Hey guys & girls,

I've spent a lot of time practicing and I think I'm finally getting a grasp on the whole retouching thing. I have a before/after of my latest work and I'd like to get your honest opinions on it. If it sucks, I'd like to know what I can do to improve it. I'm a big boy, I can handle honesty.

I do my own retouching as well so I know how hard it is. The first thing that caught my eye was the extra make-up it looked like you added around the eyes. Not sure if you just darkened it or what, but to me the pic looked better without what ever that gray shade is you added. Also, it seemed to me that you smoothed the face out, but left the bags under the eye, and the deep groove on the side of her mouth. (they are only obvious because the rest of the face is so smooth, and it's only noticeable on the right side of the face, making stand out.)

The color is good, the skin on the body looks good and the way you took out the background looks natural.

Hope that helps.

Watch the whites of the eyes (sclerae). Even in immaculately retouched photos, they'll have gradation in tone across the eye - this gives them depth and dimension.  You've lightened them too much, making them look flat. This is especially noticeable, as the eyes are a natural focal point.

There are also some pretty problematic banding issues going on with the background.

I agree with the post above. The white in her eyes are too white and solid. Everything else looks pretty good. Maybe try softening up the image a bit?
The easiest way to do that is to create a new layer, fill it with white, and set the opacity pretty low. Then create a layer mask, and with a soft low opacity black brush paint back in some of the more important details such as eyes and lips.
This gives the image a soft look and makes her features pop.