Hello everybody,

recently i retouched a photo here onto forum but I'm not happy with her hair...

So I post here the photo so you can see it and ask you how you would make it better?

Thank you for any help.
Faithfully.

Diego

Retouching is not something done per-se and it doesn't have the purpose to replace pre-production, photography and image selection.

Thank you Anchev for writing,

Sure you're right but the photographer started forum told the series were a beauty shoot.

So you surely know hair should be perfect in beauty... and as shoot they sureley don't be good.

I've done a better version with hair thet don't arrive to her shoulder, but then i should crop the image so I preferred keeping more ore less the original size and do that hard retouch that is obiousv i don't like..

But I'm here to do better so I'd like to listen how some others would do the retouch of fix it for a better version.

i don't want you do it but tell me what you would have done if you did it or if you should do it better.

So regarding on what you said you wouldn't have changed hair but just removed some spot hair?

Having fun.

Diego

Thank you Anchev for your kindness,

I appreciate it

Regarding on what the photo is about I really don't know.
This photo is of ConTrol a photographer user here onto MM.
He posted many photos onto challenge section and he is really skilled.
In challenge forum normally photos are posted as they are leaving free the retoucher to retouch the photo as he wants.
The only problem is that in this way you miss to stay on what the owner would like to have done the work.
But the section challenge is to give photo to retoucher to practice on.
I've also listened to someone like to post here some photos to see how others make a retouch of the photo posted.....
Have a nice time.

Diego

it helps if you have experience with a decent hair stylist and worked with hair before. there are many problems with the hair in the original post (this should really be in the critique forum). if it were a hair shot or if the hair is critical, it should be re-shot. otherwise would have cleaned the fly-aways, fixed the rat's nest on the lower left, even up the bangs and leave the rest of the hair alone rather than created or added more hair. the earring on right looks better left as is.

if the client had specifically told me re-shoot was not an option and price was no object, then i would ask for the earrings from the shoot, find a hair model with about the same hair length and color, use the earrings, light it to match and drop the hair and earrings from the new shot in. creating the hair or finding a image with close enough hair (in the correct resolution or better) to drop in would be another option.

                                                     

this was a bad cut done by the model herself, with coloring by one of the best colorists on the west coast. the hair was in decent condition and the model had thick and full hair. that was very helpful since there was plenty of hair to reuse to fill gaps. the lines were cleaned up and the jagged bang ends evened up realistically for the final (this was not a hair shoot, only a studio test).

Thank you Leonard,
for your kind reply.

It's really usefull.

Thank you also for the example you posted.

For me should be a reference final retouch to arrive to.

It's obiouvs I have to practice onto hair matter but you surely know you have to try to learn and do things better.

Tahnk you to give me other thinking to do things..
Faithfully
Diego

As a photographer I would say that the intention behind the image was wet hair therefore the hair shouldn't have been the primary to fix. If you were to clean up the hair I would say leave the shape of the hair and the strays that are around the head in place while cleaning up the strays on the face, decolletage. Unless the photographer specifies to make the hair fuller just leave it as is because it's probably intentional. I think there is so much that could be done with the picture in terms of skin retouch, cleaning up the eyebrows and bangs, color manipulation, making the eyes pop, and cleaning up the makeup on the lips.

Thank you Wes for your kind reply.

Originally I was thinking to do retouch as you said for hair.
But I saw many singles hair on sholders and so few hair on left and right to the head.
Then I saw an hole effect onto head near an eye so I decided to fill new hair there and generally, then I replace also hair onto shoulder (probably the worst looking done to the image retouched).

Sure I focused much more onto hair than onto other details.
to the rest of image I've just done the minimal to make it working as buggy retouch ;(
I keep them to do till "a rainy day" when I will fix this photo and its hair in a better way.
Hopely using your all kind thinking given me here.

Thanks again to all of you

Diego

My own perspective-- the hair itself could use with removal of the strays and perhaps a contrast increase. The primary focus in the photo seems to be the face and I think it could be capitalized on!

The hair itself gives a great opportunity to provide *more* attention to the face and makeup.

This photo of FKA twigs gives an example of what I mean.

https://d1kt6vnx6cjjqh.cloudfront.net/w … -45548.jpg

By cleaning up the hair, increasing the contrast all around, and adding some more intensity to the face (by faux sweat, increase pore detail) and cleaning up the background, I think you could have a very lively and interesting shot without needing to add in additional hair which would be distracting from the other aspects of the photo.

Thank you Justin J for your own vision and contribute.

I will keep in mind.

Regards.

Diego