Portrait retouching workflow and practical application

Now, it is time to practice the process of portrait retouching. The workflow for portrait retouching is very similar to that of portrait refurbishing, except we utilize frequency separation early in the process and we frequently use Merge Visible to create a new image at each stage. My workflow for portrait retouching involves the following processes:

• Structural adjustment (removal of artifacts, cropping, and so on)
• Imperfection removal – that is, skin smoothing, lighting hotspot removal, and overall blemish removal.
• Dynamics adjustment (non-destructive dodge and burning, curves adjustments)
• Colorizing and finishing

Practical application

To practice this, I have included an image of my wife on our wedding day. This image has already been edited, so we have very little to do, but this is good as we can focus on the workflow rather than the enormous nature of a full edit. We have included this...