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Here's a couple more images from my time on Grand Turk in the Caribbean, this time from a fashion shoot I did for a clothing retailer called Dizzy Donkey. Why I'm posting these two is I just completed a Photoshop course with W00dy in Sydney (the course was very ordinary) and have just started experimenting with PP in that application. I've tried not to overdo the skin smoothing effects even though it is addictive to the newbie! Let me know what you think of my work on these ones. Details on PP work I did on each is described below.

Image 1
PP: Healing brush to remove blemishes; Smoothing on the skin (50%) and lips (11%) using the Gaussian blur filter; Applied a Levels adjustment layer to bring in the highlights and raised the midtones; Dropped the red saturation level using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. I did not do anything else to bring out her eyes - they're real!!
Camera: Canon 30D; ISO200; 50mm; f1.4; 1/1600sec

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/2192491896_e819d9e1a4.jpg

Image 2
PP: Healing brush again; Smoothing on skin (45%) masking out the sand grains (2hrs work), and smoothing on the hand (45%); Whitened the fingernail to remove yellow tinge; Used an adjustment layer for levels again, bringing in the highlights and raising the midtones; Raised the red and yellow channels in a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer; Applied a curves adjustment layer with a Screen blending mode to both the whites of the eyes (12%) and the teeth (18%).
Camera: Canon 30D; ISO200; 50mm; f1.4; 1/100sec

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2126/2192492952_d8c80e2a92.jpg

Hi Simon,

I really like the first image. The PP has worked well. The background is a bit distracting though and I actually prefer the background from the second image. In the second image though, the sand on her face just doesn't do it for me. She has such a lovely face and it's all covered in sand. Just a personal thing I guess. In the PP work in both images, I find the whites of the eyes a bit too white. maybe back it off by half. I'd probably have added a touch more red to her lips.

But pretty impressive stuff.

Cheers
John

Simon
Image number 1 is outstanding. Enter it in the Moran portrait prize competition (Google for the entry form and needs to be in soon). It is that good. Now....image number 2 is much weaker and you should not have posted it. One of the hardest things a photographers needs to learn is to select the best and dump the rest. Never show your seconds unless you need feedback on why they don't work. Every photographer, including Henry Cartier-Bresson, gets almost good enough. Bresson took thousands of duds but we never got to see them. Selection is the art of defining 'style' and your first image is a supurb portrait that stands on its own merits. The second image is a Bresson dud. I hope I'm not being too hard on you but when you start showing nothing but images of the quality of your first post then you are becoming an outstanding photographer....no buts.
Brilliant.

Thankyou so much for your feedback johnd and Matt.K. No-one I show the second one to likes the sand on the face, so the feedback there is pretty consistent. I liked the idea at the time!
Matt K.:

Never show your seconds unless you need feedback on why they don't work.

I'm only just now getting to the stage where I can differentiate seconds from top shots, and still have a way to go obviously!

Image number 1 is outstanding. Enter it in the Moran portrait prize competition (Google for the entry form and needs to be in soon). It is that good.

Now I won't be able to get my head out of the doorway...
I'd love to do this but as it was taken in the Caribbean I wouldn't feel right if it got anywhere. If you know of any other portraiture comps around though, I'd like to hear about them.

Simon