Comments invited please

I'm no pro, but I do like the overall look. The skin on her face looks quite lovely in my opinion. I think you've adjusted the contrast nicely.

You may want to take a closer look at the model's arm. It looks as if you started to smooth out the freckles on her arm and decided not to midway through. Part of the arm smoothing has blurred the end of her hair. Additionally, where the hair is blurred on her arm, the skin color doesn't match the color on her upper arm that shows at her waist (sort of looks like she's wearing a glove of a different color skin).

Very cool picture. :)

Kerry I have to admit the elbow was a bit on the hard side for me, but I think jpeg compression has compounded this look as with the cheek rainbow affect. Burned the lower elbow to darken it on an overlay mask, but then slightly gaussian blurred to try and blend it better. In the original the elbow bone has attracted a highlight, was trying to minimise it

cassidy,

i shld start out saying i'm not a big fan of this look. so take the rest with a grain of salt.

the dodge highlights on her face look like there was a strong florescent light just out of camera shot and florescent lighting is rarely flattering to skin tones.

the shadowing on her right cheek is uneven.

there is too much grain on her right hand/wrist.

i'd crop the image. everything below about the wrist is unnecessary... to me.

i also preferred the look of her hair in the original. something a bit odd about it in the other. again, maybe that florescent look.

what i do like is that the overall lighting and definition changes do heighten that look in her eyes.

and, i dont quite buy this shot as a whole. it looks posed. maybe a different background would help that. but that's more about the photography than the retouching.

Cass,
I like the over all look.
There are 2 things that bother me right off.
- the finger pointing up in the hair, I think I would clone it out.
- the the elbow area - it seems odd to have a crease there.
keep up the good work.