60 Photoshop Tutorials for Photo Touch-Ups

Published January 13th, 2009 in Design

Photoshop has tons of potential for improving photos in one way or another. No matter how much experience you have with Photoshop there is probably more that you can learn in these areas. This is a categorized collection of tutorials that will show you some new tricks for photo touch-ups.

Also see 60 Photoshop Actions for Photo Touch-Ups and Enhancements at DesignM.ag.

For more Photoshop tutorials, please see:

86 Responses to “60 Photoshop Tutorials for Photo Touch-Ups”

Hubby January 13th, 2009

nice list but there should be a line drawn for using photoshop. sometimes, photoshop makes inner beauty inferior to physical beauty.

Mariella January 13th, 2009

How about picking out the good stuff for us? Several of these examples look really good, but some of the skin enhancements look way too blurry or overdone, many effects look unnatural, and the waist-thinning one is freakish.

Vandely Design January 13th, 2009

Mariella,
I think the technique in the waist-thinning tutorial could be applied in a way that was more realistic (i.e. not taking so much off the sides).

Raul January 13th, 2009

great list! an epic for PS retouching

Brian January 13th, 2009

Please, don’t remove freckles!!! I love girls with freckles!!! Talk about adorable.

Mike January 13th, 2009

Excellent stuff, lots of good reference points – thankyou.

One other thing I’d like to see here: photgraphing and optimising shots of black people. I recently visited some friends in The Gambia and had to take a few portrait shots with all the problems of wide contrast. I’m left with some noisy shots that I need to make the best of, some insight here would be very useful.

I realise ‘everyone is the same underneath’, but I really think that more tutorials should acknowledge that very dark skin requires some different considerations.

joyoge designers' bookmark January 13th, 2009

useful nice list thanks..

Andris January 13th, 2009

I don’t think all of those tutorials are pretty realistic. and sometimes it’s better to take more effort in taking the picture than in retouching it in photoshop.

Vandely Design January 13th, 2009

Adris,
I agree that taking a better picture in the first place is the best option, but many times designers don’t have a choice here. A designer may be forced to work with specific pictures, in which case, some touch-ups can make a big difference.

Mike,
Good point. There aren’t many tutorials for working with darker skin.

Geoserv January 13th, 2009

What a fantastic list, lots of work to put together.

Thanks for posting.

Merewald Valletta January 13th, 2009

@Adris: You’re right, some of them are pretty bad. But, I have had to work with some really, really bad photos – and tutorials like these have always helped me make the best out of a bad photo.

Thanks for the list Vandely! There’re some here I’ve actually never seen before.

Yanik's Photo School January 13th, 2009

Thanks for mentioning my tutorial!

This i a great list. I discovered some cool sites!

Yanik

Stacy January 14th, 2009

I have never seen a collection of links like this with so many unworthy examples. Disappointing from what is usually a quality source.

Vandelay Design January 14th, 2009

Stacy,
Sorry you’re not happy with the quality. Honestly, the response to this list has been mixed, so I’ll have to take that into consideration for the future. Thanks for your honest but respectful feedback.

guglimellis January 14th, 2009

photoshopped!

Kyp January 14th, 2009

@Brian

I agree! Freckles are great, don’t be ashamed of freckles and don’t get rid of them please!

In general on the list, i’m looking forwards to trying some of these out. I think it takes a little bit of courage to throw your expertise out on the net for critisms, so I’m always intregued to see whats offering. Thanks!

loswl January 14th, 2009

Excellent tuts wow!! o

Mens designer clothing January 15th, 2009

Wow Im so impressed with what I have just seen. I know photoshop is good but wooow!

Owens modify loans January 16th, 2009

wowowieeee those photos are really great… with the tecnology we have right now eveything is possible… from the simpliest to the most hard photos to edit, redesign and so much more.

critique January 18th, 2009

Isn’t the goal of photo touch-ups to NOT look like anything has been touched up? Pretty much every one of these photos have been noticeably touched up (even if the “before” wasn’t there for reference).

Eric Carter January 18th, 2009

Wow man really nice work.

Global Politics January 19th, 2009

A very good collection of tutorials! Celebrities must hate those “aging” images!

Laufkran January 20th, 2009

Wow! Amazing. Photoshop is a great mage. I have to necessarily try the tutorials…

Manila Office Space January 21st, 2009

Awesome..!Photoshop is really good..^_^

Andris January 21st, 2009

@Vandelay Design

you’re right. designers often have to deal with bad pictures. and I’m also thankful for tutorial-lists like yours that help us eliminate mistakes of the photographers. I just wanted to say that at a first glance I have seen better tutorials than some of the ones you listed. not all, only some. but keep up the good work. you’re doing a great job here.

Shamila January 27th, 2009

Wow! thank u! I LOVE to retouch photographies
Nice tips

Michael January 28th, 2009

I like this, it helps me a a lot with my photography (which is amiture at best).

Kay February 5th, 2009

These tutorials are great – just what the (design) doctor ordered! Thanks.

rajita - logo design February 9th, 2009

These are awesome touchups which can help designers give professional look to images.

Donna Lowe February 14th, 2009

Thank you for this great post!

Heartburn Home Remedy April 15th, 2009

The topic is quite trendy in the net right now. What do you pay attention to when choosing what to write ?

Pro Photography Blog April 16th, 2009

I agree that many of these are a bit overdone. The best photoshopping is the kind you don’t notice!
E

Angol nyelvtanfolyam May 5th, 2009

As an English teacher I can tell what it means to students who have freckles to go through high schools. To them I only can say do not be ashamed!

MMC chiptuning May 15th, 2009

The pictures are great. I love your site! Naturally smooth skin is God’s gift.

Real Estate Hungary May 16th, 2009

These photos are great! I wonder which photoshop has been used?

Inversion Inmobiliaria May 18th, 2009

I am certain adope photoshop 7. Especially the breast size aumentation picture.

Vagyonvédelem May 26th, 2009

wow, these pictures in non-distructive dodge and burn seem like an artistic work. I will try this photoshop 7 again.

JenniferRuth May 27th, 2009

If you plan to do a new list it would be great to see some tutorials for restoring old and damaged photos – I’ve got some photos from 1909 to retouch and it is hard to know where to start!

Loan modification May 30th, 2009

I could use a tutorial on restoring old pictures as well.
Do you happen to know any program for that?

Loan Modification June 6th, 2009

Great tutorial about photoshop. Aging is quite frustrating ,but with these images neither plastic surgen can compete:)

Self esteem guy June 10th, 2009

What a great way to build self-esteem. You do not have to work on yourself only on your pictures.

Web Hosting June 14th, 2009

What a big collection of PS tutorials. It is not so hard to learn PS if you have great tutorials at. Thank you!

Mortgage loan Modification 101 June 18th, 2009

Nice postings! I will definitely start learning about photoshop as it can really enhance the quality of the picture.

Eredetiségvizsgálat June 18th, 2009

I really like the photo of “selective foto and tilt shift”. I was in Vegas and took a very similar picute. At that time I did not know about this tool so it did’not turn out to be so fantastic.