Step by Step / enhance a portrait
1 Retouch spots
Open your portrait in Photoshop, go to the Layers panel (Window>layers) and click the new layer icon. Get the Spot Healing Brush from the tools panel and check ‘Sample All Layers’ in the tool options. Use a brush to paint over spots, stray hairs and blemishes.
2 Soften lines
Make another new layer. This time go to the layer opacity slider in the Layers panel and set it to 50%. Use the Spot Healing brush to paint over lines, wrinkles and any other areas that stand out. This will soften, but not completely remove them.
3 Sample a colour
Click the Create Adjustment Layer icon, choose Curves. Click the Curve thumbnail in the Layers panel to deselect it then double-click the Curves black point eyedropper to get a colour box. Pick a skin tone from the cheek. Hit OK, then click on the eye bag to fix darker tones.
4 Tone down eye bags
Go to the Layers panel and highlight the white mask thumbnail on the Curves layer, then press Cmd/ctrl+i. Get the Brush tool, hit D to set colour to white and 3 for 30% opacity, then paint over the eye bags to lift them. Do the same over other shadows on the skin.
5 Play the action
Double-click the retouching_actions.atn file, then go to the Actions panel (Window>actions), select the ‘High Pass Texture’ action and play it. Follow the instructions, then grab the Brush tool and hit 3 for 30% opacity and paint the skin to reveal the effect.
6 Lift the skin
Press Cmd/ctrl+shift+alt+e to merge a copy of the layers, go to Filter>camera Raw Filter for tweaks. Grab the Targeted Adjustment tool, right-click and choose Luminance, then drag over the skin. Go to the Basic panel and boost contrast and saturation.