Uneven tone

[Cheeze439]

I took this photo of my wife and son, wasn't supposed to be anything special but with a bit of black and white treatment I quite like it. The problem is that there is a dark area on the lower part of my wifes cheek. I think this was caused by a couple of strands of hair across the cheek. I've tried smoothing it, blurring, patch fixing, spot repairing but all with no luck, I just can't fix it without it looking unatural. Can anyone advise me on a good technique to sort this? I'm using Photoshop CS4.

[GeorgeHB]

Hi.

If you use Photoshop, you can copy the layer (command + J for mac, or control + J for the pc), then use the move tool to move the layer copy a bit to bring a clean area into position over it. When you've positioned it where you want it, make a layer mask (hold down the option key on a mac, or the alt key on a pc when you click the layer mask button). Next choose a brush with the softest edge you can, and paint over the area, removing the layer mask revealing the unblemished area beneath it. Be careful not to open up too much. After you have it looking the way you want, command +E or control + E to flatten the layers and you're done!

Good luck.
George