Photoshop-Me-Friday: Emily

My friend, Emily, is exceptionally pretty - look at those eyes! Let's see how we transformed her photograph so that it would do her some justice:

In the "Before" photo, we have some exposure issues to adjust (the photo is too dark) and the cropping, while alright, isn't focusing on the subject very well. The first two steps I took were adjusting the midtones/highlights in Levels, and recropping the photo to frame her face. Next, I ran CoffeeShop's Baby Powder Room Action. For those of you unfamiliar with how this action works - basically you have several adjustment layers starting with Red Skin Repair and working your way on up to making the subject's eyes sparkle. The best part about this action is that it is completely controlled by the editor/photographer. I chose how much to smooth/refine her skin tone & eyes. Once satisfied, I merged the layers. I then ran CoffeeShop's 20/20 Action to sharpen/brighten/create contrast in the photograph. This action is one of my favorites! It isn't adjustable until the action has run, but you can adjust the opacity of the layer that it is in in case the contrast/pop is overwhelming the photo. The next area to focus on was brightening up that smile! I used the lasso tool to trace around her teeth, created a new layer, then used a combo of desat/lighten to give her pearly whites the tone I was looking for. Finally, I dodged the top part of her hair to enhance the shine that was already there. To edit the flowers, I used the quick selection tool to carefully isolate the flowers, then made a new layer from the selection. Again, I adjusted the flowers saturation and lightness until they seemed less bold.