[MINI MAKEOVER] girl photo shoot B/W

[Irene Sofia]

Hello everybody here I come again, I'm glad to tell you I'm practicing as much as I can my photography, lucky me I have lot's of girlfriends waiting for me to photograph them

Now in this chance, I took some photos to a girl who has some skin problems I try to make it better but no an obvious edition work, she wants to look better but still been her.

First I use a spot healing brush tool over al most every single pimple, then I work a lot with the dodge and burn, tool over the eyes and in the face, also use a sharpen filter and a blur lens blur for the background. Reduced some noise but not over the eyes... I used the burn tool to make up the eyes..... Apply some adjustments in "Curves""Contrast""Levels" Finally used the original photo and place it over the worked layer, I multiply and reduce opacity, I did it to rescue some of the details I might lost with all the light and changes... and that's about it.
Tell me if I push to hard in this post edition work, does it look fake?
thanks

BEFORE



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AFTER


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I HaVe MoRe PhOtOs fRom The SaMe PhOtO sHooT the before and after Look at Them too.. tell me what you think B e f o r e
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/8619/img0084dos.jpg A f t e r http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8416/luciabravo2.jpg
B e f o r e http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/158/img0173q.jpg A f t e rhttp://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1390/luciabravo3.jpg

[Quo Fan]

I like how you removed the blemishes from her skin, but the final edit seem overly dark to me. If you preserved the contrast of the first, with the repairs of the second, I think that would make a better photo.

[RandyRich]

Everything is great except the hair. I think it's too dark. She has really nice hair but you totally lose it in the retouched version. I love the way you fixed the face and blurred the background.

[sedetweiler]

fix the blemishes and then just a little contrast curve is all you need here. the original image is very flat, but the black level you have in the final is to harsh imho.

[JAgo-ViG]

Dodging the hair might work.