Motordrive Photography wrote:
I often even out skin tones with a solid fill layer set to color with the opacity at about 25% or less.

This pop trick destroys the natural correlation between chromaticity and luminosity.

A good way to bring out a beard is to double process the RAW and bring up the blacks, shadows
and clarity, make a black mask on that layer, then reveal as much as you want, careful of going
overboard with the clarity, or beard can get a little crunchy.

Double raw processing with different exposures and using the clarity slider are also easy ways to destroy the image. I wish Adobe never made sliders for clarity, shadows/highlights. If you can't get proper dynamic range convert using dcraw and then process with a master curve in PS.

2thestudio - Ivan wrote:
Like this?

I don't see the author saying "you are allowed to download and edit this image, then upload it to another site without permission". For things like these photographers here really hate the word "retoucher" and don't trust anyone.

As for the edit itself - you have not fixed the uneven skin tones. In fact you have added additional red spots around nose and ear. Also this is not a beauty portrait and doesn't need the skin smoothing which you have applied. You are reducing the strong expression which is the essence of this particular image. Beard and hair holes looks better but you are still not helping the OP without explanation.