Edit Challenge

This is a photo of Elle, from a photo board I frequent.  Her mom asked what others could do with it, so I decided to do a vintage edit on it.

Here are my steps using CS4.

1.  Adjust white balance by selecting the white from the shirt on her right shoulder using the eye dropper tool in levels.

2.  Adjust exposure and contrast in curves by pulling up on the middle of the curve and down slightly on the lower left.

3.  Dodge the shadows on the left side of her face and around her mouth.

4.  Coffeeshop BabyPowder Room action to smooth, lighten, and glow skin.  Pop the eyes a tad.  (I set my brush on 25-30% opacity to 'paint')

5.  PW Bring on the Eyes action popping the eyes just a bit. (I set my brush on 25-30% opacity to 'paint')

6.  PW Warming action set at 85% opacity.  Mask eyes using 50% opacity brush.

7.  Coffeeshop Sunshine action.  Turn off lens flare layer.  Adjust lighten and haze layers to 25% opacity.   Adjust contrast bump layer to 40% opacity.  Adjust orange tones layer to 65% opacity.  Mask eyes  from haze and orange tones layers using 50% opacity brush.

8.  Nelly Nero's Summer Vintage action.   Turn off optional brighten layer and summer vintage layer.  Adjust Color fill 1 layer to 40%, and adjust slight colour shift layer to 80%.  Mask eyes from slight colour shift and color fill layers using 70% opacity brush.

9.  Nelly Nero's Candy Floss Action.   Turn on optional warming layer, but adjust to 12% opacity.  Turn off grass desaturation layer.  Adjust skin desaturation layer to 25%.  Adjust contrast pop layer to 85% opacity.  Adjust Candy Floss to 35% opacity.  Adjust Yellow/Green  tonal shift layer to 45% opacity.  Mask eyes from all layers using 70% opacity brush.

10.  Crop so eyes fall at top rule of thirds line.

My critique:  Her eyes might be a bit too much now, and I’m not sure about a vintage edit for this particular photo.