Why I Stopped Duplicating Layers for Every Retouch (And What I Do Instead)

Why I Stopped Duplicating Layers for Every Retouch (And What I Do Instead)

Last month I was deep in a skin retouching pass for a haircare campaign, three hours in, when my client asked me to pull back the smoothing on the forehead “just a little.” Simple request. Except I’d been duplicating layers the way I always had, flattening as I went, and suddenly “just a little” meant either starting over or doing some very creative explaining. I’ve been retouching beauty work long enough to know better, and yet there I was, completely cornered by my own workflow.