My first shot at photo-touchup

[dustydirtbiker]

Ok, I'm self taught in photography and photoshop. This is my first attempt at touching up. Let me know how I did and how I can improve my final picture. There is a before and after and hopefully, you will know which is which... haha. Ignore the eyes a bit. She wanted them to be really vibrant crazy. The original had a blue contact and it was off-center.

[DJ.]

Looks pretty good.

Hope you don't mind my editing. If you do, I will gladly remove it.

I created another layer to work on the eyes. I changed the blending mode and dodged a bit on the colors.

[dustydirtbiker]

what'd you do with the skin? It is blurred, but not too 'shopped...

Cool effect with the eyes too. Any help with that would be great too!

[liteonphotography]

i believe he dodged the red.

[rickm]

I think the one by DJ is overdone and no longer looks like real skin. I think something between yours and DJ would be better. There still is a small amount of red splotchiness that would look better removed.

[donlfaulkner]

Originally Posted by liteonphotography

i believe he dodged the red.

Showing my ignorance here. What is "dodged"?

[dpena]

dodged is a tool in adobe photoshop (not sure if others have the same tool or not) but its kinda like a stamp tool. used to take a good sample of a certain area and "dodge it to another area. making the unwanted area blend or make as good as another area. did i make sence or is that confusing too ?

[VincentHerrera]

Originally Posted by donlfaulkner

Showing my ignorance here. What is "dodged"?

If you want to really understand Photoshop as a photographer, you could read up on/take a class on darkroom technique. Most of the terms and underlying MO of the photographer's usual tools are meant to mimic these.

Dodging is meant to underexpose (lighten tones and/or desaturate hues) a specific portion of the image.

[Larry_L]

Originally Posted by dpena

dodged is a tool in adobe photoshop (not sure if others have the same tool or not) but its kinda like a stamp tool. used to take a good sample of a certain area and "dodge it to another area. making the unwanted area blend or make as good as another area. did i make sence or is that confusing too ?

Whoops! That's the clone tool that does that.

[copper]

Dustin,

Gave it a shot.. Look and let me know. I have a tut saved from a site that I can post.

[donlfaulkner]

Thanks David, Vincent, and Larry. I'll look and see if it is in Gimp. Photo Shop is a bit too pricey for my ragged shoestring just yet.