It’s been a while (again) since my last post – things have been happening.

Just a quick little update to show a before/after of this retouch of a hairstyle on a bride.
Sorry I haven’t updated this site for ages – I’ve only just picked up the pen, so I’m a bit rusty. Peripheral neuropathy in one’s hands and fingers sucks, to put it politely.

I haven’t done a retouch that has mainly focused on the hair for a long while, so when I saw this image I just had to give it a shot. I’m sure there’s many errors – but that just means room for improvement! 😀

Anyhow: lets jump to the before and after images, shall we?

In this image too I tried to get a little more creative with the colour grading. A little more moodier, perhaps. I recently joined Natalia Taffarel’s “High End Commercial and Editorial Post Production” group on Facebook and they have a really informative thread on colour theory. I’m also revisiting Itten. So thus, in this edit I used a split complimentary scheme consisting of blue in the shadows, and as an accent colour (the sky), and yellow and yellow/red elsewhere (the leaves are actually a yellow!). I desaturated the skin of the model a bit – hopefully I didn’t go too far and make her look bloodless! Let me know what you think please.

One part of the image I’m not fully satisfied with is her collarbone. Maybe I should smooth it out a bit more to make it seamlessly blend better – however on the other hand I don’t really wish to change the lighting in that area? I feel there is still a slight patchiness in her arm (same with the image of the Indian woman on my front page) – but in both cases I have tried to refrain from using Frequency Separation – just sticking to dodge and burn techniques.

Dear reader, as always, please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think. I’m honestly trying to hone and refine my skills. I know I have a long way to go, but everyone has to start somewhere!

Hope you’re having a lovely day, and take care.