How does her skin look?

[TamiAz]

Let me just say, dealing with skin tones makes me want to quite photography..Seriously. Just when I think I'm starting to get the hang of it I get shot down. I don't think this looks bad, but someone told me it looks washed out. What exactly does that mean? I used a gray card for white balance for this image and I do have a calibrated monitor.

I love taking portraits..I just hate dealing with skin tones. I despise it. I feel like it's subjective. What one person likes, another person doesn't. It's aggravating!

Flash Practice by TamiAz, on Flickr

 

[DanOstergren]

Do you have a screen capture of what it looked like before?

 

[TamiAz]

This is the image SOC. Is that what you mean?

 

[Frankinfuji]

Looks good to my eyes. Does not look washed out to me.

You are right that it's highly subjective. In Asia, few people want to see their real skin tone in a photo, so when photographing friends I tend to over expose a little, then desaturate in pp, and they really like the result.

I prefer more natural tones, so when taking photos for myself, I want to recreate what I see. This is challenging with flash, but easier with natural light.

 

[DanOstergren]

This is the image SOC. Is that what you mean?

Your edit looks very good to me. I'm guessing you didn't have to do very much work because you got your lighting to do most of the skin work for you, which is the best way to go about retouching.

 

[Derrel]

It looks bright, but not washed out. It looks deliberately bright and airy to me; some people can't handle that look.

 

[FITBMX]

I love it! It looks great to me all the way around.
Remember, you are the artist, and this is your work. So don't worry too much about what others say.

 

[TamiAz]

I love it! It looks great to me all the way around.
Remember, you are the artist, and this is your work. So don't worry too much about what others say.

Thank you.

 

[chuasam]

I like it alot! much better than most stuff i see here.
If you want to fix the skin tones, use colour grading...or muck with the curves
the lighting is a weeeee bit flat for some tastes. I like it but some prefer more directional lighting.

 

[ZombiesniperJr]

Nice shot i like both but in my opinnion i prefer the sooc over the edited one because the edited one looks a bit to warm for my taste but the sooc is the one that is more like what i like

 

[Black_Square]

As others have said, skin retouching is highly subjective. I really love the skin in this image, it looks very bright and clean and captures the essence of the original shot. My only slight niggle would be the brightness of her left shoulder that distracts my eye from her face.

If you want to understand more about skin retouching I cannot recommend highly enough this book by Lee Varis. It goes into great detail about the various issues and means for redress. Also it doesn't get too bogged down in dodging and burning which in my view yields images that are ten a penny.

https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Complete-Digitally-Photographing-Retouching/dp/0470592125

Cheers

 

[DGMPhotography]

Looks good to me. Maybe a little warm, but that's a creative choice.

 

[tirediron]

Is it 1974 again??????

This image looks spot-on to me. I see no issues with the colours, skin-tone or exposure. I agree it's a rather flat light, but I think it's entirely appropriate to the scene.

 

[DGMPhotography]

As others have said, skin retouching is highly subjective. I really love the skin in this image, it looks very bright and clean and captures the essence of the original shot. My only slight niggle would be the brightness of her left shoulder that distracts my eye from her face.

If you want to understand more about skin retouching I cannot recommend highly enough this book by Lee Varis. It goes into great detail about the various issues and means for redress. Also it doesn't get too bogged down in dodging and burning which in my view yields images that are ten a penny.

https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Complete-Digitally-Photographing-Retouching/dp/0470592125

Cheers

I've requested that book from my library - nice recommendation!

 

[Black_Square]

As others have said, skin retouching is highly subjective. I really love the skin in this image, it looks very bright and clean and captures the essence of the original shot. My only slight niggle would be the brightness of her left shoulder that distracts my eye from her face.

If you want to understand more about skin retouching I cannot recommend highly enough this book by Lee Varis. It goes into great detail about the various issues and means for redress. Also it doesn't get too bogged down in dodging and burning which in my view yields images that are ten a penny.

https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Complete-Digitally-Photographing-Retouching/dp/0470592125

Cheers

I've requested that book from my library - nice recommendation!

No problem at all. It's a really excellent resource, and goes into considerable detail about the cultural issues associated with skin retouching etc. Also worth googling Lee Varis on you tube as he has a number of good tutorials (his red blemish reduction is a masterclass) ;-)