Editing Advice

I posted this photo a few days ago inquiring about the lighting. Everyone here and not here seems to think the lighting is good. Now, I am seeking editing advice. The area under her cheeks is posing a real problem for me. Nothing I have tried seems to work. Spot heal, patching, frequency separation, air brushing and a combination of all. Maybe its just my lack of skill with these techniques. Can someone take a crack at it? Any help would be much appreciated!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qAT7​eP

What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to get rid of the dark circles? Have you tried the dodging tool?

Oh oops, forgot to mention what I wanted to achieve. Ideally I'd like to remove the wrinkles and uneven toning while maintaining texture and not having it look too processed. I may be asking for too much but thats what I am looking for. Yes I have also tried dodging some. Again could just be my lack of skill here.

Is this too processed?

That is amazing, Douglas! Exactly what I want. Are you willing to explain what you did?

Just personal opinion, but I feel like Douglas' edit is just a tad bit too much. Looks like smart blur, but I'm not sure. I would lower the opacity just a bit to bring some texture back to her face and add a mask to only blur out her face and leave the rest of the image alone. Most of the detail in the hair is lost with Douglas' edit. I would also spot heal the blemishes on her forehead.

MrJack787 wrote in post #17471835
That is amazing, Douglas! Exactly what I want. Are you willing to explain what you did?

Sure thing.....
It's just a real quick 2 layer edit in CS6, well, 3 layers counting the original.
The 1st layer was duplicated and a 'noise reduction' filter ran at strength 10,
all other settings at 0. Layer opacity is at 73% on this edit, adjust to taste!
A layer mask is added to bring back detail in the sweater and some areas on
her face and hand, ...eyes, teeth, and lips especially, and eyebrows.
Again, brush opacity on the mask to taste.
The next layer is a blank layer I used to paint in color on her cheek by
sampling different areas close to the effected area, using a soft, low opacity
brush and multiple strokes to build up the paint.
Holding down the 'alt' / 'opt' key with the brush let's you sample areas of color
without changing your brush to the color picker.
It still looks a little blotchy to me in that area, but
with a little more time and patience it could be better!

grism13 wrote in post #17471850
Just personal opinion, but I feel like Douglas' edit is just a tad bit too much. Looks like smart blur, but I'm not sure. I would lower the opacity just a bit to bring some texture back to her face and add a mask to only blur out her face and leave the rest of the image alone. Most of the detail in the hair is lost with Douglas' edit. I would also spot heal the blemishes on her forehead.

That's cool grism13, I respect your opinion and that's why I asked if it was too much!
Sometimes I like the soft hair and other times I like the sharp crunchy hair.
Sometimes I'll use 'surface blur', it kind of gives that soft hair effect but retains more detail in
the edges of things, I guess it just depends on the image and how I feel about
the way the edit is going at the time. I kind of like the effect the 'noise reduction' had on this image as a whole
by giving a bit of soft glow. Probably reduce the opacity of that layer a bit or add some more
masking! Probably have to get rid of some stray hairs in the background as well, looks like
the filter left some floating hairs out there!

-Douglas- wrote in post #17471919
That's cool grism13, I respect your opinion and that's why I asked if it was too much!
Sometimes I like the soft hair and other times I like the sharp crunchy hair.
Sometimes I'll use 'surface blur', it kind of gives that soft hair effect but retains more detail in
the edges of things, I guess it just depends on the image and how I feel about
the way the edit is going at the time. I kind of like the effect the 'noise reduction' had on this image as a whole
by giving a bit of soft glow. Probably reduce the opacity of that layer a bit or add some more
masking! Probably have to get rid of some stray hairs in the background as well, looks like
the filter left some floating hairs out there!

As far as reducing the wrinkling and uneven skin tones, I think that edit works great! Personally looks natural to me. Gonna mess around with your method. I'll repost my results. Thank you!!