portrait retouch

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.