I took this shot of Erica Arguello in front of the Venetian, in Las Vegas, while we were attending Photoshop World September 5-10, 2011.  Erica is our new BYU – Idaho Photographics Society President for the fall 2011 semester.  She is planning some great events, so check it out at byuiphotographics.com

PORTRAIT RETOUCHING in Camera Raw / Photoshop: Erica at the Venetian by Caryn Esplin... I used some of my usual retouching tips, then tried a few new tricks I just learned at Photoshop World from the famous Photoshop expert, Scott Kelby. (The world's top selling computer book author)

UNEDITED PHOTO: Erica is beautiful without any editing!

Okay, some of you want to know what edits I did…

SUBTLE EDITS – When the model is this stunning, and the light is this good, be sure you don’t overdo the edits!
1. CAMERA RAW ADJUSTMENTS:  I opened the original image in Camera Raw, where I adjusted the colors. You can drag sliders to change just one color at a time. I mainly lowered the luminance on the blues, and increased the saturation a bit.
2. SKIN:  I copied the layer first. Her skin is awesome, so I just did a little smoothing. I used a brush set at low opacity and flow(30%), then I sampled the skin color with the eye dropper and painted with a soft-edged brush under her eyes, and around her brows and mouth.
3. EYES: Again I made a copy of the layer, then I used a brush set at Color Dodge blending mode to lighten up the irises. Then I used the sharpening tool to slightly sharpen her eyes and brows. Be careful not to overdo this, or it looks unnatural.
4. LIPS: I sampled the darker pink color in her lips, near the center, then I painted with a low opacity/ flow brush to add her own natural color to the lips
5. HAIR: I removed the random hair on the right side of her neck and cheek with the clone stamp.
6. HAIR HIGHLIGHTS: This is the hair highlighting trick I learned from Scott Kelby last week at Photoshop World.  (Usually I use a brush, set to Color Dodge).  First I duplicated the layer and add a Screen blending mode. Then I added a black mask to hide the effect, and finally I used a white brush to bring back the highlights in some areas. Thank, Scott!