On another note I have been doing some research on skin softening because I am looking for a more natural effect then what I've been using in the past (surface blur at a low opacity).
Because I get a lot of questions on how to get certain effects I decided that in addition to posting photos, I am going to post tips and tricks that I use to enhance my images. You can keep emailing me your questions or feel free to post them in the comment section and I'll try to answer you ASAP.
A common skin problem is light spots. You'll get these generally if you use a flash or sometimes because oily skin or strong lighting. To correct this you use your clone stamp tool. You will change the blend mode to darken and set your opacity to about 40-50% I usually prefer to use a soft brush to help with blending. You just alt- click on a good area of the skin near the light spot and brush over it.
For dark spots under the eyes or wrinkles you can use the same method just change the blending mode to lighten. You just keep brushing over the area until it looks how you want it too.
My friend Serena gave me told me about CoffeeShop a great website that gives you free actions and tutorials. I haven't really been a huge fan of actions lately but the powder room set is so awesome. Here's a before and after to show you the magic:
Before:
After:
