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Yet Another "Before & After"

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BooRadley

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I know lots of folks take issue with "retouching", but it sure makes a world of difference to many:



Right out of the camera vs. a little processing for curb appeal.

BooRadley
 
just the right amount of retouching, congrats!
 
Just right. Not overdone but just enough to help some improvements. How did she like it?

--
carrie
 
Boo,
JUst some simple critique:
The yellowish hilite above the right eyebrow breaks up the forehead.

The double shadowed area in the left eye corner pushes the left eye out and elongates the nose.
The hilte under the lower right lip could be blended in better.
The eye tint on the retouch has a reddish cast.
The hilite on the nose could be minimized further.

The hilted smile wrinkle on the left side of the mouth breaks up the symmetry of the face somewhat.

The smile wrinkles that attach to either side of the nose 'pull' the nose out a tad.

Remember, these are just critiques and I would imagine that the retouch is done this way to minimize the fact it's been retouched. However, the lighting to start with was the major cause of the exaggerated wrinkles and hilites. Plus, the white background only serves to amplify the contrast.
Keep up the good work,
VG
BooRadley said:
I know lots of folks take issue with "retouching", but it sure
makes a world of difference to many:



Right out of the camera vs. a little processing for curb appeal.

BooRadley
Click to expand...
 
I guess there are different levels of retouching.

If you have a customer who may be a bit sensitive to their age and longs for the olden days, what you did is great!! Excelent!! Just right!!

However, if you take a photo and change the sky from cloudy to sunny with billowy clouds you may be in a different situation.

Then again, if you like it and don't misrepresent it, fine.
 
Thanks for the comments all.

VG...I was going to email you, but you're email address is not accessible here. I appreciate your frank commentary. I wanted to follow up on your comment about lighting being a source for accenting the wrinkles.

While the key light was in a fairly standard camera-left position, I tried to fill in with two secondary lights and a white card underneath. The main was a "beauty dish" not a softbox.

I'm curious what else could have/should have been done. I knew going in she did NOT want wrinkles--she made that very clear. I tried to do minimize them...but seem to have made them more noticeable.

I'm reasonably happy with my efforts to minimize them (your comments excepted, of course!), but I'm also curious what I could have done with lighting to minimize them BEFORE Photoshop.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

BooRadley
 
Boo,

I recently did a retouch of a woman about the same age and with similar skin and wrinkles. She too wanted them reduced. I did take them down, perhaps farther than I thought I should. The photographer who I did the work for thought it was about right; and, as it happens, so did she. She loved it and thought it was the best portrait she had taken in years. She had been a national beauty queen. I did make a back-up version with more skin and wrinkels showing through. I made a layer of the background image and reduced opacity so that the retouch showed through and with a layer mask cleaned up the image and reveal the other corrections.

I like the work on the neck. On my screen, there seems to be a bit of a "hot" area on her forehead. not blown, but a tad bright.

Nice work.
K
 
Hello,

Hope you don't mind me trying your image....

I think yours looked great, but a little artificial. All I did was to copy your redo, past it on top of the orginal, and reduced the opacity of the top layer. This allows for her "real" wrinkles to still be there, but to be more sublte, therefore (in my opinion) creating a little less "painted" look. Then again, maybe I'm crazy.

Yours:



Mine: (on left)



Difference is sublte, but there nonetheless. Haha, maybe it's mute.

--
Small Gallery at http://www.pbase.com/fotoss
 
I then hope this is not "yet another" well done :-))

Because you did very well, just enough, you kept the character or the subject very well and did not made it look fake. Very well done!

--
JClaude
http://www.opusmeum.com
Personal Creative
 
When you start mixing lights, trying to fill and then adding reflection, often your lights get so mixed that they fight each other. Solution, go back to one light, get away from the classic tilt-shoulder head up so chin won't sack pose. From the looks of the pose, the lady is a bit tense, and this is another thing that adds to the sharpness of the creases.

I did a one-click makeover using a new portrait plugin that I'm working on with Imagenomic, the makers of Noiseware. More effect than your original, but the purpose here is to show you some key differences with contrast. You'll notice the contrast of the face and even hair subtly alters to give an even tone all over. The plugin creates a mask layer so the sky is the limt as to how you apply it.
http://vizualgroove.com/vg/a.htm

Also, the 2nd image was a quick cutout, placed on a contrasting background with a bit of contrast added to the image itself. Not prime time, but you should see the difference in a more contrasted lighting look as opposed to filling in everything.
Regards and HTH,
VG
PS..sorry 'bout the email but was getting too many asking for 'free' advice.
BooRadley said:
Thanks for the comments all.

VG...I was going to email you, but you're email address is not
accessible here. I appreciate your frank commentary. I wanted to
follow up on your comment about lighting being a source for
accenting the wrinkles.

While the key light was in a fairly standard camera-left position,
I tried to fill in with two secondary lights and a white card
underneath. The main was a "beauty dish" not a softbox.

I'm curious what else could have/should have been done. I knew
going in she did NOT want wrinkles--she made that very clear. I
tried to do minimize them...but seem to have made them more
noticeable.

I'm reasonably happy with my efforts to minimize them (your
comments excepted, of course!), but I'm also curious what I could
have done with lighting to minimize them BEFORE Photoshop.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

BooRadley
Click to expand...
 
Not much has been said about the lighting. Why do so many wannabes try to get involved with several lights when doing portraiture. There is only ONE sun. If you are using a second light, then establish a lighting ratio. Easy: use ONE light and a reflector for fill. You'll avoid the ugly double catchlights that barks the look of a cheap school picture photography. In the case of our retouch subject you will be able to shadow the near cheek and thereby creating a slimmer profile. Also in this case, the wrinkles will be subdued a bit.

After starting like many, using several strobes, I went to a one-light strobe setup & reflectors for fill. Simple, esy, effective. If needed perhaps a background light & a hair light (for separtaion).

Others have done a fine job than I on retouch suggestions. The only crit I have is that the subject's left eye shows too much brightness (in the white of the eye)---> distracting!
 
fotos said:
Hello,

Hope you don't mind me trying your image....

I think yours looked great, but a little artificial. All I did was
to copy your redo, past it on top of the orginal, and reduced the
opacity of the top layer. This allows for her "real" wrinkles to
still be there, but to be more sublte, therefore (in my opinion)
creating a little less "painted" look. Then again, maybe I'm crazy.
Click to expand...
You're most definitely not crazy. Huge improvement.
 
I really like hearing alternative views and opinions. I've been trying to come up with a standardized format for a certain type of business portrait and might have fallen into a bit of a rut on things. The comments about lighting and retouching have given me some things to both think about as well as work on.

I will say that most, if not all, of my women clients want a certain level of retouching to diminish age/wrinkles, blemishes and features they find less flattering. It's almost become automatic for me. This is a business portrait for a web site, not a "glamor" or "hang on the wall" portrait. Again, perhaps I reverted to my familiar pattern.

In any event, I have another session this weekend for a woman wanting a similar type of business portrait for the web...I'll try and do things a bit differently and see where we end up.

Many thanks for the comments/suggestions and alternative approaches. It's appreciated.

BooRadley
 
Boo,

That's a cool attitude to have and I wished I worked with more people like that in the real world...hehe.

I shoot quite a bit of this very same thing and one item to bear in mind is that your standard head and shoulders business shot is going to limit your final 'look' as these poses don't lend well to flattery, especially with typical 3:2 3 or 4 light comps. Explain that to your client and you may have some more leeway to work with.

Also, 2 of the most successful real estate brokers that I know of use semi-glamour type shots in all their ads. I was talking to one of them the other day and asked her how those type of shots affected her business. She said that it was the smartest dang thing she ever did with advertising. Even though she is getting along in years, the shot was tasteful without the overdone look but at the same time was a good ways from the typical business shot.

Your typical business shots that people keep harping on were designed with men in mind so I'll let you think on that one....ehhh!!
Keep up the good work,
VG
BooRadley said:
I really like hearing alternative views and opinions. I've been
trying to come up with a standardized format for a certain type of
business portrait and might have fallen into a bit of a rut on
things. The comments about lighting and retouching have given me
some things to both think about as well as work on.

I will say that most, if not all, of my women clients want a
certain level of retouching to diminish age/wrinkles, blemishes and
features they find less flattering. It's almost become automatic
for me. This is a business portrait for a web site, not a "glamor"
or "hang on the wall" portrait. Again, perhaps I reverted to my
familiar pattern.

In any event, I have another session this weekend for a woman
wanting a similar type of business portrait for the web...I'll try
and do things a bit differently and see where we end up.

Many thanks for the comments/suggestions and alternative
approaches. It's appreciated.

BooRadley
Click to expand...
 
VG...got an example of what I should be shooting for? I'm curious what "style" you go for or what you would recommend. I have this particular set up down pat...it's time to go for a different "look". Suggestions welcome! Or email me if you like.

Your humble servant,

BooRadley
 
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