if im lucky, i do not have to do anything! but mostly i am always tweaking the photos in one way or another.

i use photoshop, which is a big investment, but worth every penny so long as you take a little time to really learn it.

on any given shot i use the following tools on photoshop :
levels
saturation
gaussian blur or surface blur

on portraits, i use color balance to even out skin tone and use the diffuse glow to mimic a soft pretty light.

i always us the clone stamp or the healing brush to get rid of background noise and to eliminate blemishes, wrinkles and things like the big vein that pops out in the middle of my forehead when i am overheated.

i use the burn tool to give depth and the dodge tool to lighten darkened pockets.

and when i do catalog work for jewelry i ALWAYS use the cloud dome which eliminates shadows and glares beautifully.

of course, their are things called "actions" which you can download and purchase
and these will do all the little steps for you. consider it the cliff notes for photoshop.

thats all i can think of for now, but in the future, i will try to provide more tutorial links and resources for all you fellow photo junkies.

in the mean time, thea has some good tips and resources to check out. her portraits are beautiful.(hooray for the end of geeky senior pictures and giving teens photos they dont need to be embarrassed about!)

****i would love to know your special tips as well,
email me at Jen@jengray.com.****