Exploring The Three Main Options For Retouching Photoshop Portrait Graphics

You have three main options for retouching Photoshop portrait graphics. This is against a background where the main purpose for which most people use Photoshop is that of manipulating graphics. And one of the major forms of graphic manipulation achieved through the use of Photoshop is the retouching we are making reference to here. The objective behind the whole retouching exercise is normally to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the graphics. The graphics in question here are often human graphics: for instance, facial photos or upper body photos – also referred to as portraits. Through retouching, it becomes possible to brighten otherwise less than impressive teeth. Through retouching, it becomes possible to enlarge otherwise small eyes or to soften otherwise rough-looking skin… among other things.

Now, as we mentioned earlier, there are three main options in terms of how you can go about retouching portraits, namely:

1. Manual Photoshop Retouching

This is the option for you to take if you enjoy difficult, painstaking and potentially frustrating work. It is also the option for you if you have a huge block of time you are trying to kill. We say this because manual Photoshop retouching is an extremely involving and time-consuming undertaking. If you are to get it right, you have to do it pixel by pixel: otherwise the results will be less than impressive. Often, people who opt to retouch Photoshop graphics manually end up getting the feeling that they could as well have done the work manually using paintbrushes! So frustrating is the exercise. But then again, if you enjoy real challenges, this is an approach you can use, when it comes to retouching Photoshop graphics.

2. Photoshop Retouching Through Plug-ins

It emerges that there are some plug-ins that have been developed to make Photoshop retouching work manageable. With these plug-ins, you can actually be able to retouch Photoshop graphics without having to work pixel by pixel. Some are so sophisticated that you can actually give them global commands on what you’d want done, and they do it for you without you actually having to ‘dirty your hands’ on the graphic being retouched. That is like where you just select the portion of the graphic you want to retouch, specify the retouching effect you want to apply, and have the plug-ins do that for you. The developers seem to have figured out, at a general level, the sort of portrait Photoshop users want to get at the end of retouching exercises. They then seem to have developed plug-ins that make the production of that sort of portrait Photoshop users want to get at the end of the retouching exercise an easy undertaking. That is, in other words, the sort of undertaking you can actually do expeditiously and enjoy the work.

3. Professional Photoshop Retouching

There are scenarios where you may discover that, even after doing your very best, your attempts at DIY Photoshop portrait retouching are not bearing the results you need. It is at that point then, that you may have to consider giving the work to a professional. But this sort of ‘giving up’ only tends to afflict people who are attempting to do Photoshop retouching manually. That is because the best Photoshop retouching plug-ins make it possible even for people who are absolute novices to come up with impressive Photoshop retouching results – without spending too much time or too much energy.