Thought I knew

[stufflol]

I perosnally think you have reduced the saturation a bit too much , you need to as a little brightness to the face masks , try fethering when the masks are switched off dont over fether ( roughly 7-11 if you are decent with ur masks) this images is not very good quality also , try practising on High Res images instead, and yes for the shadowing add a curves layer and reduce it to the bottom , then you can see with a rough guid as to where the shadows should be , then you can make a black square and feather the places with a mask , this is not easy to do make sure you delete the curves layer after

 

[Moffi]

The layer blending may be the key to my last post. Silhouette Luma seems to do well, along with pin light, subtract, divide, and luminosity. Takes away the white aura with popping highlights and soft shadows.

 

[Moffi]

I agree with your last critique about the Sat., Brightness, and image quality (pulled quickly from the net) I will watch it on the next pass I'm working on now. Trying to learn through repetition. I'll add the Adjustment Curves layer to spot the shadows and feather with a mask. I can say there is no "Easy Button" for this type of work. Takes a lot of patience and forward thought. So hats off Stuff. I'll post soon.