Enhancing portraits in Photoshop

[laura]

Hi everyone, just wondered in there is certain process or order that portraits 'should' be enhanced in Photoshop (i have CS3) in your opinion? Or what works best?
Thanks

[jerryph]

Wow, huge topic. For me, it is mostly dependant on the picture and my desires. If the shot is well done, obviously less is needed to be done in post processing, however, there are always instances where PPing is important, for example like smoothing out the skin for a model shot, removing blemishes, scars, etc... and it can go so far as to make someone look TOTALLY different than from themselves.

Where to stop... is up to the "artist"... you.

Lately I was going extreme in a lot of my post processing and find that at least for me, less is more.

In the end, there is no "should"... there is only what you want that matters. ;)

[laura]

Thanks Jerry, yeah is a huge topic, thats why i'm struggling so much just don't know where to start!
Think I'll put a photo in Edit my Shot section, see what comes up.

[jerryph]

I commented there, but I am not sure the comment is going to be exactly what you are expecting. :)

[laura]

Read your comment, any help and advice is really appreciated. Thank you for your honesty.

[jerryph]

:) I added another comment. Something perhaps a little more "on topic"