Before & After - Alyssa

I'm still experimenting with skin retouching techniques, as well as stepping out of the box when it comes to different blending modes.

C&C very welcome

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I like the PP. Nice Pic

Looks good, a lot less plasticky than some processes. Mind sharing the steps?

Absolutely:

Dupe the layer
Go over larger areas with the healing brush and patch tool
Filter --> Blur --> Surface Blur --> Adjusted enough to cover freckles and tool marks
Alt+Click the layer mask button on the layer palate to create a black transparent mask
With a white paintbrush, paint over all skin (No eyes, no mouth, no hair, no fingers)
Reduce opacity to taste (this was about 39%)
Flatten image

Dupe the layer
Unsharp Mask
Reduce opacity to taste
Erase everything but the eyes, and maybe hair
Flatten image

That was the skin retouching section, this is the color enhancement:

Dupe the layer
Change blending mode to Overlay
Ctrl+U for hue and saturation menu, desaturate heavily (this was -87%)
Reduce layer opacity heavily (this was about 13%)
Flatten Image

Dupe the layer
Ctrl+U for hue and saturation menu
Change drop down menu to Reds
Increase saturation slightly to bring back the lips and the makeup (so she didnt look dead)
Change opacity to taste if needed.
Flatten image.

I think I dodged the eyes a tad bit too somewhere in there.

There was probably an easier way to do all that, but I'm still learning the ins and outs of photoshop, relying on youtube and experimentation to help me out.

Feel free to share your results in this thread.

Oooh I like the one a lot!! Look at her hair, looks amazing. Nice edit

Thanks, I'll have to give it a shot.

Really, really nice on the face. The only thing that bothers me is how her shoulder/arm is a bit blown-out looking in the retouched shot. Maybe the contrast is just a tad too high overall.

If the before on the left? Her skin looks more real on the left. The right has her skin rather flat and without detail along with being pushed too much and causing the hot spots as others have noted. The exposure on the skin just looks too pushed and has become too bright.

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #7202009
If the before on the left? Her skin looks more real on the left. The right has her skin rather flat and without detail along with being pushed too much and causing the hot spots as others have noted. The exposure on the skin just looks too pushed and has become too bright.

That's not from the initial retouching, that's from the blending mode change to overlay. I couldnt get the contrast in the shadows and edges of her facial features without losing a bit of detail in her skin. I'll give it another go a bit later and try to eliminate some of those hotspots.

I really appreciate the input!