Greetings everyone!

Well, as photographers we're always seeking to do better, to improve & to deliver the best work that we can possibly do so; and it all comes from invested learning time and practice.

I've been photographing for a few years and I want to be able to improve from where I am currently to a more "high end/magazine (super) ready" side of things. I know that in fashion, EVERYTHING counts and its all well calculated but what do you guys think I should do to improve the "quality" per say of the images? Here's an example of a before and after of an image I shot & edited:



Hoping to hear from you all.

Regards.

I'm not a fashion guy, nor a Photoshop expert, so take the following for what it's worth.

The ONLY thing I like about the edit is the background. Everything about the model except her face looks fake and cartoonish and you blew out some of the highlights. I like how you darkened her eyebrows, but you should have minimized the glare in her glasses. You plasticized her skin and added a strange light spot under her chin.

I'm sorry, but I don't like it at all.

Edit: Taking another look, I realize you didn't blow out the highlights. You changed shadows to highlights THEN blew them out. I can't figure out why you would do that.

Just my two cents.

I like the post work you did on the skin, but as stated above the areas where there were once shadows, and now just white, is distracting. The area around her belly, under her coat, was the first thing I noticed. I wondered what the hell that thing is under her jacket. Not a good thing when that's the first thing you notice and the model is supposed to be the focus of the photo.

Personally if you would take off the whole shadow effect, I would love the photo.

I just can't get past the styling and camera angle of this image.

IMHO, the stuff in your MM portfolio is much better than this in every way including post processing.