How to Retouch a Portrait From Start to Finish in Photoshop

Posing, lighting, and shooting a portrait is only half the process of creating a successful image. To create a truly polished photo, you have to have the retouching skills to match. This excellent video tutorial will show you the full process of editing a portrait using Photoshop.

Coming to you from Eli Infante, this great video tutorial will show you how to retouch a portrait using Photoshop. In it, Infante uses a combination of dodging and burning, skin retouching techniques, and color grading and also touches on important topics including layer masks, selective color, levels adjustments, Blend if, and Pratik Naik's fantastic Infinite Color Panel. One of the most important things to remember when retouching portraits is to be very careful not to go overboard with the editing. Since a lot of the work involves very local adjustments, you will spend most of the process zoomed in quite far, which can make it easy to go over the top without even realizing it is happening. Personally, I recommend zooming out and taking stock of your work every few minutes and to remember that generally, it is best to err on the side of doing less retouching, especially when you are newer to the process. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Infante. 

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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