Retouch a portrait while preserving natural detail
What you will do
Section titled “What you will do”Choose among Heal, Dodge Burn, and Portrait Volumes, balance the tools that help your photograph, and export a natural-looking portrait at full resolution. You will compare the result with the original so that cleanup does not come at the expense of skin texture, facial character, hair, or clothing detail.
The values shown here illustrate one portrait, not a preset. Choose tools and strengths for the light, skin detail, and framing in your own photograph.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- Make sure the tools you plan to use are installed, activated, and available in Local mode.
- Create a project and import a sharp, full-resolution portrait with enough visible detail to judge the retouch.
- Keep the original file unchanged. Export the retouched photograph as a new file so that you can return to the original.
For the controls used below, see Choose retouching tools and settings. For a focused original-versus-result procedure, see Compare retouching with the original.
Inspect skin and lighting before choosing tools
Section titled “Inspect skin and lighting before choosing tools”- Open the portrait in the larger viewer. Wait until Loading… disappears and the image is sharp.
- Identify what needs attention and what must remain unchanged. Look at skin texture, permanent facial features, eyes, lips, the hairline, and transitions between light and shadow. If the frame includes shoulders, clothing, or the background, include them in this assessment.
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Return to the retouching controls, choose Local, and select All.
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Enable only the tools that address the photograph:
- Use Heal for small skin distractions.
- Use Dodge Burn to even out distracting transitions between light and shadow.
- Use Portrait Volumes to adjust how light models the face.
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Set conservative strengths. The example below uses Heal 45, Dodge Burn 45, and Portrait Volumes 40, but your portrait may need lower values, different values, or fewer tools. Reduce or remove a tool if it adds nothing useful or makes texture, edges, lighting, or facial character look unnatural.
Balance the combined result
Section titled “Balance the combined result”- Leave every tool you want in the finished portrait enabled.
- Export the portrait as a new JPEG. Turn Resize to fit off so that the comparison retains the original pixel dimensions.
- Open the exported JPEG and the original at the same zoom. Compare skin texture, eyes, lips, hair edges, and facial contours. The finished result should improve the distractions you identified without flattened facial form, halos, or obvious loss of natural variation.
Verify face and body detail in the full-resolution export
Section titled “Verify face and body detail in the full-resolution export”Inspect the entire frame, not only the face. Check hair, shoulders, clothing texture, body contours, and the background wherever they appear. Settings that suit the face may be too strong elsewhere in the photograph.
If any area looks artificial or damaged, lower or remove the responsible tool and export a new copy.
Compare Heal, Dodge Burn, and Portrait Volumes separately
Section titled “Compare Heal, Dodge Burn, and Portrait Volumes separately”This comparison is optional. You do not need separate exports to finish a portrait. If you are unsure which tool is helping, you can temporarily test one tool at a time. For each test, use Local and All, disable the other tools, export a separate full-resolution JPEG with Resize to fit off, import it into the project, and compare it with the original at the same zoom.
- Enable only Heal. The example uses 45. Compare small skin distractions as well as fine texture, eyes, lips, and the hairline.
- Enable only Dodge Burn. The example uses 45. Compare the same areas, looking for smoother tonal transitions without a flattened face or halos.
- Enable only Portrait Volumes. The example uses 40. Compare the same face area and look at how the light models the face.
In the example, Heal 45 softens small skin distractions, Dodge Burn 45 makes a modest change to uneven light and shadow around the eyes and cheeks, and Portrait Volumes 40 changes the modeling of facial light more than surface marks. After the tests, re-enable every tool you want in later exports; do not leave wanted retouching disabled because of the comparison.
The 100 / 100 / 100 image below is an intentionally excessive example, not a step to reproduce. It shows the kinds of changes that signal the settings should be reduced.
At 100 / 100 / 100, the example face is visibly smoother than the balanced copy. Fine variation is reduced across the forehead and cheeks, and stronger highlight modeling draws attention to the retouch. Those numbers are not a universal threshold; reduce the settings whenever the result begins to look unnatural.
Check the result
Section titled “Check the result”The work is complete when the full-resolution export improves the distractions you identified while the skin texture, facial character, edges, and other details you chose to preserve still look natural.
If it does not work
Section titled “If it does not work”- A tool you chose is missing or disabled: confirm that it is installed and activated for your account.
- Processing or export does not complete: open export history and check the status or error before trying again. Do not use a partial file as the final photograph.
- The comparison scale differs: reopen the photographs at the same displayed percentage before judging fine detail.
- The result looks artificial: reduce one tool at a time and export a new comparison. Judge the photograph after every change instead of keeping the example values.
- An output is resized or will not open: leave Resize to fit off and export to a new file. Keep the original and failed output while you diagnose the problem.