self-portrait retouching

[turtlephoto]

this is a self portrait im posting to get critiques on my techniques of retouching. im a on the photography end of things but i want to add this (retouching) to my repertoire of skill sets. Im a photography student and an advanced beginner with Photoshop. in the last few years i have steeped up my photography and it is here recently that i have steeped up my studying of Photoshop. im posting it on deviant art because I am not sure how to post images in the form...

I used the dodging and burning technique with curves, I used the patch tool to remove my scar and I used the cloning tool to remove blemishes and I used the "selective color technique" to even out my skin tone and and I sharpen the eyes make them pop. This is the first time I've used the Dodge and burn technique extensively... I've used other techniques the smooth skin... Please let me know what you think and how I can improve my techniques... FYI im new here and to most of this as well

http://turtlephotography.deviantart.com/#/d333xhn

[shanegoldberg]

Hi turtlephoto, it doesn't look like you've done a whole lot to the edit the photo. Maybe remove some blemishes but I guess depends on how subtle you want to make it.

[j4str]

i agree with the last comment. Their is a ton you could do to that picture, but it looks like you just did some very minor touch up. Doesn't look like you did anything for smoothing out the skin. Here is a tutorial i just watched that you might find useful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2i8epv1HiM