Let me introduce you to Stephen, a very active seven year old boy. When he was younger, he fell and scarred his chin. In this image I softened the scarring in addition a few other corrections. First, I removed the mole on his neck, a few freckles on the nose and cheeks and a sore under the left eye. Next, I lightened the dark and smoothed the wrinkles under both eyes. Then I softened the scarring under the right side of his mouth and horizontally across his chin. Finally I subtlety brightened the eyes to make his face grab the attention of the viewer.
Notice that I left some of the freckles on his nose and the red blotch on his right cheek just in front of the ear lobe. I tried removing all the "imperfections" but the image didn't look like Stephen at all. In this, as in most of my photography, I want people and things to look the way they look, not the way I think they should look.
