Blotchy Newborn Skin Retouching - C&C Requested

[Jayce]

At my newborn session today, the baby had pretty serious skin blotching. I've spent a couple hours this evening messing around with some retouching techniques. Thoughts on the final result would be appreciated. Original on top, retouched version below.

Thanks!

 

[oldmacman]

Did you use a healing brush? It shouldn't take two hours. The finished product looks considerably lighter than the original to the point where the light spot under the thumb looks unusual and the fibres in the rug are blown out.

 

[K8-90]

I think it looks good! I like the lighter look, and I don't think the blown-fibers are to an extent that it is detracting from the photo. And retouching, done well, can definitely take 2+ hours!

 

[Jayce]

Did you use a healing brush? It shouldn't take two hours. The finished product looks considerably lighter than the original to the point where the light spot under the thumb looks unusual and the fibres in the rug are blown out.

I used some luminance tweaks in LR, some spot healing, and some clone stamp. Once I figured out a process, it seems to be taking 5-15 minutes per photo.