need some CC on this....CONSTRUCTIVE....not just a random drive by that makes fun. Any help on what im doing wrong and how to fix it...would be mucho appreciated.

thanks

BEFORE


AFTER

Okay, let me have a crack at it. 

1. Skin color.  While trying to perhaps bring out the colors of the shrubbery and plants behind her, you made her skin color yellow, especially on the sides of her face.

2.  Her eyes are a little over processed and sharpened for my taste (I am sure others here might disagree with me on this.  The current trend right now is to have the eyes a little over-sharpened according to my tastes). 

3. I would like the shrubbery, or plants and her hair to be a little less sharp and fall into the background a little more.  To give her face a little more of the center stage.   

I think fixing those things would be a good start.

http://josephthomas.org

First impression thoughts:

- The after is an improvement over the before.

- Fix the low frequency color splotching on skin.
- Green hue in shadows in the teeth.
- Perhaps a little over sharpened - maybe mask the sharpening into areas like the eyes/eyelashes, w/a little less on eye brows, hair, flowers. The flowers are nice but the saturation boost + sharpening pulls the eye away from her face, the viewer will still see their contribution if those guys are softer without pulling attention.
- Maybe smooth specular highlights on forehead, bridge of nose, tip of nose, cheek and chin to remove "oily" feeling.
- You're doing a good job preserving skin texture.

If your going all out:
- Remove hair that threads through and over flowers
- Straighten teeth
- Address gum line
- Even out the thickness of the lips
- Clean up eyebrow outlines
- Remove neck creases and smooth/thin jaw folds

Too driveby?

The color & skin tone here are gorgeous, and you've done a good job smoothing out her skin tone.  That being said, when you go this tight crop and high contrast on a shot, you end up bringing to focus all of the model's imperfections.  Here, you're drawing attention to the lack of symmetry in the face (which is the most important part of what we consider "beauty" subconciously), especially in the eyes. The contrast also brings the eye to the not-quite-perfect teeth, and left the eyes scary-intense.  And, by pulling down your shadows, you're seeing more of the wrinkling on her face due to the angle this was shot at.  Cropping below the hairline on the forehead almost never works well - it always makes the forehead look bigger than it is.  In short, you've got a really pretty model, but this sort of finishing doesn't do her any favors.

I personally prefer a model that isn't perfect, but you still need to make them look good. If you're going to go tight like this, you either need to spend the time airbrushing the shadows and symmetry, or have a more perfect shot to start with, or the flaws aren't going to look deliberate and flattering. This same shot, straight on with even lighting would have probably have given you a better starting point.  But you clearly have good skills, so keep it up!