I liked the composition of this image, so I decided not to crop it at all. This photo was underexposed and the skin needed a lot of work.

The first thing I did was open it in ACR and increase the brightness and the exposure. Then I opened it in Photoshop CS3 and did the rest of my edits.

I adjusted the skin tones using the CMYK color by the numbers method.

Also, because this image was underexposed it was quite noisy. I ran Noiseware on it’s own layer and then decreased the opacity.

I usually like skin to look as close to natural as possible. I usually increase brightness with curves and that usually is enough to give the skin that creamy look. This photo needed a little more. I ran Powder Your Nose from MCP Actions and then brushed in in–mostly around his mouth and chin.

After that I ran Touch of Darkness/Touch of Light from MCP Actions and just darkened a bit around the edges.

That’s about it!

Go check out I ♥ Faces to see all the other Fix-it Friday participants!