Eric Barbehenn wrote:
the shape of her chin bugs me, there seems to be something funky going on there...I agree on the brightness, but I think it could work if you just added more shape to the cheekbones....also the sharpening on her eyes seems to much compared to the rest....maybe if you added some sort of gradation with lighter towards her face and darker away it could be cool..

but I think its pretty good I like the basic image, but it could use more work..

just my 2 cents

Why do people insist on rebuilding the model? If her chin is shaped a certain way and her cheekbones aren't that prominent, what's with the desire to make her look like someone else? Try retouching a model so she retains her own physical features and personality. And why change her eye color? The blue the OP chose doesn't go with the purple scarf any better than the original green.

I'm more of a purest that prefers to get things right before I press the shutter. The dark background begs for more shadow on the model's face. Try short lighting...shadow on the side of the face toward the camera. It is far more dramatic and emotional than the bright lighting we see here. I agree with some of the others regarding the scarf...it would look better darker rather than lighter.

Bill Mason Images wrote:

Why do people insist on rebuilding the model? If her chin is shaped a certain way and her cheekbones aren't that prominent, what's with the desire to make her look like someone else? Try retouching a model so she retains her own physical features and personality. And why change her eye color? The blue the OP chose doesn't go with the purple scarf any better than the original green.

I'm more of a purest that prefers to get things right before I press the shutter. The dark background begs for more shadow on the model's face. Try short lighting...shadow on the side of the face toward the camera. It is far more dramatic and emotional than the bright lighting we see here. I agree with some of the others regarding the scarf...it would look better darker rather than lighter.

it's not about a desire to make her look different anymore than changing the lighting would make her look different...and had it been lit differently there might have more definition in the cheekbones, in the image it's kinda flat to me...and on her chin it looks like there's some hair there are something....it's looks weird....he was not asking about shooting it differently, he was asking about his retouching...

ebarb wrote:
it's not about a desire to make her look different anymore than changing the lighting would make her look different...and had it been lit differently there might have more definition in the cheekbones, in the image it's kinda flat to me...and on her chin it looks like there's some hair there are something....it's looks weird....he was not asking about shooting it differently, he was asking about his retouching...

Agreed.  USUALLY editing things like the definition of the models face is done to enhance the photo, not necessarily the model.  Though that is the purpose of removing blemishes and what not. XD

In this case, it's not like it's "Ugh, I hate how shallow her cheekbones are!"  That's not, or shouldn't be the concept.  It's more like, "It would really ad more depth to the photo if we played with the shadow and light some more."  Like a chiaroscuro drawing!  ^_^ Since the subject of the photo just happens to be a human, the best ways to really make the image pop would be to increase the range of tone, like making stronger shadows under the cheekbone for example.

David Tom wrote:
I've been trying to work on my PS skills.  I'm still a long long way off from obtaining the skills of many of you fabulous digital artists but I'm hoping that I'm heading in the right direction.  Please let me know what errors I'm making...

RAW IMAGE (a crop plus some minor LR adjustments and I dodge the background.... maybe not so minor :-P )
......

I am afraid, but I got to tell you just that this is just not the right photo to test skills on- does it need much of work? Its naturally awesome.

All it does is some shadow fix, minor skin work, maybe a 15 mins job and some d&b of course so in all I'd say I won't spend over 30-45 mins on this one.

Krunoslav-Stifter wrote:
Technically she is in pretty good shape. Facial hair on her nostrils and chin, bothers me a bit, but nothing too serious.

Bill Mason Images wrote:
Why do people insist on rebuilding the model? If her chin is shaped a certain way and her cheekbones aren't that prominent, what's with the desire to make her look like someone else? Try retouching a model so she retains her own physical features and personality. And why change her eye color? The blue the OP chose doesn't go with the purple scarf any better than the original green.
 
I'm more of a purest that prefers to get things right before I press the shutter. The dark background begs for more shadow on the model's face. Try short lighting...shadow on the side of the face toward the camera. It is far more dramatic and emotional than the bright lighting we see here. I agree with some of the others regarding the scarf...it would look better darker rather than lighter.

I'm somewhat torn about how far to go in regards to changes to the model's physical features, including facial hair.  I have to keep reminding myself that I am creating a beauty image and not a portrait so the primary goal as an artist is to try to achieve the highest level of beauty with the tools (i.e. model) I have.  However, I like to keep it as "real" too.  For example, changing the colors I can justify as color contacts exist.  In regards to it benefit, I prefer the blue over the green but that's a personal preference.  In regards to facial hair, I'll keep in mind to allow myself to be more aggressive with removing facial hair.

Noted.  I like getting it right in camera too but I'm far from perfect.  I'll keep in mind to play with short lighting more.

Another issue I'm somewhat torn with is how much changes when it may affect the makeup work of the model.  When I'm altering the makeup results, I feel that I'm saying that the makeup artist didn't do his/her job fully.  I can make changes to shadow and highlights because I'm correcting the photographer's error, which would be my own errors.  Maybe a discussion to have in another thread.

Thanks to all for all the wonderful input.  The base image was a a good starting point and maybe didn't require a lot of work.  However, its the minor details, that last 2%, which is the hardest.

Anyway, here are the updates base on the feedback I've received.