kingvald wrote:
> Yes, great improvement George.
> Could you please include steps?
>
> I should perhaps have mentioned that I'm going to print the picture
> (10X15 cm) and use it as a "thank you for the gift..." card.
>
> I guessm it's not possible to make it sharper?
>
> Thanx
> kingvald

I'm doing this from memory, but here is what I believe I did.

• Put a "glint" in the baby's left eye to match the one in the right eye.

• Used the clone tool to get rid of the red blemish on the cheek.

• Duplicated the layer, did a 10 pixel Gaussian blur on the top layer.
• Reduced the opacity of the top layer until I liked the smoothness of the skin.
• Created a white layer mask on the top layer and using a black brush let the original sharp bottom image show though where the eye, mouth, nostrils and shirt color were.
• Brightened the eyes using a Curves adjustment layer with the blend mode set to Screen and the adjustment layer set to ONLY effect the layer immediately below it.
• Made a loose selection with the lasso tool around the baby and used a layer mask to hide the background.
• Opened the background image I used, resized it to fit the baby's photo and dragged it over the baby's photo. Then put it underneath the baby's photo.
• Finally, I used a curves adjustment layer to brighten the baby's face.
I've created a 13.5 cm x 10 cm tiff file at 240 ppi that should print well. I'll e-mail to you if you wish. It's file size is 1.1 MB. I also have the original layered PS file if you want to play with it, or possibly, use a different background. It's file size is 2 MB.
My e-mail address is in my profile if you want to let me know where to send either,or both, images to.
IMHO, the image is sharp enough. However, is you get the layered PS file, you could turn off the blurred face and see if you like it and/or use USM of a flattened image to sharpen the whole thing.
Good looking baby.

George Burke