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Life after Photoshop

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Retouching

Image retouching can be as simple as removing a couple of sensor spots from a sky or cloning out a few scraps of rubbish in a landscape shot. It can also be a highly-valued professional skill in the fashion and advertising industry.

Plenty of programs offer spot removal and retouching tools, some with 'content aware' object removal that attempts to replace unwanted objects with details from the surroundings. Where these work or not depends on the particular image – you can think of them as no-loss experiments. If they don't work you can simply hit the Undo button and go back to regular cloning tools.

The principles of the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop and its equivalent in other programs are pretty simple. Getting a good results doesn't need any particular technical understanding – instead, it relies heavily on experience, subtlety, patience and skill. You can read about it as much as you like, but it's only by doing it that you get the 'touch'.

DxO PhotoLab Graduated Filter, Control Points and Repair tool in action

May 25, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

This step-by-step editing walkthrough shows a number of DxO PhotoLab tools in action, principally the Local Adjustment tools, including the Graduated Filter and Control Point tools.

Filed Under: Featured, PhotoLab, Tutorials Tagged With: Control Point, DxO PhotoLab, Gradient mask, Graduated filters, Local adjustments, Microcontrast (DxO), Repair tool (DxO), Retouching, Selective Tone (DxO), Tint (white balance)

What’s missing from this picture? Actually, it’s seven things, all removed with the Perfect Layers 8 Perfect Eraser…

December 13, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Perfect Layers 8 Perfect Eraser

Adobe’s content-aware technology, as found in Photoshop and Elements, has a rival. Perfect Photo Suite 8 now has a Perfect Eraser tool in its Perfect Layers module. It works just like its Adobe equivalent – you paint over the object you want to remove and it magically vanishes, replaced by surrounding details and textures. Adobe’s […]

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Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: ON1 Perfect Suite, Retouching

Discover the secrets of the Aperture Spot and Patch tool

September 16, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Aperture Spot and Patch tool

Spots, blemishes and messy details can spoil otherwise great shots, but you can fix them without ever leaving Aperture. You’ve probably spotted the Retouch tool on the bottom toolbar, and this does a decent enough job on minor problems, but have you tried the Aperture Spot and Patch tool in the main tools panel? Maybe […]

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Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: Apple Aperture, Retouching, Vignette

How to get started with OnOne Perfect Portrait

September 13, 2013 by Rod Lawton

OnOne Perfect Portrait basics

To be honest, I don’t use portrait enhancement plug-ins that much. It’s too easy to end up with something that looks like a porcelain doll rather than a real person. However, I do like shooting portraits, and I do realise that sometimes the lighting or your own technique doesn’t do your subject any favours – so […]

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: ON1 Perfect Suite, Retouching

How to remove sensor spots automatically in Capture One

August 28, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Capture One spot removal

If you use a digital SLR, it’s hard to avoid dust spots on the sensor. But if you’re using Capture One, you can fix the dust on one image and then apply the same correction to a whole batch. You can do this because sensor spots don’t move. Once you’ve got a spot, it’ll be […]

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Filed Under: Capture One, Tutorials Tagged With: Capture One, Retouching

How to control noise for better portraits in Lightroom

August 20, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Lightroom noise reduction

Shooting in available light often gives the most natural and attractive portraits, but it also means you often have to shoot at high ISOs. I took this informal picture while I was working on a feature for N-Photo magazine, and while the light from the window is soft and even, it’s not very bright and […]

Filed Under: Lightroom, Tutorials Tagged With: Lightroom, Noise reduction, Retouching

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Photo editing A-Z

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Reviews

The best image-editing software: what to look for, where to find out more

November 2, 2020

DxO PhotoLab 4 review

November 2, 2020

Exposure X6 review

October 9, 2020

More reviews

  • Lightroom CC review (2020)
  • Lightroom Classic review
  • DxO PhotoLab vs Lightroom vs Capture One – which is best for RAW files?
  • Best image cataloguing software: tools to keep your images organised
  • Skylum Luminar 4.3 review
  • ON1 Photo RAW 2020.5 review
  • ON1 360 review
  • Analog Efex Pro 2 review
  • Perspective Efex review
  • DxO Nik Collection 3 review
  • Exposure X5 review
  • Capture One 20 review

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