Portrait Retouch Before/After

[ecarder]

A little before and after retouch of a friend's portrait.
Before


He wanted to look a little skinnier.

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

Thanks for sharing. If your looking for critiques, suggestions, or opinions on your work, you will need to invite them.

Here's a reminder from our [Graphic Design Showroom] Section Rules - READ THIS FIRST Please

DO NOT post critiques unless invited to do so by the OP. If invited, please be respectful, polite, and constructive.

 

[ecarder]

well in that case I welcome critiques.

 

[IamSam]

I see where you cleaned up the image and slimmed his face, good job. Nice and subtle.

I do think the B&W conversion is a bit too dark and distracting and needs more even contrast.

 

[ecarder]

you bring up a good point. Is this better?

 

[ecarder]

I notice that saving tiff to jpg is darkening it down a bit.

 

[IamSam]

This is better, but still a bit dark. The face seems fine so I think its the shirt. It's lacking contrast and detail. It looks like his head is rising from a dark void.

I have to run off to work for now. Will check in on this thread when I get home. Take care.

 

[ecarder]

That does help a lot

 

[chrisdesign]

Good job! Your last version looks really great.

 

[agentmoeller]

B/W looks much better than the original, IMHO.

 

[Tom Mann]

IMHO, the umbrella or beauty dish that is to the right of the camera was placed a bit too low (given the angle of his head) with the result that the lighting is starting to look like classical "monster lighting" with both highights and shadows landing in unusual places and coming from unusual directions. It makes the subject's face look like it has unusual dips and bumps. The position of the RH light below the line connecting the subject's eyes is easily seen by looking at the position of the catchlights in the subject's eyes.

Perhaps this is the effect that the photographer wanted to achieve, but, IMHO, this makes the subject look a bit odd and stand-off-ish. IMHO, it doesn't give the impression of a warm but thoughtful person. In addition the OP's most recent version is a bit oversharpened, especially in the beard area, further suggesting a bristly, not-very friendly look.

WRT his shirt, I thought it should be a bit brighter than in the OP's next to last version, but not as bright as in his most recent version.

For fun, I attempted to simulate what the image would have looked light with more conventional lighting (eg, a softbox to the right of the camera and a foot or so higher). The animated gif below compares the OP's latest attempt to my tweaked version. In addition, I've also attached a conventional static version of my concept.

HTH,

Tom M

 

[ecarder]

Thank you for the feedback. Interestingly, I never touched the anything on the last version except added the shirt. I literally opened the file in a new window to bring out the details in the shirt then I brought it in and masked everything in the photo except the shirt.
The lighting feedback is good I think the beauty dish is what is causing the weird shadows, I usually use umbrellas and this was my first chance using a dish in awhile. I was playing with the new digi-bees and this was an impromptu shoot. I just threw everything up in the spare bedroom without really a mind towards anything other than playing with the new lights.

 

[Bobzworld]

practice practice practice and ask questions keep up the good work