Chapter 15. Hands-on Portrait Retouching Project: The Complete Workflow

In this chapter, we put theory into practice by completing a retouching project together. This project gives you a chance to experience a complete portrait retouching workflow from start to finish. You also get a chance to see my thought process as I move through a retouching project like this one.

As I mentioned in Chapter 13, retouching is used to take a portrait to the next level, finishing what the photographer began when the shutter was clicked. When carried out properly, this process adds much more value to the finished image. When taken to the highest levels, ii gives the photographer the opportunity to add another personal touch to the image — making it truly a one-of-a-kind. Before that journey can begin, we need to look closely at the image we'll work on and the requirements of the project.

Evaluating the Project

Figure 15.1 shows the portrait we're working on together in this chapter. It's a standard business portrait of an attractive professional woman who was photographed by one of my clients. The image was shot on film and scanned on a high-end film scanner.

Note

Yes, some people still shoot film! The grain in the film looks much like noise in a digital file.

I chose this image because it has most of the standard portrait retouching issues like wrinkles ...

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