8 Cleaning & Retouching

I was once asked to be interviewed on the radio on the topic of photography. I was apprehensive, as radio is not the most visual medium. But it became clear that I wouldn’t have to find my inner poet to describe pictures. The interviewer was deeply interested in the power of Photoshop to change photographs, and the ethics around that power.

It’s easy get into a discussion about the ethics of retouching. But there are many kinds of retouching, from the wholesale reshaping of people to removing the traces of sensor dust. In this chapter, I hope to introduce you to the tools that can get you into many interesting conversations.

A few adjustments may fall into the retouching category: Clarity reduction on a face to remove a few years, or Desaturating yellowed teeth for a bright, sparkling smile, for example. I refer the reader to the Adjustments chapters (6 and 7) for those uses.