Is my finished image terrible or good? Please let me know.

[Korupt]

I have a client that I've done work for in the past. She messaged me and asked me to enlarge a photo that is currently 140x 180 pixels to 2400 x 3000 pixels exactly. When she got a water marked version, she did not like the edit.

Is my finished image terrible or good? Please let me know.

Starting image


My edit and enlargement.


Software used. Topaz ai to enlarge. Saved and enlarged again. And then opened in Photoshop 2025. copy paste, cloned, removal tool. burn, dodge, mask painting. Etc. Yes I had clients permission to post this.

 

[IamSam]

The two red arrows point to poorly edited areas of the image. Her hair, in general, was not selected well.

I'm not sure what's at the top where the yellow arrow is pointing!

 

[Rich54]

In addition to @IamSam's observations, I'm noticing that her facial features seem to have changed quite a bit in the edit. When I look at the images side by side, the shape of the eyes, nose, mouth, teeth and ears are very different. For example, the eyes in the edit are squinted much more than in the original and the left eyebrow (our left) is thinner and shaped differently. Her original ear seems longer and narrower than the edited ear.

Was the edit done using AI functionality? It looks like AI substituted generic facial features rather than cleaning up the original image as best as it could. In fairness, it's a tough ask to enlarge this tiny image by nearly 20x.

 

[IamSam]

Was the edit done using AI functionality? It looks like AI substituted generic facial features rather than cleaning up the original image as best as it could. In fairness, it's a tough ask to enlarge this tiny image by nearly 20x.

Sorry Rich, this was my fault. I edited the original post thinking I made it more understandable and I thought I left this part in............
Korupt said.........Software used. Topaz ai to enlarge. Saved and enlarged again. And then opened in Photoshop 2025. copy paste, cloned, removal tool. burn, dodge, mask painting. Etc. Yes I had clients permission to post this.

The original post was very confusing in how it was worded. I had hoped that I could make it more understandable. I felt the bottom line was the OP asking about the FINAL edit.

Also, the OP stated that they asked for other photographs to reference her eyes and ears. Said she was squinting in each photograph.

 

[Rich54]

Sorry Rich, this was my fault. I edited the original post thinking I made it more understandable and I thought I left this part in............
Korupt said.........Software used. Topaz ai to enlarge. Saved and enlarged again. And then opened in Photoshop 2025. copy paste, cloned, removal tool. burn, dodge, mask painting. Etc. Yes I had clients permission to post this.

The original post was very confusing in how it was worded. I had hoped that I could make it more understandable. I felt the bottom line was the OP asking about the FINAL edit.

Also, the OP stated that they asked for other photographs to reference her eyes and ears. Said she was squinting in each photograph.

Ah, this makes more sense now. I can see that the eyes, etc. come from this other photo. Tough assignmernt.

 

[Korupt]

Ahh I understand. Thank you so much for your help iamsam and rich54. I made another attempt. Enlarged it in Photoshop this time. Then used topaz photo ai focus feature. I can see what you mean though, the ai model it uses to fill in the gaps, is hit and miss.


Do you believe I could ask for $ for this revision? Or has the "ai" feature made her face too round. She appears to have sharp features. Like her chin and cheeks (face).

 

[Rich54]

This new one seems much more natural to me and recognizably from the same original photo. You have a minor selection mistake on the upper-right edge of the hat, where it looks like a chunk has been snapped off.

My only other comment, and this may be a matter of personal taste, is that most of your edges are so razor sharp that they call attention to themselves. An example is the edge of the hair where the arrow is pointing. Even in real life, if you're standing two feet away from someone, hair doesn't really have an edge like that. I think the whole image would benefit from a slight feathering of the edges. But that's just my personal preference.

 

[IamSam]

I'm not sure how this has managed to slip by you! You really need to inspect your edits better before posting.



Who is selecting the background colors, you or the client?

 

[Babine]

As has been stated, you may have rushed this one. My suggestion is to constantly refer back to the original to see what effect, negative or positive, each filter, tool, etc has made. Applying these changes to a duplicate is always best so that any results that don't look right can be masked out or the duplicate simply deleted.

Here's an example, starting with duplicate of the original, applying Topaz Photo AI to enhance her facial features, denoise and sharpen. From there, I used the clone tool on a new layer to sharpen any fuzzy edges and added a bit of colour and contrast to her face using curves adjustments at various opacities and the included mask.

 

[Korupt]

Rich54 Thanks. Feathering good idea.

Iamsam. Your absolutely right. Holy moly. I just used the auto remove background in photoshop "2025".

Babine: That's really smart. Curve adjustments. Never thought of that for people. Thanks dude!