I am a newbie and picked this pic as a challenge. So I would like general feedback overall, I am interested specifically on the shadow on neck. On my retouch I took shadow behindhead off the wall and wondering what approach you professionals would take. Thanks.



https://www.dropbox.com/s/1l8gl7om2s9lo … g.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b11hbh73uuckb … w.jpg?dl=0

I would also remove the shoulder shadow and fix the background gradient shade in the lower right corner.

You could probably work a little more on the face (under the eyes, lips). Skin still looks a little blotchy.

I hope that helps.

Thank you for the feedback, appreciated

I would not touch the shadow on the wall nor would touch the one on the neck. If the photographer took the image with a hard light, it must be because he/she wanted a hard shadow.

Regarding the rest of the retouch :
- Continue dodging and burning the face and neck, she is still pretty blotchy. Your best bet is to dodge and burn at small zoom setting so you see the whole image and only zoom in if you need too. (look around the mouth, the forehead especially in the hair line area, the highlights camera left)
- You have some orange patches in her neck, shoulder camera right, and between collar bones.
- The lips still need work with dodge and burn and colour correction, they look dry. Look at the corner camera left, it looks more red/orange and the rest of the lip is more pink (this means you need to add some blue (or remove yellow) in this area.
- Blend in the edges of the make up on the both sides of the nose, it looks like the make up artist did some contouring and didnt use the blending brush.
- Reduce the shine under her camera left eye and correct colour in the inner corner, it's slightly cyan, she needs a bit more red.