Before and After Portrait | Murphy, NC Photographer

I recently saw a post showing post-processing techniques using film and the darkroom.  Photographer George Hurrell had processed an image of Joan Crawford and it was absolutely breath taking.  The link to see his before and after is here. The great photographers of the 1900's either processed their own images or sent them out to a lab for processing.  The majority didn't sell or even show images with no processing.  

I'm going to take a leap though and show you what I get straight out of the camera and what that same image looks like after processing.  I'm using the same techniques used in the darkroom, only digitally applied using Lightroom.  No actions, filters, etc.  Just plain ol' hand-retouching using dodge and burn and local exposure adjustments.

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This image is a color before and after.  You can see how color adjustments, contrast adjustments, dodge and burn draw the viewer into the subjects eyes make for a more pleasing portrait.

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This "Before" image is straight out of camera with only de-saturation and the "After" image using traditional processing techniques.  Isn't the processed image so much more striking?  Gone are the muddy skin tones and lack of contrast.