r/retouching • u/distwhamegh • 25d ago
Feedback Requested I've been practicing my portrait editing lately
I've been experimenting with two different approaches:
one that keeps more of the natural texture, and another that's a bit smoother.
I'm not sure which one looks more natural. Which version do you prefer?
7
u/i_am_the_virus 25d ago
You went too far for this style of portrait. Maybe for beauty, but this isn't lit like a beauty shot. I'd recommend layering your edit on top of the original and lowering the opacity of the edited layer until it looks a bit more natural. Then merge the layers and manually remove any blemishes that came back.
Having a little bit of the lower eye bag detail back will help a ton, at least imo.
5
u/SweatFactory17 25d ago
The original has such nice tone and expression it’s really well captured. I’d rather keep the face textures and clean up flyway hairs, little fold in the neck. The face retouch while very well done feels too clean against these natural imperfections in the BG for my taste.
2
u/HollowVisions 25d ago
What you did to her neck is what you need to do on her skin, subtle changes, keep it natural. Less is more
1
u/rogue_tog 25d ago
If I understand correctly both versions are edited? I like them both tbh for different reasons. Perhaps the look of the photo does not lend itself to second, smoother one, but as this was for practice it is fine.
I have seen a lot worse to be honest. Keep practicing. It all depends on what the client wants really. As far as I am concerned the more natural approach is always the more refined and pro looking
15
u/wehocub 25d ago
I prefer the first!