I'm not sure if this should be in the critique forum instead, but it's about retouching, so I'm putting it here. I'm more of a photographer than a retoucher. Lately I've been experimenting with Photoshop for more than basic lighting effects. I did this pic of myself just for practice with editing headshots. I was reading an article on how people with more symmetrical faces are perceived as more attractive, so I wanted to see what I would look like with a symmetrical face. https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/37788078

After making it symmetrical, I got carried away and went all out with more and more editing. The lips looked weird symmetrical so I overlayed the original mouth on the symmetrical face. Then I dodged my nose, t-zone, retinas, under eyes/ nose sides and above my upper lip. I burned in my cheekbones to make them more chiseled and burned in my eyelashes and eyeshadow to look more dramatic. I also liquified my neck a bit (because I have a very long neck but I was slouching in the pic), and my lips are liquified too to make the smile less like a wince. The whole photo is inverted a tiny bit because I used the wrong type of lens and it gave my face a tiny bit of a big nose/fish-eye lense look. For the skin I spot removed and used Topaz Clean 3 to smooth out texture and add some back in. I feel like the "texture" looks more like film grain though...

So basically I'm asking pro retouchers if there are any techniques I should learn that would help me take retouching skills to the next level. Is there anything in the original photo that I should have preserved?

Thanks.

-Elise

Hi Elise,

I've done portrait work for over 20 yrs,
and symmetrical faces turn out to look too unrealistic / doll-ish ~ and odd to the human eye.  So over-doing it into mirror imagery can make someone beautiful into someone that's strange in appearance.   Photoshop takes decades to master, As a digital professional I can't even claim to know even a small % of what Photoshop is capable of after all this time.

It has a high, and I mean high learning curve.  Play around/read up, tutorials/ memorizing how to do it, and add useful plug-ins.  Though, do follow whatever style you prefer, and don't limit the possibilities. 

at the times when I "do" have to use a mirror image or reconstruct someone; I always change it slightly so it doesn't appear like a cut & paste - they eye is drawn to such visual tags, so even small changes like altered/added shadowing can remove the mirror effect.

Best of luck, you'll find it fun, aggravating and insightful ~ usually all 3 at once

symmetry is good but try not to copy one side to another when making anyone symmetrical. instead use appropriate tools to match one side. The viewers will know the difference