Retouching freckled skin presents unique challenges that require balancing flawless enhancement with natural character preservation. This comprehensive workflow demonstrates professional techniques for cleaning, refining, and color grading portraits while ensuring freckles remain the beautiful focal point they're meant to be.
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Follow along with this complete beauty retouching demonstration, from initial cleanup through final color grading.
Video by Vera Change. Any links or downloads mentioned by the creator are available only on YouTube
Practical Tips
Master these essential techniques for professional freckled skin retouching:
- Switch frequently between color and black-and-white view layers when micro dodging and burning to distinguish freckles from actual blemishes
- Use empty layers for all cleanup work with spot healing brush and clone stamp to preserve original pixels
- Apply luminosity blending mode with black-and-white adjustment layers to enhance freckle visibility through color value adjustments
- Create separate dodging and burning layers specifically for lips and other detailed features to maintain precise control
- Add subtle noise and grain to the final image to complement the natural texture of freckled skin
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