1/3 of the way to 30 images! An awesome poolside image created by Alexander Croft.

When I was challenged to this one, and I shared it on Facebook, one of my friends told me good luck! I really like it though – it’s pretty different from the others that I have done so far.

In this image of Braun, I played around even more with colour grading, trying to emulate the old Gucci style that was popular a few years back. I really liked the rich blues and the golds, and I really wanted that in this image. I did this by blending colour channels, and playing with Lab.

Raquel Zimmermann for Gucci – I tried to emulate the rich colours of this style.

Editing the small halo of hairs around her head was a right royal challenge – I didn’t want it to be obvious where I’d retouched them out. I think I succeeded in this endeavor however. I learnt a lot in the process – now if only I could remember what I did! I also tried a new method of gently whitening the eyes – I didn’t want them to look unnatural. In fact, my entire goal was to just make her look like she’s still realistic, just… her beauty is just slightly beyond the reach of a bogan like me.

While editing this image, I followed Carrie’s advise about doing multiple curves adjustment layers and building up. It’s worked pretty well, I’m pleased. It also didn’t bloat up my file too much, which I was afraid of doing. I also tried a new workflow method to try and combat the bloat:

May 2021 Workflow. Trying to combat the bloat and confusion! The layer stack is as it is in Photoshop – Details folder is the bottom folder etc.

For example: Say I happen to do a Frequency Separation – that would go into a sub-folder within my Details folder.

I also found that it doesn’t hurt to put a global colour adjustment layer in the original file, over the top of the smart object.

If you retouch – what’s your workflow look like? Are you willing to share? Is there anything you’d add or delete? Looking at this retouch – do you think I pushed the contrast up too high? Would you do the same? Please leave a comment below.

Hope you have an awesome day 🙂