There are many different ways of achieving similar results using Photoshop. There are many different paths you can take that all lead to the same place, right? For example; There are a few different techniques out there for whitening teeth or eyes. Obviously some techniques are better than others and the only real way to find out why is to try all those different techniques and then pick the one that you’re comfortable with and the one that works for you.

Ultimately you have to trust your own instincts in determining which techniques gives you the best results. As a retoucher, it’s you that will determine the quality of outcome of the final retouched image. It’s your artistic eye and attention to detail that will overide any techniques that you learn. Techniques are just tools, like a paintbrush is just a tool. Learning different techniques won’t make you a better retoucher in the same way that buying more paintbrushes won’t make you a better artist.

Learn those different techniques, sure, but it’s more important to know how and when and why to use them and that’s something that can’t be taught.

As long as you’re happy with the results, you’re heading in the right direction.

There is one thing I want to mention that I see a lot of retouchers doing that I really want you to be aware of and try and avoid. I see it quite a lot and it’s a common mistake to make.

EYELID AMPUTATION!!!!!

Ok so first of all, let me just mention that the eyes are the window to the soul, remember?

So retouching the eyes is really important. They need to be bright, healthy, lively looking eyes as they are often a focal point. They need pin sharp focus and will usually have tweaked contrast and colour. Redness and bloodshot veins are removed and more detail is added to the iris. It’s also important to remember that the eyes are spheres and should retain their shape and translucent quality as well as the natural moisture and highlights.

Actually, I may do a whole post just about eyes and how to retouch them at some point… But what I want to talk about right now is the work done around the eyes.

Retouching around the eyes often involves removing wrinkles and lightening the dark areas or bags under the eyes. These are very common problems in portrait photography but all too often I see people get way too heavy handed with their retouching and end up completely removing the natural bulge of the lower eyelid. I see so many beauty/glamour retouch shots where people clone the skin right up underneath the eye, effectively removing all sign of there ever being an eyelid there.

This will often make the image look a little odd and it’s something you be aware of. Here’s a couple of examples of eyelid amputation:

I’m talking about things like using the B key to select the Brush tool, M for the Marquee tool, S for the Stamp tool. These make sense, right? Well don’t expect them to all be this easy.

The rate at which you learn this stuff should develop naturally over time, you can’t be expected to remember all of them at once. As you use them more and more, eventually shortcuts will become second nature and you won’t even think about it.

More advanced stuff like using the command, option and shift keys to act as modifier keys for whichever tool you have selected, is probably the most useful aspect of keyboard shortcuts and will speed up your workflow considerably.

But if you only ever learn one shortcut make it this one.

SAVING you work frequently is something you should get in the habit of doing as early as possible. But we’re all human and we forget. It’s only when you’re busy doing something that you tend to forget to save as often as you should, and without warning Photoshop will throw a fit and close.

It can be demoralising to have this screen pop up when you haven’t saved for a while. It’s popped up and ruined my life one too many times and I just had to do something about it. I now have a little application running called PS SAVE whevever I’m working in photoshop.

Every 10 minutes a dialogue box will pop up saying:

Just click yes and everything is taken care of. That way, when photoshop throws a hissy fit (again) at least you’ll only lose 10 minutes of hard graft. Worth having eh? Oh hell yeah, it is trust me.
Why this hasn’t been integrated into photoshop yet I have no idea. It’s only when you’ve lost a good 2 or 3 hours of work that you’ll start to looking for a solutions like this.

Download PS SAVE