Natalia_Taffarel wrote:
You want MORE detail in the hair, not less

The rest I love, specially the beard.

x

What should I have done to achieve this? (I know very little about photoshop. All I did in this photo was play with levels and saturation, the clone tool, the patch tool, spot healing, slight dodging and burning, and a little liquify.... That's pretty much all I know.) The original photo didn't have a lot of hair detail to begin with.

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Krunoslav-Stifter wrote:
This is just me, thinking out laud.


Overall, good start. Love how you rebuild the beard.

A few comments; I think highlights on the cheek, nose and the forehead are a bit too bright. Looks oily to me. But not in a good sense. The model already has light skin, so having such bright highlights might be too much. Tone them down a bit, and surface area of them is too large for my taste. Make them more subtle, and more precise, if you know what I mean.

Alternatively you can make the entire skin darker, and live the bright highlights, just smaller. This is probably something I would do. Model already has that type of face, and he hair is dark. His cooler bones are sticking out, it's a distraction. I would tucked it in. Unless, you were going for the skinny type look. In that case it could be an asset.He is pretty skinny, to begin with.

My main advice is to use D&B more subtly, and to tone the skin down a bit.

You are so right about the highlights! I looked at them and thought they might be a concern, but then for some reason... I kinda liked it? Weird. I did actually darken his body because his face ended up being darker than his body after I was done messing with levels... I think I didn't pay attention to the fact that it also darkened the shadows created by his jutting clavicles (then again, I... also kinda like jutting bones. Ew, I know. LOL) I probably should have dodged them back a little to blend better.

What suggestions do you have for me to dodge and burn more subtly?

Thanks!!!

Shon D.- Homme wrote:
What suggestions do you have for me to dodge and burn more subtly?
Thanks!!!

It's hard for me to explain it by writing. (Actually, I'm too lazy. )

But this is what I mean:



Use the dodge & burn, to emphasize the shape. Not just the highlights. You can do that using other methods.

Work on the shadows, as well as the highlights. Ad more volume to the image, but don't cheat. By that I mean, don't ad the highlights where there is no light at all. It just ends up looking fake. The more you can even out the color of the skin, the better it looks. And at the end, just desaturated a bit. It gives is more professional look.

There are tons of things I could say about the whole process, but I'll leave it at that.

Cheers!