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Portraiture Retouching
9 Weeks | $325 | Online & In-Class

The Portraiture Retouching course was designed for photographers—amateur or professional—who want to successfully edit their own images. In this course, you will learn techniques that can help you use Adobe Photoshop, and other image editing programs, to bring out the best in your portrait subjects. You will learn the best practices for advanced retouching of: portraits of women, children, men, senior citizens, commercial headshots and lifestyle. You will also study how to remove distractions from the background of an image, as well as unwanted logos, jewelry and even lint. You will also learn how to shape and sculpt your portrait subjects with techniques used by professional retouchers. Most importantly, you will learn to look at an image and immediately recognize what needs to be done to improve it.

What You Will Learn:

  • To properly assess and understand an image with industry standards.
  • An understanding of retouching best practices, but will learn how to most effectively give your images a professional polish.
  • How to use essential Adobe Photoshop tools and techniques of portrait retouching for both advanced or beginner Photoshop users.
  • Essential tips and techniques on how to touch up images, without making them look unrealistic.
  • The art of developing a retouching strategy.
  • How to proficiently use all the tools available in Adobe Photoshop that are used to professionally retouch portraits.


Quarters Offered: Spring | Online & In-Class
Course Fee: $325
Prerequisites: Digital Photography Workflow (ART-40705) or Adobe Photoshop I: Introduction (ART-40311) or equivalent experience with Adobe Photoshop.
Materials/Software/Hardware: Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
Note: Elective course for Photography: Images and Techniques professional certificate.
Contact: For more information about this course, please email the academic department at unex-digital@ucsd.edu.

Course Number: ART-40711
Credit: 3.00 unit(s)