>>3180086Sorry for the delay, I've been busy. Normally I wouldn't go this in-depth to teach one person on the board, but you've been faithfully applying my theory and seem really serious about improving.
I made a texture enhanced and grunge enhanced layer so you can more clearly see what I'm seeing. It's always a good idea to do your texture and grunge work with a hue-sat adjustment layer set to saturation -100 on top of the layers (set to color blending mode). This helps your eye not get distracted by color, which is corrected later. I also recommend getting your contrast better before you do frequency work, as it helps your eye see the flaws. Finally I always clip a dramatic curve adjustment layer to the HF layer with the white and black point pulled practically to the middle, so the texture is super clear when I'm cloning.
1. There's still LF grunge in these areas. Needs more d&b.
2. Some subtle striping (could be LF or HF depending on your split)
3. Texture still stands out to me. Either go into the HF layer with a really small clone stamp, cloning the smallest pretty pores over the larger ones, or create a new D&B group on top of the HF layer and actually d&b those details until they don't draw the eye. (dodge those tiny shadows and burn the highlights). Don't do too much, just until it doesn't stand out.
4. Her scleras are super-blue. Select them, hue-sat adjustment, click on them with the "finger" tool found in the hue/sat panel, then drag lightness up (keep blending mode set to normal).
Usually it takes people months of practice before they get to the level of true "high end." It can take days working on an image when you're just learning this stuff that will later take you hours. Keep practicing, learn to see the grunge.
