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Photography vocabulary · Editing & Retouching

Retouch

Meaning in photography, with examples

/ˌriːˈtʌtʃ/verbCore term

In photography, retouch means: To make detailed changes to an image after the basic edit, such as removing blemishes, stray hairs, dust or unwanted objects.

In Turkish: rötuşlamak, rötuş yapmak

How it is used

Common in beauty, fashion, portrait and product work, and often done in Photoshop by specialist retouchers. Clients may ask for light, natural or high-end retouching. News photography has strict rules against retouching that changes what really happened.

Example sentences

  1. Please retouch the skin lightly; the client wants it to look natural.

  2. Each retouched beauty image takes about forty minutes.

Common collocations

  • retouch skin
  • lightly retouched
  • high-end retouching
  • retouching fee
  • editTo improve photos after the shoot by adjusting things like exposure, color and cropping, and to choose which images to keep.
  • dodge and burnTo lighten (dodge) and darken (burn) selected areas of a photo to shape the light, add depth or guide the eye. The names come from darkroom printing.
  • headshotA simple, tightly framed portrait of a person's head and shoulders, used for CVs, company websites, LinkedIn or acting work.
  • product photographyPhotography that shows products clearly and attractively for online shops, catalogs, packaging and advertising.

More terms: Editing & Retouching

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