Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 Restoration and Retouching for Digital Photographers Only

Chapter 14. HANDS-ON PORTRAIT RETOUCHING PROJECT: THE COMPLETE WORKFLOW

It's time to put theory into practice by completing a retouching project from start to finish. You'll get to see how all of the pieces come together and experience a complete portrait retouching workflow.

Along the way, I'll share the thought process I use when working on a project like this one, giving you insight into the problem-solving process. By the end of this chapter you'll be ready to take on most portrait retouching jobs with confidence.

Evaluating the Project

Figure 14-1 shows the portrait for this chapter's project. It's a standard business portrait of an attractive professional woman. This is a nice business portrait, and it won't take much to make it into a very nice business portrait.

Figure 14-1. 

I chose this image because it has most of the standard portrait retouching issues like wrinkles and skin that needs smoothing, eyes and teeth that need attention, and flyaway hair that needs to be toned down.

Here's the scenario: The client wants a print of this portrait to hang in the lobby of her office, next to portraits of other professionals she works with. That means she needs an 8×10 finished print. A project like this one requires soft-edge retouching to create an overall refinement and smoothing of the ...