Beauty retouching is probably one of the most popular application areas in which Adobe Photoshop is used extensively. There are two simple reasons for that. First, Photoshop offers a variety of advanced tools to smooth out skin and hair, optimize body proportions and emphasize some beautiful details. And second, if you have some experience with Photoshop it is easy to learn the basics and quickly produce very impressive and beautiful results.
Of course, beauty-retouching is a quite deceptive art. The masters of Photoshop create illusions which are hard to tell apart — unless you have both a genuine photo and the final result in Photoshop and can directly compare them. In fact, every day we consume perfectly retouched stars and models online and offline which just look different in the real life.
Still, it is not the reason to avoid learning advanced Photoshop techniques for beauty-retouching and study examples of how it is done in practice. The list below presents both image-tutorials as well as video tutorials. Most examples have a before-vs.-after-comparison and you can follow the modifications with Photoshop step-by-step.
Further Reading on SmashingMag:
- 50 Stunning Photoshop Text Effects Tutorials
- 50 Excellent Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials
- 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials
- 50 Clever Photoshop 3D Modeling Tutorials
- Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials
Skin
Skin Retouching Actions (affiliate link)
This set of actions helps you retouch portraits with only a beginner’s knowledge of Photoshop. Mattify, airbrush, and heal skin with the same techniques professionals use.
Frequency Separation Actions (affiliate link)
Frequency Separation is one of the most common and effective techniques to give skin an airbrushed look.
Beauty Box (affiliate link)
The Beauty Box collection includes skin shade matching techniques and an array of beautifully blended digital cosmetics.
All about beauty retouching and how to use adjustment layers, lighting, dodging and burning, and frequency separation to create stunning skin tones.
3 Techniques for Retouching Skin
Learn three great techniques for retouching skin in Adobe Photoshop. And two quick tips that you can apply with all techniques to put a final polish on retouched skin.
How to Retouch and Airbrush Skin in Photoshop
How to retouch skin professionally in Photoshop without making it look fake or blurry.
Using Frequency Separation in Photoshop
Take a look at the technique of frequency separation, including how it works and how it can improve skin.
How to smooth and soften skin in Photoshop without blurring out important image details.
How to select skin tones in Photoshop
Select a model’s skin tones in Photoshop in just a few quick clicks. Adjust hue, brightness or skin texture.
Create a Porcelain Skin Effect in Photoshop
Create a porcelain skin effect using a portrait of a woman and Photoshop’s blending modes.
Smooth skin and hide blemishes and give a glamour look on photo.
Retouching Portraits in Photoshop
This tutorial shows you how to spot heal blemishes in the skin.
Softening Skin & Adding Texture Back
Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques in Adobe Photoshop with Softening Effect.
How to Create a Porcelain Skin Effect
Create this stunning porcelain skin effect with non-destructive method of photo editing.
Photoshop tutorial: Wrinkle reduction
Some easy ways you can use channels to produces the smoothest skin.
Airbrushing Skin Photoshop Tutorial
How to make skin look healthy without looking plastic or blurred.
Heal, mattify, and airbrush skin by painting over the skin areas that you want to retouch.
Easy Facial Retouch using Photoshop
Use Quick Mask with Brush Tool to select the skin and make the skin texture more uniform.
A quick Skin Retouching Tutorial in Adobe Photoshop.
Shadows - Photoshop Retouching
Add detail-enhancing effects to your images
Go through three very common ways to make local colour and tone adjustments.
Black & White Is the Key to Better Color
Convert your photo temporarily to black and white and perform some editing to make your photographs more appealing in color.
Shadow Recovery of Backlight Problem
Two ways to fix backlight problems in Photoshop: first avoid this problem and second fix it quick.
Pro techniques for Dodge and Burn in Photoshop
Advanced techniques for Dodge and Burn in Photoshop which use Curves adjustment layers
The Ultimate Guide to the Dodge & Burn Technique
Variations for the Dodge & Burn technique in Photoshop. The fundamentals and tools.
Hair
KolourPro Action Collection (affiliate link)
This digital salon collection includes hair essentials you can use to fine-tune hair, banish frizz, and add life and shine to dull hair. Other options include bleaching hair and adding ombre effects.
An in depth look at how to fix hair and skin issues with texture grafting.
How to change hair colour in Photoshop
How to use Photoshop to change hair colour, lighten hair colour, tint hair colour and create Ombre hair effects.
How to retouch Hair in Photoshop
Fill in areas that are missing hair and cleaning up dark streaks in the hair to start to get a very smooth finish to the hair.
3 Ways to Retouch Fly-Away Hair
Three techniques that will give you options when tackling strands of hair while keeping the final result natural-looking.
Skin and Hair Retouching with Photoshop
The first thing you do when editing a photo is retouch the Skin and Hair.
How to Change Hair Color in Photoshop
Change hair color in such a manner that it looks like natural hair color.
Creating Facial Hair in Photoshop
Create a custom brush to paint facial hair whether for fun or for professional retouching.
Use inverted high pass to smooth an area of skin or anything including fabrics and seamless backdrops.
Create a mask to extract hair in Adobe Photoshop.
Eyes, mouth and teeth
Go through a very easy process of changing the color of the eyes.
Get some light in eyes with this photoshop action and a mask.
How to fix lipstick and correct lip lines
How you can correct the lip line in Photoshop using a mixture of cloning techniques.
Glossing up the lips with a dodge and burn layer.
Changing Lip Shade in Photoshop
Making the lips stand out by shifting the shade of the lip color, brightening the natural highlights.
How To Whiten And Brighten Teeth
How to easily whiten and brighten teeth in Photoshop using a simple Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
How to whiten teeth in Photoshop
Make yellow teeth look white again and giving your portrait the perfect smile.
2 Easy Ways to Whiten Teeth in Photoshop
Look at two different methods to whitening teeth in Photoshop.
Use inverted high pass to smooth an area of skin or anything including fabrics and seamless backdrops.
Create a mask to extract hair in Adobe Photoshop.
Eyes, mouth and teeth
Go through a very easy process of changing the color of the eyes.
Get some light in eyes with this photoshop action and a mask.
How to fix lipstick and correct lip lines
How you can correct the lip line in Photoshop using a mixture of cloning techniques.
Glossing up the lips with a dodge and burn layer.
Changing Lip Shade in Photoshop
Making the lips stand out by shifting the shade of the lip color, brightening the natural highlights.
How To Whiten And Brighten Teeth
How to easily whiten and brighten teeth in Photoshop using a simple Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
How to whiten teeth in Photoshop
Make yellow teeth look white again and giving your portrait the perfect smile.
2 Easy Ways to Whiten Teeth in Photoshop
Look at two different methods to whitening teeth in Photoshop.
Clean teeth by creating 3 different layers and the use of some blending modes.
Eye Sharpening – Photoshop Tutorial
With this tutorial you can create amazing, bright eyes within minutes
Galleries
Amy is a full-time retoucher since 2000.
Certified Adobe Expert with great skills.
Author and High End Retoucher.
High End Retoucher from Croatia.
Jonathan
Web developer and designer since 2002.
Complete Workflow
The 15 Minute Makeover: Photoshop Beauty Retouching
A combination of techniques that results in beautiful, smooth skin that still looks totally real.
How to Enhance & Retouch an Image
Some great enhancing and retouching techniques.
Retouch photos with realistic perfect skin
Removing blemishes from photos without making models look plastic and unreal.
The main steps of a retouching process, from exporting images from a RAW Converter to polishing them up before publishing.
Fix skin, remove blemishes and wrinkles, whiten and fix teeth, fix hair, fix eyebrows and increase definition in the eyes.
More beauty
Adding a tattoo to an image while making it look like it’s really a part of the original photo.
Photographic Toning Retouch Method
Create this effect from experimenting with other adjustment tools.
Learn how incredibly easy it is to give someone a digital nose job.
How to do your own plastic surgery with a nose job.
5 Really Easy, Yet Essential Photo Retouch Techniques
5 very simple, however very important techniques for Photoshop beginners when it comes to photo retouch.
How to correct the photos colors, change the eyes color, work with the layers, applying ready brushes and designs.
Learn all about the new Face-Aware Liquify feature in Photoshop CC.
Retouch a Model Portrait with Flawless Natural Skin
How to make a glamour retouch for a model portrait in Photoshop.
Photoshop Tutorial: Frequency Separation
How to do Frequency Separation for Retouching a Portrait.
Videos
A complete 1hr 24min High End Beauty Retouch.
How to retouch raw images with frequency separation, micro dodge & burn, how to even skin and remove blemishes.
Retouch, Airbrush, and Smooth Skin Professionally
How to retouch skin professionally in Photoshop without making it look fake or blurry.
Dodge & Burn, blemish removal, color correct and background correction.
Mattifier Powder, Freckle and Stain Reducer, Skin Softener, Ultra Smooth Skin, Brighten Eyes, Highlight Powder and more.
Mastering Dodging and Burning with 4 Techniques
Different approach to demonstrating the dodging and burning.
The Amazing Power of Frequency Separation
Frequency separation helps make retouching a portrait easier in Photoshop.
High end beauty retouch walk through with color toning.
High End Hair and Beauty Retouch in Photoshop.
How To Retouch A Heashot Portrait
How to retouch a headshot portrait like the pros.
Beauty Skin Retouching Techniques
In-depth skin retouching techniques that will show you how to work strategically in Photoshop.
