Jesse over at The Lucas Zoo submitted this photo that was selected for the i♥faces Fix-it Friday this week, and it’s fabulous.

This is the before.

The first thing I did when I opened it was cropped it for a 5×7 ratio, which took care of the excess foreground space. Next I ran a couple of my own actions on it, one to boost the contrast, one to level out the midtones and darken the shadows, and one to add a peachy tone overall.

To finish up I ran a Portrait Pop action and then sharpened it with “Smart Sharpen”.

Program: CS4
Resources: Portrait Pop action + my own personal actions.

I took a stab at the Iheartfaces “Fix-It Friday” challenge, and am pleased with my result, so I figured I’d post it.

This is the original image:

This is my “fixed” image:

I used Photoshop CS4 to remove the blemishes and smooth out the skin.
I burned and dodged the eyes to make them “pop” out.
Then I applied the “Creamy Chocolate” action from CoffeeTeaPhotography.com which I then tweaked the settings on.
Finally I used the burn and dodge tools to get the contrast that I wanted in the hair and around the cheeks.
Finally I flattened and sharpened the image. Voila!