Hi guys,

Look what I found yesterday

Fania's Earrings #1



Fania's Earrings #2



What do you think?

** I actually entered the #1 into the contest

I love #1.....nice framing on it. My only suggestion is to see if you can decrease the shine on her nose and cheek

Originally Posted by ic4u I love #1.....nice framing on it. My only suggestion is to see if you can decrease the shine on her nose and cheek

I'm afraid I don't know how to do that...

Originally Posted by photo-bug I'm afraid I don't know how to do that...

Yeah, I'm in the same boat, I'm not sure how either, but I bet Kat knows
But Miss night owl is probably still sleeping....hopefully she'll offer up some tips

What I think though, is that by cropping the photo the way I did, the white on the nose and chick,
is balanced by the light on her eyes and lips, also by the white of her outfit on the
lower right corner of the image...

Originally Posted by ic4u Yeah, I'm in the same boat, I'm not sure how either, but I bet Kat knows But Miss night owl is probably still sleeping....hopefully she'll offer up some tips

I don't know about other people's skills...

- What about the solution for your own photo... did you get it?

Originally Posted by photo-bug I don't know about other people's skills... - What about the solution for your own photo... did you get it?

Still playing with some ideas, thanks for asking

Originally Posted by ic4u Still playing with some ideas, thanks for asking

I know you will get it right

Good luck to you

HI, photo-bug! I really like 1, specially the framing. I think it could benefit from a little bit of brightening and contrast. Have you tried the healing brush or carefully burning the shine off her face?

Lovely photo and the earring fits the theme perfectly! But like Karin, I'm distracted by that shine on her face.

I'm not sure how to remove or lessen that via PS. Have you tried the Shadow/Highlight tool in it? The only other thing you might want to consider is a vertical crop down the center of her face to remove the shiny area entirely. I've moved the photo around on my screen in an attempt to mimic that and it doesn't look bad at all.

OK, I'll do some more work on it.

Thank you very much

I've used the technique recommended by Scott Kelby for removing hot spots with some success.


Make a duplicate layer. Select the clone tool and choose a medium sized, soft-edged brush.

Set the clone tool to darken mode and 40% opacity.

Find an area of skin that matches the tone and run the clone tool over the bright spots. (In your photo, only what is on the side to the viewer's left).

You can further adjust opacity by lowering the opacity percentage of the layer you are working on. For better control, use the Fade Brush function to adjust the opacity of each brush stroke (keeping in mind that the fade function only works on the most recent brush stroke).

Love the concept and, while the roundness shows off well in #2, I agree that #1 is the one for the challenge!!

Good luck!

Va

Originally Posted by ic4u Yeah, I'm in the same boat, I'm not sure how either, but I bet Kat knows But Miss night owl is probably still sleeping....hopefully she'll offer up some tips

==============================

Ha ha. How embarrassing... Miss Karin.. Just Kidding..

Yes, My husband actually made me sleep in today and get some rest.. Usually I am up doing post process on shoots all night and the DG, plus getting up with the kids, so I tend to run myself into the ground and he makes me rest some... Wow, rest feels good..

Ok, on the shine,, this is a super tough one, and I only know of one way and that is if you use Photoshop... I took a copy into photoshop if you don't mind photobug so that I could be sure it worked.. The patch and clone are a little too rough on such light detail..especially a nose bridge,it is the most difficult because you have to worry about the shape distortions too..

The only thing I could get to work with this is painting. I used a brush, size 8, hardness set to 2 and opacity set to 10.. once your brush is set up, then go click on the top color box on the left, your foreground color box.. then be sure to place your dropper right on the color on her skin next to where you are going to paint, then start painting with light stoke clicks. Every time you move to a new area that is a different color then resmaple that color, you want the paint to match the skin in each area.

I did it and it works.. Just keep the pressure of the brush super low and the opacity no higher than 10.. after your done, you can come back in with the healing brush or clone brush and add some texture if ya want to.. If ya need me to I can post that redo for you to see if ya like for reference and so you can decide if you think it will be worth your time..

That is the only way I know how and is usually how I touch up my own client shoots.. If it was anywhere else on the face then layering and masking in skin around it would be my choice, but the nose is the most difficult to work with...

Nice photo by the way, great capture..

Kat

Just now saw Gina's Post... That would work too on a layer.. Scott Kelby is awesome, I have some of his books..

Just remember the idea is to get the shine reduced, you don't want to make it too flat, you want that natural shine, just not so bright.. The shine gives the nose shape. so if you do use the paint option in either one of these methods, be sure to grab your paint color to the left side of the nose...

Good Luck with it...
Kat

Originally Posted by Flyinggina I've used the technique recommended by Scott Kelby for removing hot spots with some success. Make a duplicate layer. Select the clone tool and choose a medium sized, soft-edged brush. Set the clone tool to darken mode and 40% opacity. Find an area of skin that matches the tone and run the clone tool over the bright spots. (In your photo, only what is on the side to the viewer's left). You can further adjust opacity by lowering the opacity percentage of the layer you are working on. For better control, use the Fade Brush function to adjust the opacity of each brush stroke (keeping in mind that the fade function only works on the most recent brush stroke). Love the concept and, while the roundness shows off well in #2, I agree that #1 is the one for the challenge!! Good luck! Va

I actually did some work on it and this is what I got:



I think I used exactly the method you are describing, but I'll take a closer look a little later.

Ha, ha, yes my method was very similar thank you very much Gina :)

Thanks everybody, it was actually not too difficult at all

With the new image, I think it's because he took down the highlights on the face but I really notice the lip piercing more. Maybe burn that down a little, because it's this really bright circle in the middle of all these soft skin tones.

Edit: I was just writing a way to take down the highlights, then looked at the thread again and saw Kat basically came up the same way

Originally Posted by NikonsandVstroms With the new image, I think it's because he took down the highlights on the face but I really notice the lip piercing more. Maybe burn that down a little, because it's this really bright circle in the middle of all these soft skin tones. Edit: I was just writing a way to take down the highlights, then looked at the thread again and saw Kat basically came up the same way

I actually did the retouching before I saw the suggestions above - I can say that it was quite similar
to what Gina said, but I used the healing brush tool instead of the cloning tool - they actually work similar...

After I cleaned up the chick and nose, I realize that now, her lips are popping up :)

I was wondering if I should have faded those too...

... but, I'm sure that if I do, then her eyes will be too shiny (probably...), and so on...
I'll finally arrive to fade her entirely down

Well... I'll give it a try, just for the fun of it, to see what happens ...

Wish me good luck

and Thank you

Here she is again, with the lips faded:



How does she look?

Now I faded a little the lights on her eyes:



How does she look?