Portrait "Before and After" project

This week we began retouching portraits. I have lots of techniques for interesting editing, include whitening teeth, colorizing hair, nose job, frown to a smile, enhancing eyes and eyelashes, removing blemishes, wrinkles, and freckles, applying PhotoShop makeup, etc. I want you to experiment with several different techniques. Don't be in too big a hurry to get to the final photos for the project---perfect your techniques through experimentation and practice first!

Be sure to take additional photos over the weekend so you'll have plenty to work with. Remember, it's more fun to work on an imperfect face!Your portrait project will be to ENHANCE four portraits through the retouching techniques we are learning, and show 'before' and 'after' shots. Make sure you don't permanently alter your original so you'll have a before photo to use for comparison!

You'll make contact sheets of 4 photos, showing two before and after shots side-by-side per page. You'll hand in two contact sheets at the end of class on Wednesday, March 19th. That's a total of 8 photos---4 'before' photos, and 4 'after' on two contact sheets.

I am looking for fairly drastic changes, so use your imagination! Some retouches will be natural-looking. I am not opposed to adding unusual things though (i.e. blue hair, whiskers, tattoos, etc.) You should do a good job with whatever you do and try to make it look realistic. Keep it clean! If you are working on the face of a family member, friend, or classmate, make sure what you do will not offend! Your retouched pictures will be critiqued on the big screen by all my photography classes.

Your grade will be based upon the amount of work done, technical skill, and overall appearance of final photos. If you choose a harder portrait to fix, you'll likely get a higher grade than if you choose one that needs very little work. At least one photo of the four must include a vignette.