I have read on several model portfolios that none of their images have been touched-up. I aslo remember reading an article online showing all the manipulations that go into modern glamour images (in magazines). So, I was wondering what the models here (as well as photographers and stylists) think of the use of skin softening and other touch-up techniques (assuming they are done well). Do you prefer to have your images touched up in this manner or not, and why?
Thanks.

I do believe in using Photoshop's band-aid tool to remove things like pimples, undereye circles, etc without altering the texture of the skin.

I do not believe in going over every square inch of skin with the Gaussian blur until the model looks like an airbrushed painting.  If any of my photos look like that, it wasn't me who did it.

I'm not wild about softening, but I do carefully retouch portraits in particular.  My theory is this: cameras capture far more information than our eyes notice and document when we're looking at someone.  When I photograph them I attempt to show them as they are on their best, most well-rested day.  That means taking out skin bumps, softening laugh/frown lines so they don't dominate the image, removing under-eye purple smudges, etc.  Hopefully the resulting image looks exactly like the person who sat for it - at their very best.

If I'm shooting figure work with a model with very good skin, often no retouching is necessary at all.  (Body skin seems to often have fewer blemishes than faces.)  For example, the most recent picture in my portfolio is from a shoot last night that I did with Crystal, and I didn't have to do any retouching at all - she's got great, glowing, lightly tanned skin.  It's flawless as is.  The same is true for almost all my figure work, now that I think about it.

No one has flawless skin.  No one.

Unless you want flawed skin in your photos (and this is a legitimate desire) all photos need some amount of retouching.

But what people consider "skin softening" is rarely good retouching.  Skin softening is usually used to eliminate details from skin.  This is bad.  Good retouching is done on a pixel-by-pixel basis.  It's hard work, takes serious skills, and is time intensive.  Skin softening is a quick fix.