Shy model!

A young lady I met on the river bank,at the Tyne tour canoe event!...she was very shy!...

Very strong picture. Well done for getting a stranger to pose.

But now you need to get the clone brush out and sort out her unfortunate complexion... Sometimes photographs just have to lie a little...

I agree Andrew, sometimes nature needs a helping hand.

"There you go then!"

Her complexion may be partly the source of her shyness to be photographed. I'm sure she'd be delighted with the 'lightly enhanced' photo of her!

I agree with most of the above but will add that photographing someone "face on" is not very flattering (yes I'm guilty of doing it sooo many times at the goth meet).

Actually thats not really what I think, I think she'd heard of your reputation Ken and was terrified you were going to shoot the squirrel fur she was wearing on her head

But in mono how can we be sure whether its a red or a grey?

Strong portait. She's also a little short of eyelashes on her left (our right) eye. I'd stick in a couple more to balance it up a bit.

Al

"Splitting hairs methinks!"

That poor girl, i hope she never has reason to visit this site, im sure she would be delighted at your efforts to "tart her up a bit".....

I was considering to respond and decided to do so even on the chance to be unpopular with my opinion.
I would NOT have taken any of her complexion away. She is not a fashion model but 'just' a nice young lady that was good enough to pose for a shot.
There must have been something that attracted you to ask her in the first place to 'pose' for the shot, so why removing features that make her and her personality?
I would have placed a softener on to smooth out any complexion and then play with the way how the light falls on her face.
That way you can high/low light the areas in question. All can be done in PP.
I just feel that any portrait should not take away complexion that are permanent as this is a bit like surgery and no longer reflects the person itself.
It is a great shot in itself and the complexion do not disturb me in the slightest as this is what makes her and her personality that comes over.
It may be just me but this is the way I view portrait pictures.

Give it a few years and she'll have lost all those nasty pimples and turned into a beautiful young woman:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/jamie_gr/fotoos/IMGP69421.jpg

(Hope you don't mind, beginner. If you do, let me know please and I'll remove the picture).

Nice PP lidy, if she turns out like that she should be well pleased.

While I am much impressed with the Photoshop techniques of my fellow forum members,I am more in line with" SmutjeUK",I shot this young lady because I thought her very pretty and attractive,her complexion didn't enter my mind. I much prefer to photograph people as I see them,not as I can make them look afterwards,the only photo editing I use is Picasa,for lightening,contrast and colour conversion.I may seem like an old fuddy duddy!...but I much prefer the lady in her natural state,thank you all for you remidial efforts,which I admire...but I'm afraid it's "Natural for me!

No probs, beginner. I understand your point of view. My thinking was that people sometimes want a nice portrait of themselves in which they look ever so slightly better than they do in real life. Well, if that's what they want, I'll do what I can to supply them with one.

BTW, this second portrait is great. Wonderful wide and radiant laugh!