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Seeking guidance, portrait retouching techniques

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longboard

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I'm familiar with Lightroom and Photoshop (mostly Lightroom recently), but have little experience retouching portraits. I'm interested in basic workflow and techniques to make portraits "pop." A couple of years ago I sent a portrait that was little more than a snapshot to this forum and a number of people turned it into a masterpiece. Any guidance to start me in the right direction will be appreciated.

My first project is a headshot of my daughter for a business-oriented website. My first attempts are below. I'd also be interested in your opinion on whether these shots are usable, or should I reshoot with better lighting, etc.







 
Tried my best not to go overboard (trust me; I can make her look like she's 21 if you want me too). Do a search here (or elsewhere) on degrunging. I did apply some degrunging but kept her character intact (to my mind's eye of course). Added some soft glow fill flash to also soften her skin some (call it a simulated beauty dish effect). I then added vignetting to cause the subject to stand out from the background. :)



--



Psalm 109:8
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20109:8&version=KJV
 
can't see your image through my firewire but could you detail your technique rather than just highlight the general category ?
 
again, nice work.

Warm regards,

Paul
lylejk said:
Tried my best not to go overboard (trust me; I can make her look like she's 21 if you want me too). Do a search here (or elsewhere) on degrunging. I did apply some degrunging but kept her character intact (to my mind's eye of course). Added some soft glow fill flash to also soften her skin some (call it a simulated beauty dish effect). I then added vignetting to cause the subject to stand out from the background. :)



--



Psalm 109:8
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20109:8&version=KJV
Click to expand...
 
I think that with a little work, the first image makes a nice business headshot. First, I am not a big fan of the wrinkled muslin backdrops, unless the backdrop is blurred. I extracted and replaced the background using Topaz Remask. I also, did some skin softening and lightening of the dark areas below her eyes and also enhanced the eyes. Finally, I applied a warming/glamour filter and lightened the highlights in the hair slightly.



Regards....Allen
 
A bit of Portrait Professional and Corel. The black hair needed separation from BG, skin smoothing and sharpening applied.




longboard said:
I'm familiar with Lightroom and Photoshop (mostly Lightroom recently), but have little experience retouching portraits. I'm interested in basic workflow and techniques to make portraits "pop." A couple of years ago I sent a portrait that was little more than a snapshot to this forum and a number of people turned it into a masterpiece. Any guidance to start me in the right direction will be appreciated.

My first project is a headshot of my daughter for a business-oriented website. My first attempts are below. I'd also be interested in your opinion on whether these shots are usable, or should I reshoot with better lighting, etc.







Click to expand...
--
Only when you can criticize yourself, should you criticize others. Mikes.
 
my take:





Decreased clarity to soften her skin some and shifted her skin tone a bit warmer with lr's adjustment brush, tried not to go overboard with softening, increased some micro contrast (globally) in fx labs and applied a mild vignette, then brought it back into lr3 and then brushed the background to to soften it some and accentuate her.

I also used adjust for "saturation boost" fairly significantly with a global drop in saturation to make her skin tone pop a bit more.

edit: I also adjustment brushed her eyes to give them a bit more pop, increasing clarity slightly, pushing the shadows and increasing saturation.

--
-mark

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_mcd/
 

mikes said:
A bit of Portrait Professional and Corel. The black hair needed separation from BG, skin smoothing and sharpening applied.




longboard said:
I'm familiar with Lightroom and Photoshop (mostly Lightroom recently), but have little experience retouching portraits. I'm interested in basic workflow and techniques to make portraits "pop." A couple of years ago I sent a portrait that was little more than a snapshot to this forum and a number of people turned it into a masterpiece. Any guidance to start me in the right direction will be appreciated.

My first project is a headshot of my daughter for a business-oriented website. My first attempts are below. I'd also be interested in your opinion on whether these shots are usable, or should I reshoot with better lighting, etc.







Click to expand...
--
Only when you can criticize yourself, should you criticize others. Mikes.
Click to expand...
--
Only when you can criticize yourself, should you criticize others. Mikes.
 
--
Melissa aka mustang_fan
 
--
Pixel
 
For a corporate type photo the background should be smoothed.

Your original lighting seemed to emphasize her character lines, thus aging her appearance. The skin needed to be smoothed but keep her natural texture.

The original lighting was verging on a low-key attempt, the facial shadows needed to be lifted to keep your daughter from aging too soon.

I would have touched up the whites of her eyes, but I have to shower for work and dash to the bus stop.
longboard said:
I'm familiar with Lightroom and Photoshop (mostly Lightroom recently), but have little experience retouching portraits. I'm interested in basic workflow and techniques to make portraits "pop." A couple of years ago I sent a portrait that was little more than a snapshot to this forum and a number of people turned it into a masterpiece. Any guidance to start me in the right direction will be appreciated.

My first project is a headshot of my daughter for a business-oriented website. My first attempts are below. I'd also be interested in your opinion on whether these shots are usable, or should I reshoot with better lighting, etc.
Click to expand...



longboard said:
Click to expand...
 
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