Before and After | A look at my retouching work--on my own portrait!

This summer while my son and I were on vacation visiting family, my sister agreed to take some portraits of me and my little guy (gosh, not so little anymore). So, I set everything up, positioned us in the right light, made sure the the camera settings were right, and we got some fun shots. That's what's cool about being a photographer -- you can direct your own photo shoot!

Here is the finished portrait of the two of us that I am going to hang in our home. Don't you love it!? Thank you Charity!

See below for what the portrait looked like straight out of the camera (SOOC). As you can see, I've made some changes, but nothing major -- I believe that getting it right in camera is super important. But, I want to look good in my pictures! So here's what I did: 

• Hair smoothing -- oh my goodness, the frizz!
• Skin retouching
• Adding shadow and light for better dimension
• Arm shrinking (yeah, I'm a little embarrassed of my bigger arms)
• Chin shrinking (the shot caught my son's chin from below -- never a flattering look.)
• Background brightening
• Eye and Makeup Retouching
• A touch of vignetting

Here are the pictures side-by-side so you can see the difference: 

I love making a great photograph into a beautiful, polished portrait. What do you think?