Making it pop with PP: where to start?

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silverJON

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Jonathan
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Took this portrait of my lovely girlfriend a few weeks ago and only just found it on my hard drive. Sorry for the tight crop! This is how it left my camera.

I don't know really where to start with the kind of PP that makes portraits really pop - I can do the sharpening, dodging teeth/eyes, fixing the bluish tinge, retouching small bumps - but sorting highlights and skin colouring I find more difficult. And it seems like many people have this sort of instinct and know what to do to give a portrait like this some real life, but it just doesn't come naturally to me.

Please could I have some pointers, or ideas? Feel free to edit as you see fit - it's at full size (3008x2000) on flickr.

Thanks very much in advance!
 
Silver Jon

Do not know if this is the sort of thing you are after but here is my shot at it.

4249433384_a4e41db2dc.jpg
 
Cheers Shutterman - that's fantastic, a brilliant start - though I have no idea what you did to do that! Could you give me a clue?

By the way, here's another shot that might be easier to work on or demonstrate with. Pink colouration is the result of a Moroccan Pink flash gel.

 
First off I got rid of the two distracting areas against the hair line, bottom left and top right but cloning.

Then I did a very light skin smoothing to lessen some of the hightlights, added some additional contrast to the overall image and then lightly sharped the eyes lips and eyebrows.

Boosted the colours slightly and then added a vignette.

Hope that helps, I will have a play with the additional image and see what I get out of that one.

If you want I could email you the large version of the previous one.

Just Pm me you mail address

Nigel
 
On that most recent edit, i find the image original more flattering personally, don't know why.
 
lyndsey.jpg


B&W layer set to soft light then adjusted the opacity.
50% Grey layers set to soft light then painted on with Black & White
One for highlights & shadows, one for brows & lashes, and one for a little shaping.
I've also painted pure white in a couple of spots.

Curve to lighten the eyes
High pass on the eyes, lashes and eyebrows too.

No real skin correction done at this point though, as it's just a quick effort.

Oh, and a crop at 10x8 ratio.
 
Or she might just have really blue eyes? :lol:
 
Shutterman said:
First off I got rid of the two distracting areas against the hair line, bottom left and top right but cloning.

Then I did a very light skin smoothing to lessen some of the hightlights, added some additional contrast to the overall image and then lightly sharped the eyes lips and eyebrows.

Boosted the colours slightly and then added a vignette.

Hope that helps, I will have a play with the additional image and see what I get out of that one.

If you want I could email you the large version of the previous one.

Just Pm me you mail address

Nigel
Click to expand...
That would be FANTASTIC - and then I can have a go myself and see how well I can do... .psd is good if possible!


JasonRS said:
lyndsey.jpg


B&W layer set to soft light then adjusted the opacity.
50% Grey layers set to soft light then painted on with Black & White
One for highlights & shadows, one for brows & lashes, and one for a little shaping.
I've also painted pure white in a couple of spots.

Curve to lighten the eyes
High pass on the eyes, lashes and eyebrows too.

No real skin correction done at this point though, as it's just a quick effort.

Oh, and a crop at 10x8 ratio.
Click to expand...

Bloody brilliant - until I can do something as good, that image is now my phone wallpaper... I'll have a go with your technique too and see what I can do that ends up somewhere between your effort and Shutterman's, perhaps...
mastertrinity said:
im amazed that her eyes are so blue straight out of the camera, thats what you get for not buying nikon or canon. go underdogs!!!
Click to expand...
Agreed - and this was only my old Pentax K100D and colours set to natural!

swordjo said:
Or she might just have really blue eyes? :lol:
Click to expand...
Well yeah :love:
 
silverJON said:
Bloody brilliant - until I can do something as good, that image is now my phone wallpaper... I'll have a go with your technique too and see what I can do that ends up somewhere between your effort and Shutterman's, perhaps...
Click to expand...

Subscribe to my blog, I'm working through all of those techniques one post at a time, and explaining myself as I go. I'll be writing the painting on grey post this week, and recording the videos too ;)
 
Thanks for the heads up Jason. Brilliant. I love your conversion and just checked out your links. Very impressed.
 
well i had a quick go. could not work out how to find your flicker account!!
to get full size image so i used the image posted.

before
4249349874_19caea9350.jpg


after
a123.jpg
 
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