soft skin sharp eyes

I think a lot of the effect is backlighting and exposing for the face. Reflectors may be involved for fill... Smoothing the skin (assuming it's needed) is best done in Photoshop.

@CC - Yes, there definitely are PS actions that have been advertised which are supposed to produce an effect like the image you cited. Kubota and Yellow Sky actions come to mind. However, actions are never an instant, "one-button" fix. The base image might be too dark, light, saturated, blurry, lit poorly, etc. No "action" is smart enough to compensate for such variation in the input image the action must process. This means that to get the action to work as advertised, in many cases, you have to know enough about PS to bring all your images to a common point. IMHO, if you already know that much about PS, you probably know enough to get this effect yourself, and with a lot less uncertainty.

@BobT - "...Smoothing the skin (assuming it's needed) is best done in Photoshop..." - Them's fightin' words to a lot of folks -- especially given that my comment is from someone who is a confirmed, longtime, diehard Photoshop weenie and probably have some suitable presets / actions already installed on my system. ;-)

Specifically, I think it's fair to say that most pros would reply that for a professional look, smoothing the skin is best done by makeup, then with lighting, and finally, if all else fails, then finish it off using PS.

My bet is that all three are involved in the cited image, with a substantial amount of PS used.

Just my $0.02,

Tom M

For a professional look, smoothing the skin is best done by makeup, then with lighting, and finally, if all else fails, then finish it off using PS... and in that case, someone have press hard on the Photoshop tools ; )