Koray wrote:
There is a very thin line between retouching and digital art. What you posted above look more art than retouching to me.
Sure you are using retouching techniques but you also apply some very radical adjustments which normally would piss photographers and/or art directors off unless they specifically ask for them.
You are also using way too much extreme dark and light values which may be a problem for print.
You also may want to revise, improve your approach to skin and details.

Retouching for other people is less fun than making images to your liking. I never had one paying job that I was told to do as I wish. All were strictly monitored with specific instructions.

Good luck and keep it up.

PS: I think I remember that you like to write looong replies. Dont.

First of all, I only really wanted a critique of my album, NOT my communication skills, so keep your comments of other thing like that to yourself unless asked.  Especially since such issues have nothing to do with "digital art and retouching."  If you don't wish to communicate with me based on my replies, then I suggest you NOT comment on my posts.  This is a forum, meant for conversation, and last I checked, conversations had more substance than one word answers.

Anyway, now that THAT'S out of the way, thank you for the feedback.  Yes, these were all done on my own free time from stock images, which is why some are more "artsy" than others.  The only one that was commissioned was the last image, number 4.  I was asked to change things like the lip color for example, so yeah, still kinda looks "artsy" I guess.  Indeed, skin is very tricky, I'll be sure to work on that.  Hmm, I never thought about the contrast that way.  I see what you mean now with certain ones....like maybe number 3?  Or just all of them?  Haha.  Anyway, thank you for the feedback on my work! ^_^

Alfiere wrote:
this is a forum not ad space.

Uh....yeah.....so why the ad?

HuggleMistress wrote:

Uh....yeah.....so why the ad?

The subtly of sarcasm in my ad was at best bull-in-china-shop in its lack there of.

KKP Retouching wrote:
1)  Her hair is too dark- you lost a lot of detail.  Skin work is pretty good, especially considering what you started with.  Lips still need work.  Her eyebrow closest to the camera looks like you painted it in (near her nose).  It needs texture.  I can see from the before that there wasn't much there, but you need to create some.  Probably from whatever global processing you did, the background is posterized... so you might want to just replace it with a dark grey color and add a tiny bit of noise to blend with the rest of the photo.  One more thing- her eyelashes are kind of grey still from the fallout that the MUA (or lack there of) didn't fix with mascara.

2)  I'm not a fan.  I know a lot of people like that look, but I think you went too far with her skin... there's hardly any detail left.  Also, her eyes look overdone with contrast- there are some strange colors in it now.  Again with the painted eyebrows- they need texture.

3)  I like this one.  My only complaint would be if it needed to be printed, there's quite a bit of posterization from adding all the contrast, especially on the backdrop and her chest.

4)  This is your best one.  It's conservatively done, her skin looks nice, and the new lip color matches nicely.  I like what you did with her eyes, especially in contrast to that other girl in #2.  I probably would have softened her lip texture a bit, though.  Maybe dodge some of those shadowy creases so she didn't look like a desert.

1.)  Thanks!  Yes, someone has mentioned things about contrast and things being too dark to me before.  I'm certainly going to start working on that. XD Haha and thanks for pointing out the lashes.  I wasn't sure what the heck was going on so I just left it.  Bad bad bad on my part.  Haha.  Hmm, I am proud of this particular edit.  I'll definitely fix it further.  ^_^

2.) Thanks.  Yeah....I guess this one is more of a manipulation than a retouch.  Still, I agree about what you said about texture.

3.) Thank you.  Posterization....what do you mean exactly just to be clear?  Do you mean the contrast is too strong?  Like the darks may be too dark?  If so, I agree. XD

4.) Thank you!  Strangely, this is one that I actually did for someone as TF work.  It wasn't just something done on my own time like the ones above.  Hmm, maybe working with boundaries helps stop me from over editing photos?  Hahaha.  Good tip about the lips.  I'll try that out and see how it works.  Thank you so much for all the critiques!  I love these helpful replies. ^_^  I really am trying to learn here, so the more detailed the better.

MP Retouch wrote:
Just a friendly heads-up: #3 is from F2FStocks, who's terms of use indicate written permission is required for use outside of deviantart.

Thanks.  Actually, I've sent him or her a note via DevArt requesting permission....though I haven't gotten a reply yet.  I'm really hoping he or she does reply.  Still, you're right, I probably shouldn't have this up, especially without the permission of course.  Sigh...I have to redo this edit anyway.  I could have done better.  XD  haha, thanks for the heads up though! ^_^

KKP Retouching wrote:
A short trip to Google can be your friend. 
Posterization: gradients become rough and ugly.  Usually with strange colors that didn't seem to be there before suddenly appearing in a hard pixelly mix.

Ah, I see what you mean.  Ewww, now I'm seeing it in lots of photos. XD  Hmm....so how do you get rid of the posterization...or how do you prevent it?