The beautiful Elena was kind enough to let us use her portrait as a before and after example. let’s take a look at the steps involved in adjusting and retouching a portrait. This is a great example of full basic retouching fit for the creative or corporate professional. Portraits for said use simply need to be polished. This is not retouching for fashion or something that requires more time consuming work. We want to show your best self not a doll version.
Our philosophy is simple, to make the subject look well-rested and healthy. In this style of retouching, we address (when needed) dark circles, blemishes, color blotches, wrinkles, fly away hair, makeup adjustments, etc. We do this in a gentle way which preserves one’s personality and features. Elena still looks like Elena. Of course, we will take specific requests when prompted to do so. For instance, removing birthmarks or making someone look thinner.
Why retouch? Photos do not always represent how we see each other, or how we would like to be seen. Things like fly away hair and blemishes are distracting. Retouching is the final step in creating a professional portrait.
Below are three images side by side. This is the full range of post processing we do when retouching. The image on the left was raw straight from camera. The middle one was taken from Adobe Camera Raw where it was adjusted for basic settings such as white balance and contrast. The image on the right is the final version, it was retouched in photoshop.
Before and after: (Left) Portrait with basic adjustments with (right) the final retouched portrait.
To see retouching on this portrait in action, take a look at our video below. This basic retouching processes, which takes about 15-30 minutes, was sped up to a minute and a half. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Maria and Seth Photography Blog 
That was awesome! I like the erasing of the hair part. I only do basic editor on my images, but really amazed at images of others who do more.
Thank you Rommel! I appreciate you taking a moment to read the post and watch the video. Thank you for the kind words. I use the bandade tool, the patch tool, and clone stamp tool to get rid of flyaways. -Maria
Nice. I try not to have people in my pictures, especially close-ups, so I won’t have that kind of problem. However, as my wise old grandmother told me in 1966: “What comes out of the camera is just the basics to start with.”
Hi Russel, thanks for commenting. Your grandmother definitly sounds wise. We dont always retouch, but sometimes the client requests it or in this case we wanted to show the steps involved and the before and after. Sometimes it really takes te pjoto to another level. -Maria