Interesting pp Self Portrait

[ocnsprt]

So this is a self portrait, but my intention was not to get sucha great shot, then edit it to be something interesting, I would love to know what you all think at first glance, could I have done something different to salvage it because frankly I shot it very poorly



before


After



I started out by removing the background using the lasso tool and replacing it with a black backdrop. then created a new layer and using the brush tool on 2px darken set to b and w darkened my eyelashes, then switched color to white and lighten and went over my teeth, then again set brush to darken and droppered a dark section of my lips and went over them with the brush. After I selected e 50% opacity on the layer so it was more natural and flattened layers. Next i created another layer and used both gaussian blur filter and dust/scratches filters set at 3rd each, then added noise at 2rd. then using the brush tool set on clear went over the layer in all the areas but my skin to bring back the details, the opacity for this is 100%, but I reduce to 50% and go over the sides of my nose to bring back some details so it doesnt look fake. Then i flattened again and saved, brought it up in flickr and played with the levels on the histogram till I got it where I liked the exposure, set to sepia and then cross processed. Added a border and cropped. and this is what I ended up w!

[BabetteKD]

Not to be mean, but your face seems really bright in comparison to the really dark backgroud.
I played around in photoshop getting these 2 results:

[ocnsprt]

Thanks, it is really bright because the basement at my moms house has very limited light and I had to use my flash. I like the second on better, how did you get my skin to look flat instead of bright and shiny???

[BabetteKD]

Patch tool and/or healing brush on 50% transparancy.
I don't remember how I did much of it, I forgot to save the Photoshop file.