Toddler - Before and After

[GinCouse]

I took this photo of a child at a drop-in photography class. He was just too cute for words.

To fix up this photo, I ajusted the colour levels, shadow and midtone contrast. Used the clone tool to help soften the redness in his cheeks, dodged the eyes to help brighten them and also to fix some of the spots on his shirt and the cut on his forehead. I am hoping that I managed to give this photo a more natural look while still keeping the look of the child in tact.

[genielamb]

You did well but IMO you have taken to much character out of his face and given him a porcelain look. A child needs to have that ruddy red cheek appearance. Good job on the eyes though.

[GinCouse]

Yeah, that's what I was worried about. Thanks for the feedback!

[sedetweiler]

I think you only needed to fix the forehead scratch and remove the red-cast. The addition of light in the eyes is also nice, and because this image is about 2/3 of a stop underexposed, you can probably just give it a bit of a boost. The cheeks should always be a bit red, so you can use the sclara (the white part) of the eye to whitebalance if you don't know where to find a white to use.