I cannot fathom how many times I’ve surfed through beauty and fashion photos only to find mannequins and dolls where humans should be. It’s one thing to purposefully develop an artistic photo which utilizes a human subject to create a mannequin or a doll or a cyborg, it’s another to attempt to achieve high-end products using the blur tool…
We must remember that retouching is defined as making corrections or improvements by adding details or removing flaws, not completely changing the scope of the image — that realm is Creative Manipulation. We must take care when retouching photos so that they still hold the integrity and beauty of the original while enhancing the overall story. Below is a photo from my series “The Captured Art Exclusive” in which I had to implement advanced retouching techniques without compromising the realism of the model.


You can see in the before image that the model had a really dark tan and a few blemishes. Using techniques that I explain in my Photoshop For Retouchers Workshop, I was able to remove blemishes and adjust her skin tone without damaging her skin’s texture. Never not once did I utilize Guassian Blur, the Dodge tool, or the Burn tool (hint hint).
For more information on my Photoshop for Retouchers Workshop, shoot me an email to Nay@NayMarie.com! 🙂