Photoshop Retouching Techniques: Beauty Portraits with Timothy Sexton

In this course, Timothy Sexton, senior retoucher at New York's Gloss Studio, builds the foundation for mastering the art of fashion retouching. The course begins with a discussion of how to evaluate an image and develop a retouching strategy that dovetails with the client's needs and the photographer's vision. Timothy also details an approach to file and layer management that simplifies creating multiple versions of a photo for client approval.

Next, Timothy delves into several core aspects of retouching—skin, hair, clothing, and body shaping—providing real-world insights and Adobe Photoshop techniques. The course describes ways to enhance eyes and lips, selectively sharpen portions of a photo to draw attention to them, use masks to change the color of clothing, and more. The course concludes with details on how to evaluate your work.

Topics include:

• Working on color, contrast, and tone


• Managing layers


• Removing imperfections with the Clone Stamp and Quick Mask tools


• Using soft and hard brushes to clean up hair


• Refining the eyes and brows


• Plumping lips with Liquify


• Finalizing the color


• Finishing with Dodge and Burn