ok so I've been trying at hi end retouching for over a year now and all i can come up with is blotchy skin only smooth in a few areas making it a retouch disaster! i zoom in at 400% and dodge the the dark spots and burn the light spots until they are even but when i zoom out it looks like a bunch of skin patches even after hours and hours and even more hours this is all i can come up with... i know its all about the eye but i have that part down and still no luck. so i feel with the perfect eye and bad or no technique your still at k lost! im desperately begging someone to please help because it feels horrible to work on something for so long and still be stuck on it.

Try only zooming in to 100% and have another window of the image at 25%(or less)
open at the same time..?

Got some examples of what you've done?

What brush settings are you using?

Oh btw. brushes. What are the best settings for D&B?

Try these tutorials, i am new to D&B, and these links really helped me.
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=272
http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=30

As I understand it there are two techniques, one for overall contrast and "carving", and one for perfecting skin.

Also, for the high end D&B technique, you need a highres file with No noise, I can't fathom using D&B on an image with noise.

yea sure here is a link http://www.marcusdewayne.com/rollover

I didnt know there were certain brushes you had to use... Please share!

What opacity and flow settings are you using?
It looks like possibly your brush is too big.
Are you using a pen tablet?

You've dodged some stuff waay too much.
There's some patchyness there there to begin
with. Remember d&b is only one tool to deal
with these problems.

Are think about sampling some skin color close by
when d&bing instead of just b&w.

I'm not gonna comment on under her eye and the
burning around her hand on the sleeve etc.
But maybe aim to do 'less' at this stage.

opacity and flow are at 50%, no pen tablet, and under the eye is where i always have to most problems. as for the hand and sleeve i was just trying to make it look dirty... bad idea i guess lol.

Go lower.
Start between 5-15% for opacity and build it SLOWLY.
Try lower flow too.
Use a small brush.

I can't imagine this stuff without a pen tablet.
Good luck. :)

ok, i can look into getting one! what brand?

Wacom....?

Thanks, CaptainHook and i-inspire for all of the help, links and advice. Hopefully I shall put it to good use in the future.

And CaptainHook.

"Wacom....?" Haha, classic.

to make the skin look super smooth i use "surface blur" on a new layer medium settings and then apply a regular gaussion blur to smooth it out even more. Mask the shot and brush in where you want the skin to look smooth

Isolate, maybe you want to have a look into this one...there is a thread in this forum somewhere that links to the side, but can't remember where exactly
http://enigma-photos.com/AmyTutorial/method1.htm

thanks for all the help you guys

Go lower.
Start between 5-15% for opacity and build it SLOWLY.
Try lower flow too.
Use a small brush.

I can't imagine this stuff without a pen tablet.
Good luck. :)

Do you use this settings with pen pressure on? If yes, with which settings for?

I just have 'flow' set to pen pressure.