This week’s photo was technically good. It was a bit dark, but it was nice and sharp. Mostly, the skin needed work.

I first opened this photo in ACR. I actually lessened the exposure, because I didn’t want the big white spot on the right to be so bright. I figured I’d brighten the exposure with curves so that I could mask off the background area to keep it darker.

Then I went to Photoshop CS3 and brightened with curves. I masked off the background.

I did some color correction with curves and the color-by-the-numbers method.

Then I went to work on the skin. I used the spot healing brush and the patch tool quite a bit.

Last I used MCP Actions Powder your nose at a very low opacity.

This is what I came up with:

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