Hi,

Doing a makup portfolio, or part, for a friend I'm going into retouching a fair bit more than I usually would so would appreciate some feedback. Although I'm not being paid I'm trying hard on these to see what I can do, push myself and maybe learn bits.

Also the examples she sent over are stunning :


She herself did the models hair and as some of you might have seen in the Photoshopers forum - I've got some work ahead of me. The other girls hair wasn't even and the girl below (some of you will probably recognize) doesn't have the best skin in the world.
The examples are obviously Photoshopped but I'm still concious this should be showing off the makeup not photoshops abilities.

Comments V welcome on both photography + photoshopping, but I'm now concentrating on the photoshopping as I have to work with what I've got.

We took loads of photos but these are some of the poses that the makeup artist chose.







And same again with some more curves


I'm not going to bother much at all with stuff like the shape of their faces - just blemishes, smoothing, hair etc.

I don't know if it's the model's skin tone, but the second shot looks quite dark to me (but I'm not on my [calibrated] CRT right now). It could also be because her shadow is more noticeable on the wall?

The shots look plenty sharp enough though and next to no noise (from what I can see at this size) so upping the exposure shouldn't be a major issue if need be.

thats Bea Sweets work isn't it... marc de groot uses her :)

and janette's skin looks flawless in those photos she'll be well happy

Yep Bea Sweet. Don't know her but these are for Evie, think she works with/for/under Bea.

so bea didn't do the makeup evie did?

this is bea's work isnt it?

The sample photos are Bea's work.

Janette/my photos are Evie's work.

ahhh ok, nice work though, i like the shots, nice and simple

ISO 100, studio lights.


I guess that's my usual style.
Will probably produce a couple of each shot with extra/less levels.


Had quite an extensive play around with different types of smoothing last night.

Tried :
Just gausian (light + dark)
Just Median Noise (light + dark)
Median Noise + Gaussian (light + dark)
Dust + scratches & Gaussian (1 level only)

All as smart objects, playing around withthe different opacities + thresholds.

Found Median + Gaussian (on Lighten + darken) seemed to look the best.
Median threshold - lighten=10, Draken=15
Gaussian lighten - 15, Darken ~40 With Darken on top.
Gaussian Opacity ~ 60%, Median Opacity ~ 30.

SO many bloody variations!

Think turning the Gaussian threshold down might be an idea to reduce bleed close to edges, and then up the opacity.