I would really appreciate any comments and criticisms that can help me see how to do this better.

http://www.alteredvision.net/retouching_portfolio/01.html

Are the smile lines too fake looking? The hair on the left?

Without a "before" version it's kind of hard to tell what you "improved" on.

overall nice job. I think the eyes are to white it makes the inner eye look cut out.
good luck.

Swampy.. it is a rollover!
~~~~~~~~~

I agree with sonny7.. way to white eyes I also think the teeth are to white
The upper lashes, irises are to dark and look muddy or burnt and you lost the eyeball highlights... the original eyes looked much better but the original teeth are just a tad to yellow
I would get rid of the dark spot on the large pearl and make the gold ball by her ear on the left look the same color as the rest.. the backside of the earring on the right should be a bit more prominent and all the jewelry should be retouched to stand out like the others on your site

The neck where you moved the necklace needs more blending

The hair on her ear should be removed

The rest looks pretty good to me..

Just my thoughts

Thanks 0lBaldy and sonny7 ^_^. Will be sure to follow your advice working on the next version. Wish I could make jewellery look great with retouching, but my sadly my skills aren't quite up to it. I'll give the jewellery a shot though. Be a challenge to see how far I can take it. The rest of the jewellery on my site is mainly done with photography and not retouching.

Thanks also Swampy, for reminding me that I forgot to put in text to inform viewers that it's a rollover.

Your new edit looks fake. You have taken way too much of the original qualities from the original photo. Smile lines are ok, we do that naturaly. Also you took the glare from the eyes, now they look drawn in. Also the neck line looks fake, it almost looks like she is forcing her head to look up. I would have left the neck alone. Sometimes we go overboard on editing photos, we loose the natural charm of a photograph. by trying to make it too perfect. Now if that the style your going for, then it looks fine

Thanks too Matthew. I can't quite see the forcing, but that's the whole point of asking for another opinion. *goes back to staring at the pic*

Not really my style, but I do have some perfectionist tendencies. Hopefully the next one will be better.

Well I think most has been mentioned here. However, you say you like to make things look perfect? Sounds to me like you're aiming for beauty/glamour retouching and if that's the case, here is what i would have done:

1. Make eye-brows thicker, more interesting.

2. Eyes look flat. They need to look "round" and "pop".

3. Way too dark around the lashes and lashes themselves need new shape making the eyes more appealing.

4. Make lips bigger by using shadow technique or take it a step further and do some plastic surgery.

5. Add more clarity to the cheek lines and use less blur + more texture. Some wrinkles shouldn't be removed, just softened so you keep the personality of the model.

6. Make shoulder-line more visible (use shadow technique) - effectively giving a more feminine look. I find neck+shoulder line one of the hardest things to manipulate since that's what makes a lady more or less feminine. Be careful retouching those areas.

Check out http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=101733&seqNum=4 which gives a good start!

Thanks iceblue. I can see there's a lot of work ahead of me :)