Abbie

[DGMPhotography]

Hmm, those photos do look pretty good. How do you handle blemishes? Surely dodge and burn doesn't take care of that too?

I get rid of blemishes with the spot healing brush, then blend the skin around the blemish in by dodging and burning on one of the separate gray layers.

Hmm... see, that was my problem with the forehead. She had a TON of blemishes.

 

[smoke665]

Regardless of the methods you use to retouch the skin, you are going to need multiple layers, so that you have the flexibility of addressing areas individually. The key is to not remove everything so the skin looks plastic perfect, blemishes, pores, etc., are an important aspect of the individual, you just need to blend and adjust where they aren't as noticeable. Whether you use the smudge tool, or Dan's dodge and burn, adjusting the opacity of the individual layers allows you to fine tune the adjustments you made on that layer. Learning how blend mode of the layers works is another key to fine tuning your adjustments Blending modes in Adobe Photoshop

 

[DanOstergren]

Hmm, those photos do look pretty good. How do you handle blemishes? Surely dodge and burn doesn't take care of that too?

I get rid of blemishes with the spot healing brush, then blend the skin around the blemish in by dodging and burning on one of the separate gray layers.

Hmm... see, that was my problem with the forehead. She had a TON of blemishes.

Good retouching takes some extra time, especially in cases where the skin is rough. It's worth the extra time in my opinion though. Quality work is never automated and takes a good deal of effort and practice.