Portrait Retouching with Lightroom

Portrait Retouching with Lightroom

As a portrait retoucher, I admit that smart objects and their capabilities of nondestructive editing were once a bit foreign to me. I knew I had to grasp the concept, but couldn’t understand how they were applicable to my kind of work. To many photographers’ delight, Lightroom 5 has brought the concepts of nondestructive editing to portrait retouching. In this article, I’ll touch on a few tools and tips that will reinvent how you edit portraits.
One day, it all clicked for me.

I found myself at a Starbucks in line behind photographer and instructor RC Concepcion when Kelby’s Photoshop World was in town. I begged him to explain the concept. I knew all I needed was one real-world example to make it make sense.
“Smart objects aren’t ideal for people who do pixel-based editing,” said RC.

At the end of our conversation, he remarked, “Well, it seems like you already know how to use the hammer, so now go build the house!”