Headshot Retouching

Retouching Techniques

Why Your Headshots Look Overedited (And the Three-Layer Fix That Changes Everything)

A client once told me my retouching looked “plastic.” She wasn’t wrong. This was early in my retouching career, before I understood that skin is not a surface problem. I had been approaching every face the same way I’d approached everything before it: fix what I could see, smooth what looked rough, brighten what looked dull. The results were technically clean and emotionally empty. The client’s face looked like it had been ironed.

November 9, 2026

Portrait Retouching

Why Your Headshots Look Retouched (And How to Fix That Before You Deliver)

The first time a client told me my retouching looked “plastic,” I had no idea what she meant. I’d smoothed her skin, brightened her eyes, removed a few stray hairs. It looked clean to me. Professional, even. She sent back a side-by-side comparison of her face before and after, and I saw it immediately: I had obliterated every pore, every shadow, every tiny variation that made her face look like a face.

October 2, 2026

Video Tutorials

How I Watch a Headshot Retouching Timelapse and Actually Learn From It

There is a particular kind of client who emails you the morning after delivery to say the portraits look “a little overdone.” I got that email early in my retouching career, and it stung more than I want to admit. The problem was not that I was working too hard on the skin. The problem was that I had no real workflow. I was just pushing sliders around until something looked smooth, and smooth is not the same as natural.

July 15, 2026