The following example is from a stock photo project I did in Wyoming at the Wyo Rodeo. We set up a “booth” to take photos of interesting people. All the photos in this series were done completely with natural light. Lots of great people agreed to let me take their pictures including the Native American girl below. My goal when retouching is to remove only the temporary blemishes and not what makes a person real, like certain moles and freckles (unless requested). However, I don’t want to take away the texture in the skin and make it just look like it’s painted over or blurred. Grab the gray bar in the middle and drag it back and forth to see the before and after Photoshop retouching– notice the detail in the skin is not removed.

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[beforeafter][/beforeafter]

Fore more examples see the “Retouching- Before and After” category.

Omaha photographer Philip Nealey specializes in commercial People, Lifestyle, food and portrait photography.