I've these 2 photos that I've taken and retouched, but I'm still not fully satisfied with them.
Any ideas how to give them the extra oomph? (:

Dodge & burn



Just my $0.02

Ciao
Stefano

www.stefanobrunesci.com

Cool shots
Top one I could suggest removing the flyaway's from the front of her head. Perhaps on the left of her hair, you could add more, so there were no areas you could see the floor. IMHO adding this sort of volume, plus it coming in from left may draw the viewers eye in toward the face.

2'nd image (and please mind this is just something I would do) Id remove the tattoo off the arm. The reason being that its not completely visible, therefore doesnt add to the shot.

The second one has serious skin tone and exposure issues. Skin tone is not even. There are some grays (that next to the reds look blue, as if you could see her veins) The hair is, imho, very underexposed and lacking detail. How many exposures did you make?

sorry, double post (hardware problems)

to me the first one looks too flat

really like the first one, but minor stuffs like removing flyaway hairs and matching the background (small portions on the left corner still look green...probably need to be white).

Thanks for all your replies guys! Am working on them.

This is my 2nd photo now:

^ I like the first version you posted better.  It looks like you punched the contrast on her skin and part of her hair, and lowered it on the rest... and the opposite needs to happen.

Also... is her hair supposed to have green and blue in it?

On the second version you posted...there seems to be a red stripe running vertically through her hair (in the middle of the picture).. The hair here doesn't match. Also, I'd add a little more interest to the hair on the left (her right)...And fix the tones within the hair.

Her hand could use some more work.

The skin is looking a lot better, however I think you could do a little more D&B work to smooth it out a bit. Also, the shadows are a little chunky (mostly on the neck, but some on the face and hand). I'd remove the unnecessary shadows, or at least even out the edges into the midtones so she doesn't look too lumpy.
Also, to me, the skin still looks a little too saturated and red. Maybe tone that down just a little bit?

I really love the first image I agree though, i'd add some more hair to the bulk of it behind her head, to cover the patches of floor

Not over expose.
Whats going on with the second pictures hair? Did you cut and paste hair from a bunch of other photos or something? The colors and texture dont match and they dont even look like they were taken with the same camera!