I couldn't figure out how to do the skin retouching the 'correct way'. I did a lot of steps that are probably very 'backward'. I just do what works for me. And now I would like opinions on if the image looks too overdone.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
1. Used 'heal' on blemishes
2. Cloned wrinkles/bags under eyes
3. Cloned out stray hairs
4. Cloned in fat on cheeks
5. Pinched fat on right side of neck and used clone to touch up
6. Played with clone until I was happy with the face size
7. Played with clone until happy with shadow/hair fix
8. Copied top area of hair producing new layer
9. Used transform to stretch the top part of hair up
10. I copied the area (using feathering of about 2)
11. Used the eye dropper tool to match skin color and painted using 25-30% with paint brush
12. Chose a natural looking pink, set the opacity extremely low and added some pink to cheeks.
13. Set layer opacity at 85% to give a more natural look
14. Selected and copied whites of eyes and dodged until satisfied with color (using eraser to smooth edges)
15. Copied the iris layers and adjusted saturation until I was happy with the look. Set layer opacity at approx 75% to give more natural look
16. Selected lip area and adjusted saturation on BOTTOM LAYER allowing only a portion of the color to go through the overlaying face layer giving a much more subtle line.
17. Dodged teeth on low exposure
18. Used burn on bottom face layer and 'accidentally' burned only the eye make up area. it was an accidental click but I was happy with the results.
18. Crop and save