Looking for some ideas on what I could do next to improve this image -- would appreciate any suggestions.

This is a picture I shot of my stepdaughter over the weekend. I've already done a fair amount of cleaning and tweaking, but I'm not really sure where to go from here. The hair on the left is a mess, but I really hate working on hair. Hoping that someone may have a quick-fix suggestion for the hair. It appears that dodging and burning is popular amongst you fine folks, but I'm not certain how one chooses where to dodge and/or burn so, I'd be grateful for tips.

Also, I wasn't sure about the original crop. Is there too much empty space on the right?

If interested in a higher rez version:

http://www.pbase.com/jhpearce/image/79194661

Cheers!
Jay

This is my try. I am not a retoucher, but practice helps and this is a great picture.

Did a little on the hair. Darkened the lips. There are many dramatic looks that could be applied to this photo, but that is not my bag.

dc.

Here's my shot.

Lighten darkness under eye
Darken lips
Dodge/burn to smooth cheek
Tame a few stray hairs
Burn a few highlights (nose cheek)
Bit of blusher to add a "glow" to cheeks
Selective color to warm skintone
curves 1 to lighten eyes (compensate for selective color)
curves 2 to lighten whole thing

I'd love comments.

-luv

this my attempt...hopefully you like...can send you the psd if you want...if you like of course...i like :P

I dodged an burned the face, didn't do the hair...but healing brush an dpatch tool can do it for this small job...added a new background, maybe not the best one, but the empty space could be abit too empty for my taste,...added noise to the skin...then took up the contrast abit on the face...


Gerry

Hello
Here is my version, I did work on the hair some, and I tried to smooth out the neck crease (not very good at that kind of think). Dodged and burned to smooth skin. Then a second dodge and burn layer to add in the glamour on eyes, lips and shoulder.
And then I added a lighting effect. don't know if I like it or not?
Finally I did a levels adjustment to correct the color contrast.

What do you think?

added slight color to lips and cheeks, darkened eyes, healing brush, worked on hair, cropped. Wanted to lessen neck creases, but did not look right.

Hi Jay, and welcome.

Very pretty subject here, well lit and exposed. Here's my "opinion". The messy hair doesn't bother me. The one obvious stray can be cloned away easily. The compostion: I do think there's too much space on the right. If her gaze was in that direction, then yes, but it's not. The landscape orientation is also too passive; a portrait orientation would be more active. Her shoulder is too predominant. Maybe crop some away and get it into a shadow a bit. The eye's are the focal point -- accentuate them. The background color is too neutral. I like bluish as it recedes allowing the subject to project. The overall contrast is a bit flat, so yes D&B or a some other boost technique might be helpful.

I played a bit with it...

Thank you all for taking the time to give me those great suggestions. Recropping made a huge difference. I minimized a fold in her neck, added some eye shadow and matching lipstick (heh!), darkened the shoulder, steaked the hair, and boosted the overall contrast. That'll have to be good enough until she pays her cell phone bill!

(btw, these 100K attachments set the quality threshold pretty low, eh?)

Jay

here my try

Sorry went a little ott on this one.

I would do something like that....

Here's my shot at it

My first Post Here , this is my quick try love her eyes :p

greetz

Kef

Here's my go at it. I'm sorry if the hair's a little much, but I wanted the color to match on both sides of her face. Let's see. I...

Darkened her eyes and eyebrows
Reshaped her left eyebrow just a little
Puckered a little bit around her cheeks, neck, nose, and shoulder
Darkened her left eyelid to add the illusion of makeup, as well as to match her other eyelid
Added a touch of "eyeliner" on both eyes

Here is my example ..

Cheers ;)