Hi guys

Below is my first effort at split frequency Dodge & Burn. I'm a photographer not a Retoucher but love post processing my images.

I've been working through the tutorials recommended here in the Forum and wanted to know what I've done wrong, what I've missed etc and generally  how I can improve on this image.

Image on the left is the original, converted from the raw file with no processing. The image on the right is the retouched image.

Thank you in advance for your help.

NB. The shot was at 1.8 hence the very narrow plane of focus and the soft nose tip (I've not blurred it).

Hey Drew,

I think you are a bit mixed up by mentioning "split frequency Dodge & Burn" one thing is split frequency and another D&B and the uses are completely different.

Regarding your image, first think i noticed is that is too sharp and that's probably caused by choosing the wrong radius on your Split if you have applied it otherwise I thing is over sharpened, if you pay attention to the eyes you will see thats far too much sharpeness there. I another think is you have applied the split on the whole image without taking in consideration texture that's why it looks a a bit fake. Regarding the nose, you can always try to bring some texture back as at the moment what you've done is making more obvious the issue of being out of focus.

I would suggest to try to understand/practice a bit more those techniques and also texture, if you have one side of the image with really contrasty/sharpened texture the other side has to have at least some sore of it too to have a bit more balance. The same with eyebrows, mouth, hair, etc.

Try maybe working on that and maybe repost your image and we will see from there.

Hope that helped!!

Best

J

Getting a critique in here is like pulling teeth!

LOL

Thank you for yours. It wasn't unappreciated, just thought there might be more opinion.

I guess general critique in the main forum would have been better.

Hey Drew,

No, this is the right place!! If you posted on the main forum it will get moved here!!!

Hi Drew...

I definitely agree with Javi.  One of the common mistakes I see are when people try to use split frequency (or other similar techniques) as a sort of global effect. I don't see much of where you actually used dodge & burn here.

The trick is to be able to identify the correct frequencies for various local or selective areas.  Different frequencies are more appropriate for different areas than others.  Sometimes if you do one frequency to a large area with different textures, it will actually accentuate textures and details you may not actually want to bring out.

As a rule with myself, I usually like to stick with mostly dodge and burn and only use split frequency techniques as a slight sort of finishing technique, just to bring less obvious details together (if that makes any sense).  I find it usually brings better, more realistic results (even if it may take a little longer). 

I do like how you attempted to bring out the eyes though, but I would also agree they seem a bit too sharp (at least the eyelashes do).