Hey guys, I was getting a lot of criticism on using blur for retouching, so I took another approach at retouching images. I used D&B and the healing tool to make the skin look more "natural." I found this picture on a really good retoucher's page, and I decided to go for it. Please be honest, it won't hurt, it'll only make me a better "artist." Thank you so much. Here goes nothing :

Before: http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n254/anava05/before_25.jpg

After:
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n254/anava05/before_25copy.jpg

Looks good to me, but you may want to adjust your levels.

I took the liberty of correcting the levels and playing with the "shadow/highlight" (Image > Adjustments > shadow/highlight) in Photoshop. The photo loses a bit of it's atmosphere but that can always be toyed with to the creator's will. ;)

great! thanks

a big improvement on the blur technique I posted to earlier - here you've drawn out detail from some rather dark areas and as would be expected, that has introduced a fair bit of noise. What I would suggest is to tinker with both the built in Photoshop noise reduction filter in small and feathered selections where there noise is greatest and also have a play with the smart blur in those feathered selections, but then fade it back so it doesn't leave an overly plastic looking skin tones around the eyes where the noise is worst.

What resolution was the original?

Alan

Did you ask Shelby if you could use her image?

Chris