subject(s) stand too close to them, they get the light off the backgrounds. Besides reading about this in books, some of the portraits provided to me (on a green background) to work up advertising/CD case/jacket, etc. have shown a green fringe around the edges of the subjects. So, one has to be careful.
A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life".