I made a mom cry today

[LightWriter6208]

when she saw what I did to her senior daughter. The girl has severe acne and is allergic to the medicine for it, but they wanted her face to look good for her senior pictures.
I did a lot of playing and don't remember exactly what I did, but mom cried and dad nearly did when they saw this.
I was pretty proud of the results.

Alice

[Mrs. Swampy]

Alice - WOW!!!

[LightWriter6208]

Thank you, Connie.
I found a great plug in for PS called Kodak Digital Gem Airbrush Pro...It does an awesome job smoothing skin without looking "plastic".

[Mrs. Swampy]

Is it a free plugin? If so and if you haven't already you should post it in this link or tutorial sections to share with others.

[Melody]

GO Alice!!! Your doing it!!! Congratulations! :)

You should be proud of yourself :)

There are no tears better then those of joy!

Melody

[sandman]

Allice i remember about a year back you asked for help cutting things out , your first efforts were awfull :lol:
No need to ask for help now , you could proberbly teach me a thing or two .
Brilliant job .


Brian

[Linda G]

Alice, that's a Pro job! and I should know, I do that every day. (clone tool, healing brush)

You are lucky to get the reaction, though. I send mine on, hoping to know they'll be pleased or surprised yet never get to hear. It sometimes changes their appearance so much, I'm sure they look at it in amazement to see what they could/should look like!

GO ALICE!!!

[Linda G]

one small critique...the catchlight in her right eye should be changed to the one o'clock position to match the left eye, as they are now, it's a mirror reflection of the other.

[LightWriter6208]

Thank you everyone for your comments and help...I see what you mean about the eye, Linda...I didn't know what else to do with the eye, except to take the left eye, flip it over and put it on the other one. I am a little reluctant to "fix" something structural like that because it's not natural to them...Like taking a picture of me and trying to make me look skinny...it just ain't me! Her parents loved the "fixed" one, but believe it or not, her dad ordered the prints with the eye in the original position...he said thats her..but mom wants one with the eye corrected.
I strongly suggest checking out that Digital Gem Airbrush...that is such a good tool that it made even ME look like a PS pro..lol If anyone gets Rangefinder Magazine, they did an article on it a month or so ago.
Thanks again, everyone...your words mean soooo much to me.

Alice

[LightWriter6208]

Here is the link for the Airbrush tool...it's well worth the hundred bucks..http://www.asf.com/products/plugins/airpro/pluginAIRPRO.asp


Alice

[HulaMike]

Beautiful girl. You've worked magic here.

[Igor]

Alice, you did a magic work! Way to go!

[LightWriter6208]

Thank you all...you've been very encouraging for me.

Alice

[HulaMike]

she's a beautiful young woman, you can see it in her eyes. She'll outgrow the acne.

[Andre]

Nice edit Alice!
I have this mole...

[Sleeping Bear]

I don't know what to say. Beautiful work, Alice. When do you start offering classes? :)

[Bill C]

Very nice work.....and, you must feel proud/good at the mother's response! (makes the effort worth it!). I'm not a 'pro',however, I take several hundred portraits each year of a youth chorus (free of charge), and quite a few are at the age where they have severe acne. I usually take the time to 'touch up' some of the bad cases - however, I never totally clean-up the skin unless I'm requested to.... even toning down the severity of the acne brings very positive comments.... (I've been using healing brush and neat image for skin touch-up)
Again - very nice work.
Bill

[LightWriter6208]

Thanks again, everyone. You all are making me blush..lol.

Bill, I agree with you about "fixing" too much...especially with something structural. People want to look better, but they still want to look like themselves. It's sometimes easy to cross over that line.

Alice

[Rockyw]

First of all please no one be offended. Thats great work LightWriter6208 but I have to agree will Bill C. We are photographers, not body repairmen. To do to much is like saying, heres what you could look like, but you don't. I think for a parent to ask for that much would be a very large put down of their son or daughter. We never remove moles, birth marks or other things that make a person who they are. A little touch up and some effects are all thats needed. I agree she will grow out of the acme but she or I will never have model looking skin like we can make in photoshop. Lets leave the air brushes for the chevys and be photographers.

[LightWriter6208]

Hi, Rocky...I have to agree with you...I don't mind cleaning up the skin(what she and her parents wanted) but I really don't like making structural changes. Dad ordered prints with her eye as it normally is and mom ordered a couple prints with the eye straightened.
I do think that sometimes we go a little too far with Photoshop editing so that images aren't "photographs" any more.

Can you explain how you did the lighting behind her on your version..I tried to find something like that on some of the other shots I did of her but couldn't get what I wanted. I really like what you did.

Thanks,
Alice

[Linda G]

First of all please no one be offended. Thats great work LightWriter6208 but I have to agree will Bill C. We are photographers, not body repairmen. To do to much is like saying, heres what you could look like, but you don't. I think for a parent to ask for that much would be a very large put down of their son or daughter. We never remove moles, birth marks or other things that make a person who they are. A little touch up and some effects are all thats needed. I agree she will grow out of the acme but she or I will never have model looking skin like we can make in photoshop. Lets leave the air brushes for the chevys and be photographers.


I am the repairman. That is my dayjob in a prolab catering to studio photographers. We do it all, whatever is asked. The majority of photographers requesting retouching do not want natural imperfections removed (moles, scars, etc) but all temporary imperfections (acne, bruises ) to be gone. They want them to look as they would next week or when they grow out of the acne problem. We also many times diminish shadows and wrinkles on other people. Sometimes, airbrushing is almost necessary to get imperfections gone such as in Tina's case, the reworked version wouldn't pass our final inspection process, nor would the first. We have to have SOME skin texture.

We do make some images more than explained above and it seems to be requested more by the photographers on either coast. That trend will probably be moving to the heartland at some time. *sigh* Out with reality!

As for leaving the airbrush to the chevy's, that's a personal choice for the photographer and the client, I wouldn't presume to tell anyone it's wrong. That would be offensive.

[Steve Wynn]

Alice,

Greetings from northwest Ohio. After 28 years in the trade beleive me when I say your work is great. We also "surprise" some each year. People will outgrow the acne, and oothers will forget about it, and it's nice to not dig up those bad teen memories. A short time in PS and you'll create more good will than you can buy. Keep it up.

Steve

[LightWriter6208]

Steve...thank you..that means more to me than you know. Personally, I think I overdid it just a bit, but I really did like the results. I still have a lot to learn.
I just bought the book How to Wow Photoshop for Photography...I think it was money well spent.
I want to learn to restore and repair old photos..I seem to have a knack for it, and it sounds like there is good money in it. I just have to start finding old photos to practice on.

Thanks again...I gladly accept any advice I can get.

Alice

[schreiber]

when she saw what I did to her senior daughter. The girl has severe acne and is allergic to the medicine for it, but they wanted her face to look good for her senior pictures.
I did a lot of playing and don't remember exactly what I did, but mom cried and dad nearly did when they saw this.
I was pretty proud of the results.

Alice

Nice job, but dont you think her eyes are a litlle TOO blue? They almost "glow in the dark".... kinda.

[LightWriter6208]

Hi, Thomas...I did nothing to enhance the color of her eyes...they really ARE that blue.

Alice

[schreiber]

Hi, Thomas...I did nothing to enhance the color of her eyes...they really ARE that blue.

Alice

Hi Alice,

How come they're not that blue on the first shot then? :rolleyes:

One other thing. A lilttle smile on her lips would help a lot imho. She looks very sad and "suicidal"... kinda. Maybe its just me?

[LightWriter6208]

If you noticed the original...you'll notice the whole image is rather dark..(I had lighting problems)..the second image is brighter overall..including her eyes. Also..show me the rule book where it says the subject has to have a big cheesy grin on their face. If you look at a lot of classic portraiture, you'll see that a lot of people don't smile for their portraits.
:monalisa:


Alice

[schreiber]

If you noticed the original...you'll notice the whole image is rather dark..(I had lighting problems)..the second image is brighter overall..including her eyes. Also..show me the rule book where it says the subject has to have a big cheesy grin on their face. If you look at a lot of classic portraiture, you'll see that a lot of people don't smile for their portraits.
:monalisa:



Alice

Calm down Alice :) Im not trying to diss your pictures or PS work. It just seems that her eyes(and lips for that matter) looks like they were placed on an "empty" face. A bit like Mr potato.

I dont know anything theoretic about portraits, and whats "go" and whats "no". My personal taste is just smiling people, cuz they make you smile too. But hey. Do what ever you want. You asked for an opinion, and I gave you mine. Theres nothing more to that.

[hotrodjefe]

well done!