Professional Retouching and Compositing Workflow Using Generative Fill in Photoshop

Entertainment retoucher Jesús Ramirez walks through the Generative Fill workflow he applies to every TV and movie poster project. The approach handles hair cleanup, skin blemishes, clothing fit, and full compositing without frequency separation or complex manual techniques.

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Practical Tips

Here are key techniques from the workflow that apply directly to professional retouching and compositing projects.

• Use the Firefly Fill & Expand model for portrait retouching — it reads the full image for context and requires no prompt, producing cleaner results on hair, skin, and clothing than partner models.
• Set the Remove tool to Auto mode with Sample All Layers enabled — this lets Photoshop decide when to use AI, keeping small blemish fixes fast while applying generative power only where it's needed.
• Periodically toggle the layer or group visibility to compare your edits with the original — it helps catch over-retouching before it becomes a problem.
• Convert your subject and retouching layers into a Smart Object before compositing — it keeps everything editable and lets you crop or extend the image non-destructively inside its own tab.
• Use the Harmonize feature after placing a subject into a new background — it matches lighting, color grading, shadows, and reflections in one step, replacing the need for manual color matching adjustments.

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