Retouched - portrait

[GrahamH]

Evening all,
For those of you who believe in non retouched pics, stop reading, this will only upset you .
Comments and critique welcome.
I shall post the original in a while for comparison.

Thanks in advance.
Graham

[Polar01]

Graham lovely image and well done, only thing that draws my eye is her teeth, something to my way of thinking is not right, need to work on them to clean them up. Two in the front look like planks they are flat no roundness to them at all.

Cheers:

Allan

[GrahamH]

Thanks Allan,
I see what you mean. They are her natural teeth, only whitened the crevices a touch but left the shape alone.
Perhaps I should reduce the teeth on the edges to give them a little more rounded shape. More the left hand front one than the right.
Graham

[Digital]

Graham, nice photograph. Bruce

[GrahamH]

And here is the original image.
The idea is to promote the spa for hair and make-up, with the retouched image as the hook for me to make profit.
Hopefully good enough for people to want to have a retouched image of themselves.
I used a flat lighting deliberately to help minimise the 'character lines'. As you can see from the eye reflection, two soft boxes on either side.
The victim - I mean client - loved the final result (OP).
Graham

[Polar01]

Graham: you did some very nice work on your victim sorry client. I helps that she knew how to work that camea, along with nice eyes and bone structure. A weddding photographer who taught at the local community college said that one of the things that most women wanted was a white smile. One way he suggested to us was to select the teeth, copy then to a new layer, then work on them, then blend them onto the orginal teeth. This was a method that he had found the easliest for him.
Again a very nice job.

Cheers:

Allan

[GrahamH]

Hi Allan,
This is one pic of many and I spent quite some time getting her to pose. This one - turn shoulder to camera, drop it slightly to enhance neck (and reduce wrinkles), stretch chin slightly towards camera (again to reduce wrinkles). Not the most comfortable position, but works well to convert 3D into 2D.
So many techniques, so little time.
I usually use a quick dodge (on a transparent layer rather than a 50% grey) if the teeth are pretty decent to begin with. I find it quicker than selecting/adjusting/blending.
If the teeth are noticeably discoloured, I usually desaturate first (adjustment layer) and then dodge. As both are on separate layers, still non-destructive and pretty much the same techniques I would use if I selected, but without having to select.
Even if I need to rebuild the teeth (gaps, broken bits etc.) I still tend to do that on layers over the main image rather than select.
Love to learn new techniques however - and would like to know what advantages selecting the teeth would bring?
Graham

[Polar01]

Graham: to go into more detail of what he did was this. Use selection tool to select teeth, copy to a new layer. select white, paint brush very soft and then paint them white where they needed. He would increase the size to be able to paint easier, once done, overlay, soft light and adjust the opacity to get a nice blend. This allowed him to be able to go back into that layer and adjust later if needed. I do not do portrait work as I think it is too stressful, and I have to give a tip of my hat to anyone who goes into it or wedding photgraphy.
Again nice work on the image.

Cheers:

Allan

[GrahamH]

Hi Allan,
I used to find portraiture very stressful as well. I'm not a natural people person to begin with and it seriously used to freak me out. So, taking said bull by the horns, forced myself into situations where I HAD to interact and take decent pics. I feel that in doing so (as well as other photo genres) it has helped increase my abilities. Uncomfortable it most certainly was. I still feel significant anxiety before a shoot, but people love the interaction and the final results. Thank goodness they are used to happy snaps .
Love to do weddings. Before hand as nervous as anything, but once I get going, it feels great. One chance to get their shot of a lifetime (hopefully), thinking on my feet, eyes wide open and scanning everything everywhere. What a buzz, what a drug.
Graham

[RustBeltRaw]

Ethical/aesthetic issues asides, that's an excellent retouch. I think the un-retouched(?) skin around her chest makes her face look retouched, but only slightly, and it's easily corrected. However, you already said the client loved your work, so I guess this is all academic.

[GrahamH]

Hi Lex,
I retouched the chest area somewhat less than the face (just blurred slightly and blended in). As it is a noticeable difference, guess I shall have to increase the retouching to match. Good eye (darn it).
As the feedback here is from photographers, I actually value your opinion more than the client (in many ways at least). It's easier to please a client than a photographer, however if I can please the photographers, then the client is still happy, but the work is likely to be of greater quality.
The main difference (in my VERY limited experience) is that the clients tend to prefer shots all in focus whereas the photog like artistic DoF effects. Same with composition in some cases. We (as photogs) have a different sense of 'normal' to a non-photographer. I'm sure that many of use get compliments from our non-photog friends about how good our work is, but nobody actually separates themselves from their money.
Graham

[RustBeltRaw]

Clients do have some odd tastes. Sharing my shots on Tumblr and Facebook causes some real head-scratchers in terms of what gets liked and shared around. Fortunately, most of my (relatively few) customers are after architecture and event prints, not portraits. But again, if she liked it, job well done.

[rpcrowe]

"For those of you who believe in non retouched pics, stop reading, this will only upset you .
Comments and critique welcome."

I like the image...

I have an attitude concerning portraits of females! I don't think that a straight documentary passport or driver's license looking image is the way to go.

We begin to edit an image before we shoot by attempting the get the lighting, focal length, camera angle, etc. right so that the subject looks good. Therefore, I have absolutely no problems with doing PP editing to improve the image, as long as it looks natural.

I have also never received complaints from a female subject that the image looks better than she does in real life...

[GrahamH]

...
I have also never received complaints from a female subject that the image looks better than she does in real life...

Thanks for the thought Richard,
So true .
I want to create an image, a photograph is one step of many (neither the first, nor the last).
Graham