Advice on a retouch please?

[marliz]

First, I hope these jpgs are not too large (I guess I'll know because they won't load?) My file info lists them as ok, but if I reopen them in Photoshop, they show a larger size.

My main changes to this old photo were cosmetic, trying to enhance, but not change "the way we were." I added the hair over my ear because the ear seemed distracting. Since my baby seemed to be squinting I tried to open her eyes a bit with the "bloat" filter in Liquify without overdoing it. Got rid of the background. Tugged my lips into a slight smile since I should be smiling at my little one.

One thing I find difficult with these old color photos (I've worked on a few now) is trying to firm up the edges. It seems the color bleeds across "boundaries." I tried sharpening in several ways and didn't like the effect, though I might find when I print this that I want it sharpened. I did use the sharpen tool on the eyes. Tried a bit of cloning from the background to define the skin borders, but that takes forever and I've got a lot of photos.

Critique and advice invited!
Peggy

[marliz]

I just noticed that people are able to have the Thumbnails come up on the same page -- much easier to critique. When I added my attachement for the first, is there a way to join it to the second (without combining into one and needed lower quality?
Peggy