Before and After

gmonkeh

I've been reading non stop since last night and found a few new tricks to add to my processing arsenal.

I'd love to know what you guys think of the post work.

Before




After

Swartzy

There are parts of the final version I like
but will add some exceptions. Here face now seems a bit pale in areas as though the vibrancy of her facial tones were removed. It's difficult to put into words so allow me to attempt articulating what I mean:

The darkening of her eye sockets is too deep making for too great a contrast with the rest of her skin. The overall skin color is flat/white/washed compared to the original. I like the accentuated eyelashes (like a nice eyeliner job) and would think that on the original version would be better suited. Overall, I think the first shot is wonderful as it is...a little softening would work but not to the point to where cheekbones as in the 2nd are shadowed putting the rest of the face out of balance.


BTW, I appreciate you taking the time to write up what you did on your last series. I was messing around with it today.....nice recipe. Thanks!

Jeffro

I don't care for the treatment. She looks like she has that white pancake makeup, they used way back when, on her face. Kind of ghostly.

LilleG

Too pale, too plastic? Something halfway between the two, maybe?

Scotty_R

Some very basic correction techniques to the original such as a levels correction, brightness & contrast, gentle gaussian blur to the face with a duplicated layer then blended with the background layer, slight sharpening of the eyes and lips would serve the image better in my opinion. The treatment on the second image is just too much and the texture of the facial skin doesn't match the texture of her neck at all--it's like you've put a head on top of someone else's neck. The original lighting is flat and unappealing as is the pose to me. It's better to create contrast of highlights and shadows with the original lighting setup rather than buring/dodging them into the image in post, and shooting from a higher camera angle or having her drop her chin a bit would have eliminated the rather prominent nostrils that look like two dark holes in the middle of her otherwise very pretty face. Painting some light into her hair or shooting with a hair light would have separated her from the background. Without any highlight in her hair it looks as if she's stuck onto a dark blue sheet. Sorry if this is too harsh, but sometimes less really is more.

JimM

I like before better than after.