# Opinions Please!!



## samurai_ag (Mar 31, 2008)

I have been working overtime trying to learn the tricks of photoshop as far as portraits. Tonight I think I made a breakthrough and would love to hear everyones opinions on these before and after pictures. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to respond.

Here you go!


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## Arlon (Feb 8, 2005)

Just brightening the eyes helps a lot, definately like the edited version better.


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## samurai_ag (Mar 31, 2008)

Thank you ...I was trying to soften the skin on the face and make it more pleasing to the eye...we had been walking for a while and that shot was sort of random and I wanted to see what I could do with those conditions


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Your skin smoothing looks pretty good. Enough to make a difference, but not so much as to look artificial.


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## MT Stringer (May 21, 2004)

I like the edited version also.
Mike


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## Slip (Jul 25, 2006)

Looks good. What did you do to the eyes to brighten them as well as you did. The softening looks great. Like said by Pocket, it looks good and more natural than plastic.


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## samurai_ag (Mar 31, 2008)

The eyes... I masked everything but the skin areas in a seperate layer and left the eyes and lips in the mask and then sharpened everything in the mask at once...which looking back was probably not the right thing but oh well....then I played with the hue and saturation a little on the masked area and then used match color...not sure what it is really for but it really brings out lighter colors and makes them pop...another way I have learned is to use the lasso to catch the eyes only and use hue and saturation along with unsharp mask and a little match color...


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## Koru (Sep 25, 2006)

i don't know much about what you've done, but 

a) i like the portrait. the composition is good but i am distracted by the dark tree limb in the background and

b) the whitening for the eyes works well, and i notice that it has added a touch of white to her earrings. the bad point is that it seems to have turned the strand of hair on her shoulder to a 'whiter' colour which means either she has a grey streak of hair, or that is a loose thread from her blouse. either way, i also find that slightly distracting.

i'm not going to mention what's natural and what's not. lol that a whole 'nother debate. 

rosesm


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## samurai_ag (Mar 31, 2008)

it's not the greatest shot.....I was mainly working on the skin composure...that was right after I asked her to marry me...I had to get something on that day...


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## Koru (Sep 25, 2006)

samurai_ag said:


> it's not the greatest shot.....I was mainly working on the skin composure...that was right after I asked her to marry me...I had to get something on that day...


congratulations! rosesm


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

Well, well...it worked! Congratulations on the breakthrough and the proposal.

Now the nits...The overall flesh tones look too warm to me. It may be the look you're going for but to me the color shot below looks a little more natural. I don't like the eye treatment. I think it's a little strong, but I agree it's an improvement over the original. Finally I took some liberty working on my B&W skills. If you want them removed let me know...


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## richg99 (Aug 21, 2004)

I certainly liked the second shot, too. There is SO much that I have to learn about PPing that Picasa doesn't allow one to even attempt. 

I liked the smoothing effect of the makeup adjustment, and I loved the brightness adjustment of the eyes.

Leave it to "Ms-notice-everything" ( Karen) to see a single hair that is now reflecting more light. Wives/women all notice so much more detail than this grumpy old guy ever does... Ha Ha...

All in all, I think you should be happy with your photographic and Post-Processing efforts here.

Now, as far as asking the lovely young lady to marry you, and then immediately using her as an un-paid model...way to go!!! We expect more "model" shots in the future! Ha Ha and Congratulations ..
regards, Rich


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## samurai_ag (Mar 31, 2008)

Rusty,

I don't mind of all people you messing with my images...all in all you helped me figure all that out yesterday. I was going for a warm look however I think the background does not get along very well with her skin tones. I have another one that is of her sister that i think I can do more with since it is on a darker backdrop. I'm trying to get Jess to let me do some more of her...but she is very camera shy...which drives me nuts...


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## jasonp (Jun 27, 2007)

*good work*

Looks like you used either gausian blur or the healing brush. I think you did a good job. I prefer the magig tool/gausian blur option for skin softness. The healing tools works good in some situations.


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Here's another good smoothing technique. Copy the background layer to a new layer. Go to that layer, apply a Guassian blur of around 30-40 pixels. Now change the transprancy/opacity of that new layer to around 40%. Now, turn it into a layer mask, and use a soft edge brush to selectively apply the softness where you want it on the mask.


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## rangerjohn (May 15, 2006)

i like the image but like koru said the tree distracts me
(short attention span) 
maybe try to blur the background more? or darken the back a little more?


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