EDIT THE SHOT
1 OPEN IN PHOTOSHOP In Photoshop, using Layers, right-click the background and hit Duplicate Layer. Rename this “skin”. It’s good practice to use layers, so that you can remove or edit one if you over or under edit.
2 REMOVE IMPERFECTIONS Select the Spot Healing Brush. It will automatically sample, so all you need to do is alter its size and click on the area to heal. Use it to correct blemishes, spots, and remove unwanted hairs.
3 SMOOTH SKIN Select the Clone Stamp tool, with the Blend Mode as Normal, 100% Opacity and select a Flow of 5-10%. Working in sections, sample and paint sparingly across the skin to smooth the appearance.
4 DODGE & BURN Select Dodge from the tools, size the brush, select Highlights and Exposure of around 15%. Carefully brush over the reflections to lift their exposure and make them pop. You can do similar with Burn, over the areas you wish to darken down.
5 COLOUR BALANCE Select Colour Balance from the Layers menu to work on grading the image. Here I played with the shadows, highlights and midtones to warm the image up, especially in the shadows, and balance out the green tones. This is personal preference, so play with these until it looks right for you.
6 FINAL ADJUSTMENTS Save the image into Adobe Lightroom, and use Clarity for sharpness, plus Blacks, Shadows and Highlights and Exposure to make any extra tweaks to the finished image. This is the stage where I do a final crop if needed.
Right inset
BEFORE
The image requires some minor skin retouches, including removing some stray hairs, and it looks a little cool in tone. Overall it is slightly flat, and requires some work to help make it look more dynamic
Right
AFTER
A more polished looking image, with warmer tones and contrast. The stray hairs have been removed, and the skin has been given a light retouch to smooth out minor imperfections