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I think I'm done

Started by RosyBijou, February 14, 2007, 01:45:47 PM

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RosyBijou

http://picasaweb.google.com/RosyBijou/OPR/photo#5032341378115310962

OK... yet another version... Glenna, I did take another shot at those rust tones, both in the dress & background and was surprised that it worked!  I posted two colors for the background.  The link above goes towards a greenish tone, scrolling one to the right is more blue.  (The one to the right of that is the same as the link at the beginning of the thread...)  Aesthetically, I think the blue looks cleaner, but I think the rest of the image washes out a little -- and looking more closely at the original, I think that the background was more green...  So what do you all think:  blue or green?

Kurt, I tried to darken/highlight in the eyes and mouth to add some depth like you suggested.  It jumps out at me as a little too harsh, but when I dialed it down a notch, it took on that blank quality again...  I think that the texture that I created early on (to create some tonal contrast so I'd have something to work with) is behaving funkily with the contrast that I just added.  I tried with with the dodge/burn at all different blend modes & opacities as well as with the brush tools.  I have to be honest, I couldn't see any white or iris's on the originals--it all looked washed out to me, but it did bother me that her eyes were blank so I'm glad you brought that up...  I'll be curious to hear what you think...

Those hands!  UGh!  Not sure that there's much more I can do with them...  I think the fingers turned out OK, but the thumb...  (oh, is that a thumb?  :-[)

That all being said, you have no idea how much I appreciate all your kind words...
Kerry
(aka RosyBijou)

kstruve


My vote is for the green background.  I think that it's closer to the original, plus the blue version is too close to the dress color and makes it seem to flat overall.

Hmm.  In the close up of the her head in the original I can definitely see some difference between the whites of her eyes and the irises.  Which is not to say that I see the color "white" in her eyes - it is definitely faded.



Looking Good!

Kurt


Ausimax

Kerry,

I have to agree with Kurt regarding the background colour, and also about the whites of her eyes, check the inside corner of her left eye in you album photo #8, sometimes a touch with the dodge tool is all it needs, other than that you have done a great job pulling so much detail out of that image. :up:

Max
Wisdom is having a well considered opinion .... and being smart enough to keep it to yourself!     MJS

"Life" is what happens while you are planning other things!

RosyBijou

http://picasaweb.google.com/RosyBijou/OPR/photo#5032522823303697826
So green it is!  (That was where I was leaning towards too...)  I noticed this morning that I couldn't really see the eye alterations in my posts from last night--here's a 100% & 300% close-up side-by-side----you can see the eyes in these & I think this is what would show in print...?  The 300% shows the texture that I'm working with--the more I mess with it at this point, the less convincing it seems to me...  (Maybe because I'm looking it too much lately...)  If I were to start this over, I'd texturize it differently... but I'm thinking that this might be as far as I can take it at this point...  ('course that's what I said 3 revisions ago... :D)
Kerry
(aka RosyBijou)

glennab

Hi Kerry

I'd concur with your decision to go with the green background.  As Kurt said, you get more variation and the image looks less flat.  In looking at your enlargements, I can discern the iris in her eye, but barely.  Don't know if that'll show in print or not. One of the books I just barreled through suggested that to lighten eyes or teeth, a good course is to use a brush just a little smaller than the area you want to affect and dodge by clicking over the spot at a VERY low opacity in order to not over-lighten. Even the slightest increase in contrast might make the difference.

If you're unsure, "step away from the computer!," and give your eyes and mind a break.  Coming back fresh might allow you to see something you didn't catch earlier - or conversely to feel certain that you've taken her as far as you can.

I'll reiterate that I think you've done an impressive job on this precious little one.

GG
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pine

(Photoshop CS5 /Mac Pro)

RosyBijou

Hi All,
I decided to take Glenna's advice from a couple of days ago & banned myself from looking at this file!  Just couldn't stand it any more and took a peek this morning (after spending the last couple of days focusing on a civil war restoration project that I'm doing outside of OPR)  This little girl is such as sweet change from the other project--and those eye "whites" do indeed show themselves!  Can't believe that I didn't see them at all before...

I will give some expression to those eyes and send her home this week!  Hopefully it will pass the QC -- but if it doesn't, my offer still stands about sharing my PSD files --

Best wishes to all and thanks so much for helping me out with this one!  :loveit:
Kerry
(aka RosyBijou)