Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

i’ll agree that most of these tutorials are used for unethical purposes (creating an unrealistic standard of attractiveness or physique) however I would be a poor designer if I didn’t take away at least some measure of inspiration or photoshop knowledge, whether it be unethical or not. So in terms of this articles ability to impart ideas for projects upon the reader it it successful, at least on me.

To all those complaining: whether or not it is unethical is irrelevant. Photo manipulation is an essential skill for graphic designers. Moreover, the market demands beauty-retouching. If any one designer stops retouching in protest, another designer will gladly do it. Take your activism elsewhere.

How come all of the women in the before photos look better than the after ones? Especially the main photo from the front page

Now that is brilliant. I was just about to look for some professional retouch articles and there You are :)

Wow, at least half of these tutorials deserves a post at photoshopdisasters. Could do with some more work put into actually looking at the outcome of these before posting them.

too many tutorials, but i’m too lazy to learn :D i have to bookmark this and use it till my laziness will vanish… hehe :)

Here’s some food for thought for those people saying this type of touch-up work degrades women and is unethical.

I do some photography, and some digital touch-up work. In all instances, the requests for touch-ups have come from the female subject in the photograph.

I agree with some other comments that this is the worst article especially many of them just disgusting. Another articles is really worth but this..

My issue with this article is that many of the tutorials are of very low quality, which can only encourage/result in more grotesque retouched photos out there.

The theme to this article is certainly catering to an acceptable and established part of the Design industry, I have no issue with that … but stick to quality links, SM, don’t drop quality for the sake of quantity.

Wowwwwwwwww………..amazing tuts. was searching for this all over the net.

Awesome… thanks :)

Excellent article, very useful ! (and don’t loose your time with useless comments, they surely must be some students wich have not been working yet…)

This is amazing !
you ROCK !

priceless

Smashing Job!

Wow dude. Photoshop totally ROCKS. Excellent Tutorial indeed.

I just have to recite what has already been stated: “Moreover, the market demands beauty-retouching. If any one designer stops retouching in protest, another designer will gladly do it. Take your activism elsewhere.”

So please people, do something about it, don’t just talk. If you want to start something about this, go ahead, but do it elsewhere.

Also, I must agree that some (not all, many were quite good and efficient) of the links in this post were not of the kind of standard I would have expected coming from this site. There are literally billions of tutorials for photomanipulation in PS, so finding someplace that has some better tutorials than the other site wouldn’t be that much of a hard issue I guess.

Thanks very much for these tutorials.

Whether or not you may think these tutorials are unethical, the fact remains sometimes photos aren’t very flattering. Some people don’t take good photos. If they request something in a photo removed (like red eye) or downplayed (like shine), then I find nothing wrong with that.

I don’t think anyone’s complaining that photo retouching is a bad thing, but when women are taken for granted as they are in many of these tutorials, that’s wrong.

hmm…to be honest, most of the “before” portraits look better. particularly, the feature example.

cool
thanx very much for the tutorial compilation
i’m not a potoshop newbie anymore…

Thank u so much for this post!!

Great tutorials.

But. Seriously. If you’re going to have a career doing this kind of retouching then I’d think seriously about what a messed up world it can contribute too.

As imperfect human beings do we need to see impossibly perfect stereotypes everywhere we look?

I saw the post mentioned with another retoucher’s work…Bianca Carosio…does she have online tutorials available??? I wonder why her samples weren’t shown here.

just stunning!!!!!!!

good job!

Good stuff! Will illustrator be next? :)

While it might seem unethical to change the look of people, you simply can’t blame the retoucher. Last time I had a guy who wanted to make his face look better for a dating site. Who am I to tell this 24 year old guy not to do it? He has the request, I provide him with a solution. Next time it’s a model or a musician and you expect me to tell them it’s unethical? Most professionals would be without a job and tons of people would complain that they are unable to find a better retoucher other then some 15 year old wannabe photoretoucher in a basement.
Geesh, in that case it’s unethical to sell guns, prescription drugs, to be a soldier or run MacDonalds… Oh wait, I guess it’s also unethical to talk about it like Smashing Magazine does, right?
Get real guys…don’t act like a saint….sigh

Oh dear, another bunch of lefties claiming that this marginalises women. Well, I’m here to learn how to re-touch men too so – I’m helping re-balance the ‘marginalisation’.

What this does is play on everyones aspirations and issues – that’s what marketing does. And the main (pretty much only) use of the stuff in smashing magazine is for marketing; whose sole purpose is to convince someone to buy something they didn’t think they needed.

SMashing does a great job of linking and displaying some of the great tips and techniques; it’s not a place for discussing societys ills.

Great article guys, keep ‘em coming.

That one turning the African American lady white is just evil. Just Sad. I suppose its meant to make better right?

Ew. Most of the models looked better before the re-touching. They look far too plastic afterwards. I have “fixed” photos before but I would never smooth EVERY “blemish” out and make the person look like a Bratz doll. Remove pimples etc, soften some areas just a little, pop some highlights, and you get a realistic but still beautiful result. If you’re going for a very fantasy look, make it obvious. I think a lot of consumers are getting tired of the overly-photoshopped model.

And just because a lot of women themselves ask for their photos to be retouched doesn’t make it OK to pretend that this doesn’t have an impact in our society. Sure, this is a design blog not a political or social issues blog, but what we participate in as professionals still contributes to the whole problem.

Great collection of tutorials….Photoshop really makes wonder in our photos…

These tutorials are sooo american ^-^

please !! leave humans be just humans
with all their beauties AND imperfections
why must everything be so perfect ???

wow, this article teaches impressionable Photoshop pirates how to perpetuate ideals of impossible beauty. very useful! let’s all contribute to corporate mindf*ck by creating ads that make life seem better than it really is.

“Moreover, the market demands beauty-retouching.”

the market demands all sort of disgusting things.

For those who think that retouching is no big deal, it does have a cumulative effect: go here and watch both clips on the page for some examples
http://jezebel.com/5032073/america-the-beautiful-reveals-ugly-truths

For those saying “keep your debates to yourself” – who should we debate retouching with if not the people who actually do retouching? People who aren’t in design, imaging or photo manipulation at all? Or do you just mean that you want to make money without having to think about what contribution you may be making to something some people consider an insidious problem?

This was awesome! it was pretty sweet to be able to look through the pretty wide variation of tutorials. Thanks! =D

Gah, everyone whines so much! Wah wah wah wah wah!! Who freakin cares? What..? You guys gunna make the entire industry dissapear from coming on here and bitching and whining about it to people who think youre all wasting their time? Hate to break it to ya that isnt the way the world works. You hoping to guilt some photo retouchers into quitting their jobs? Giving up their career because you say that its “unethical”? Thats a word thats been thrown around a lot but really whats “unethical” about it? Who is it hurting? The models are all willing participants. Very confused about how this practice is considered so wrong :S

Screw it. Good tuts anyway.

Execellent collection from photoshop masters, applicable to any type of photographic industry. Very important body of work.

Thank you.

were can i download this 70 beauty-retouching photoshop tutorials?
or if its a certain photoshop, then what one is it? and were can i download it?
can anybody send me a link or tell me the website and what photoshop it is.

thank you.

!!!! Superb !!!!!
Very Help Full

I’ve seen better done by 16 year olds…. Not very impressive. Nothing looks even remotely natural. The idea is to NOT show that the image was retouched. Poor article…..

me re gusto

they are all ugly but not me im the most sexiest woman ever i have a flatty batty andd a flat chestt i love to put poo poo all over myy privatee to give it that tinggy taste

great tutorials! It’s just sad that some people find here the forum to complain about other things that aren’t relevant. This is like school – it doesn’t matter that the subject is or not offensive: people want and should learn about it. It’s like saying that the holocaust is terrible, and because of that we won’t “teach about it anymore” – or a proctologist not learning most of his trade because it deals with anus, and that’s, after all, disgusting. This is NOT the place to talk about how you feel about the fashion industry – which, by the way, have been doing this longer than most people here were born, because the market asks for it. Dove came up with a campaign that showed “real beauty”, and had to remove it from most markets, because it hurt sales. Now can you really say with a straight face that the market doesn’t dictate this? also, there’s nothing degrating about wanting to look good – we all do it – even if the end result is questionable. Niki Brown herself has a picture of her with a read hat – I’m sure she wasn’t cold when she took the picture, but she feels/thinks/knows she loogs good wearing it – or “cool”. Whatever the reason is, is purely aesthetic. Say it isn’t so.

i think alot of these tuts are quite usefull if you just want to play around. I clicked on “the art of retouching” by Glenn Feron. there is a galery..or portfolio. The pictures are mostly all of women, the pictures objectify women and use very sensual poses to sell technology. They are selling tvs and dvds and they have a half naked woman with her chest popping out with the merchandise?! we are in 2008. this shoudnt be happening. Those pictures totally devalorise women.
I really dont think what he does is fair or right. Here is the link so you can see for yourself.
http://glennferon.com.nyud.net:8090/portfolio1/index.html

where can i download it free

This looks good! Really good tutorial include so many helpful informations!

who is this good for? Is it a compliment to the model (shouldn’t be it’s NOT her picture)? It’s a lie, and everyone is finding out. REally what’s the point. Go paint or draw a beautiful women, instead of tricking ppl. ANYONE ANYONE ANYONE can look perfect with photoshop. look at Lil kim before and after photoshop. Silly..Anyone who uses this crap will regret it once they think it over i’m sure. They will no longer have a picture of themselves at all

Thank you for this.
These excellent tips are extremely helpful.

i loved this website so much
i only have two words wow and amazing

P.S. send me some more of the pics.

Great job mate, I really appreicate…

nice!

everyone has their days who know they hav pimples the day they have photo shoots which can’t call off due to equipment, place and etc rentals so photos needs been taken and retouched just like flowers and plans need water and sunlight too much they’ll die so …. it’s helps me alot here and it’s much appreciated thank you very much!

Muchas gracias :)

WOW thank you SO much for these Tuts…I’ve been looking everywhere for help and finally have come accross a site that is helpful in what I’ve been trying to accomplish. I am very new with “photoshop”, presently I’m working in Elements 6, and was wondering if these tuts apply to this the particular version I’m working in.

Also, wanted to make a comment on those who apparently have need of complaining that this is “Unethical” etc. I do NOT understand how on earth wanting to look better is unethical. I work in the modeling industry and touch ups are done ALL the time, in fact not one goes into a magazine without first being touched up in some form. What is the BIG DEAL? I am a woman and do not see the connection of what some claim to be “degrading” or whatever. The only trouble I did have was the changing of one’s skin tone, I found the model prior photo of her skin tone to be absolutely BEAUTIFUL thus, I didn’t see a need of changing it but having said that, there are many in this world who obviously would like to see how they may look with a different skin tone. That is their business and their choice. I personally would not choose to do so but everyone has a right to choose what they so desire. Also, keep in mind that it is PRIMARILY the subject of the photo that desires change NOT the photographer, etc. thus none of the women are being belittled, etc. THEY have made the choice to have a flawless photo and in my opinion there is NOTHING wrong with the choice they’ve made. We cannot change the world. Sadly in almost EVERY industry its all about image, nothing we can do to change that!

Anyway, I appreciate you taking time out to post these tuts, they’ve been EXTREMELY helpful to this beginner ;-)

Hay Nikki brown > I can understand ur feelings but it’s mad’s world and all are mad to catch woman in any advertisement promotion, tell me honestly, Do u watch TV? lets count it about every 10 nos of TV ad, u should go through 8 ads showing woman face or figure in so many poses, This world now buyers world and (all most) every small or big sellers love to produce their product on air/print with ladies, it’s hard to believe but it’s true.

its gud n helpful i liked it Thank you

MAGNIFICIENT

THANKS

very good excellent job keeps up its very helpful
but what add layer mask A to Z totutrial where is

As a fashion photographer, half of these tutorials are awful and teach bad habits! Please have a thorough read before you post this… none of these effectively answer the question of how to retouch skin. Not even the fashion/beauty industry wants their models’ skin to look this bad!

amazing….

i always love to learn and know more about photoshop and photo retouching
technics , great tutorial .. thanks for the post , and here some before
and after photo retouching gallery .

Thanks ,very good

Here is my work
http://retouchfast.com/