Photo editing is the tool that will allow you to enhance an image so that it attracts attention and is most attractive.

Since the current trend is natural, we will do a high-end retouching on this image while keeping a realistic side to its texture. The technique that I will use is a long-lasting technique that will allow us to keep the grain of the skin as well as a few small imperfections well chose. A little imperfection will help the realism of the image.


1. The first step is the one I like to call the basic household. Create a copy of your original layer on which you will be working. You should primarily use the Correction Tool at this step. It is important to remove only the most troublesome elements: pimples, fluff, hair, poorly positioned wrinkles, disturbing freckles, hole in the skin and ear lobes. To do this, make sure that the action area of ??your tool is the same size as what you want to remove. I suggest you activate the alignment option so that your selection follows your cursor.

Common Error: Many people do this step too quickly and change the grain of the skin or bring a more precise texture into a more blurred area.

SUBLIME TIP: As your image advances, activate and deactivate your layers to see your progress. If the biggest imperfections disappear, you are on the right track. To help you, you can put all of the edit layers in a folder called Retouch.


2. Once the basic household is finished you will use the technique commonly known as Dodge and burn to standardize the surface of the skin. In order to avoid directly modifying the pixels of your image, we will add an extra layer to apply this technique. Layer / New / Layer ... When creating the layer we will call DODGE BURN, set the blend mode to Soft light and activate the gray 50% option.


3. Dodge & Burn's method uses density + and density tools - to lighten darker spots and darken the paler patches of the skin. This procedure makes it possible to standardize this one quietly. It is in your DODGE BURN layer that you will use the 2 tools of Density + and Density - in turn. Make sure the range is smooth and I suggest you start using these tools at 10% exposure.


Your layer on which you apply, the Dodge & Burn technique should, looks like the image below in normal mode.


Common mistake: be careful to change only the skin and not the overall facial illumination. Also, I noticed that people not experienced with this technique tend to use more the Density tool - than the Density tool + which results from a fading of the image.


SUBLIME TIP: To avoid changing tools regularly, choose one of the two tools and press the ALT key on your keyboard to switch to the other tool.

4. To help you identify the spots on the skin, I suggest you use a layer that allows you to see your image in black and thus remove any distraction caused by the colors. Also, using a curve layer, you can increase the contrast to bring out the skin's imperfections. These two layers, which you will throw at the end of the process, will help throughout the manipulation of the image.


5. To put a finishing touch on your image, adjust the color. In this case, a single Selective Correction layer will be used. Only by modifying the blacks as well as the neutral colors. If you find the effect too intense, just desaturate your colors a bit.