Feature preview: Commercial Retouching

<!–BEAUTY_SPREAD–>Beauty retouching is one of the more common processes practised by Photoshop users. However, many of the tutorials supplied online yield unconvincing effects, which won’t suffice if you want to show off your skills in the professional arena. Commercial retouchers know what it takes to work efficiently and in this feature several of them share their secrets, exploring plenty of techniques that will ultimately transform your beauty retouching for the better. However, before we dive in and start discussing these effects, it’s important to understand what defines a beauty image. Facial retouching in fashion photography is less invasive than beauty, which needs to be absolutely flawless. Beauty images have significant styling – separating them from fashion photography – and images are more natural with both clean light and colour. Where fashion is energised, beauty is subtle and sophisticated. Composition is also a key signifier of a successful beauty image, in turn prompting many applicable effects. “This type of photo editing is more about perfecting the model,” explains professional retoucher Oliver Ingrouille (www.ingrouille.com). “It’s about creating pristine skin, perfect lashes and flawless make-up. As beauty images are usually close-up head shots with softer, flatter lighting, there will always be a huge amount of skin and hair detail to work with. Read more in Advanced Photoshop 103, now on sale at www.imagineshop.co.uk and www.greatdigitalmags.com
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