This image was created at a 'mall portrait studio'. While the composition, pose and expression was cute, the image suffered from numerous minute flaws that, summed up, detracted from the overall appeal.

First off, the photo was a bit muddy — lacking 'punch', so I made adjustments for proper exposure and color balance. Then I tackled all details of the retouch. The majority of my time was spent on retouching stray hairs, shadows, reflections and scuffs on the car and backdrop. After all that, I removed some distracting shadows and warmed up the skin tones a bit. Hopefully the resulting image caused more “Wow!” than “Oh, that's cute.”