This is a new addition to the PSDTUTS PLUS section. With the western world so preoccupied with looks and beauty, retouching is something that can be seen on a daily basis. Learn to put those skills to better use to create mood, atmosphere, and professional digital art. This tutorial casts light on the subject of creative retouching. Learn more at the jump!
New Exclusive PLUS Tutorial on Creative Photo Retouching
This new PLUS Tutorial is titled "Casting Light on the Creative Retouching Process." This tutorial is authored by James Davies AKA JamesZilla. This tutorial covers the photo retouching process and shows you how to approach the subject with creative solutions and techniques. Members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! The preview of the final creatively retouched design is below. Click the image to see the larger version.
A Detailed Tutorial Filled with Creative Advice
Learn how to retouch a portrait, with professional advice on various approaches to the subject, while adding creative details to bring out the final design. The images below give you an idea of how much retouching is covered in this tutorial. Look closely at the face for example and see how much character is added to the image.
Learn to put these creative retouching skills to better use to create mood, atmosphere, and professional digital art. Members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now!


PSDTUTS Plus Membership
As you know, we run a premium membership system here called PSDTUTS Plus that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the PSD files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! If you're a member you can log in and download the tutorial. If you're not a member, you can of course join today!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )miri November 6th
Seems awesome!
( )yusuf1 November 6th
wow, is all i can say for now. looks like a nice tut
( )revy November 6th
awwww…nuts! looks interesting though.
( )chico November 6th
Too much new tutorials are for PLUS users.
( )loswl November 6th
Wicked!!..I love the lighting on the face!! ;o)
( )Frederik November 6th
Ah this will be very handy, been wanting to find a technique for doing light for a long time.
( )Josh November 6th
eh…
( )WoW-Sky November 6th
It will be gr8 on fantasy design ^_^
( )Lubes November 6th
That model looks like this guy I knew…
( )Moksha November 6th
seem really cool.
( )geir b nystad November 6th
i don’t really know what i am going to use this for, but it looks cool!
( )Nathan Soliz November 6th
This is an Awesome tutorial, thanks for taking the time creating.
I’ve used bits and pieces for my own work now – some tricks I didn’t know about, thanks a million.
More please!
( )Dan November 6th
looks nice from here
( )Craigsnedeker November 6th
He looks 3d
( )Ali November 6th
Looks really good
( )Sam November 6th
seriously, I want a regular tutorial, something this site has been lacking in lately.
that’s why I come here. if you’re not going to be putting up many regular tutorials, you might as well call the site PSD articles.
yeesh!
( )Nick November 6th
Looks awesome, but too many of the tutorials lately have been PLUS only.
I’ll sign up eventually, but still.
( )insic November 6th
looking nice.
( )poo November 6th
i have to agree. there are way too many pointless articles about interviews with budding graphic artists and what not and when a decent tutorial comes about u have to pay for it. i really rated this site primarily but it has steadily gone downhill and if it carries on like this, i alongside many others will probably look to another source for decent tutorials…
sorry to see this happen.
( )Rob November 6th
I know it’s a bummer having to register and pay for stuff but unfortunately it is a necessity. In order to provide the best possible tutorials the guys need to pay jobbing designers to write them. They can’t run the site at a loss so a minimal subscription fee is charged to cover the content.
If you’re serious about learning skills that you can translate into paying jobs then $9 a month is more than worth it, if you’re only interested in Photoshop as a means of passing the time then the free tutorials are enough to satisfy this need surely?
There are plenty of free tutorial sites out there but lets face it, most of them are crap.
I’m happy I paid the subs as this tutorial taught me more than a month of lectures at uni. Keep up the good work.
( )Biju Subhash November 6th
Wow……
( )Great Tutorials ………..
Looks like a 3D……….. superb ideas……….
Lubes November 6th
Y’know, it’s one thing to offer constructive criticism, and quite another to be a whiny little bitch.
The former is what helps sites like this and its authors grow and change; the latter makes you look like an idiot child.
Just because this site is on the internet doesn’t put it under any obligation to be free. Magazines aren’t free; neither are books or courses. If you don’t feel the Plus section is worth $9 a month (I don’t, yet) then don’t subscribe and enjoy the NUMEROUS free and high-quality tutorials that have been featured; ignore the low-quality ones — or again, offer constructive criticism as to why you didn’t enjoy it — but how can anyone have the audacity to start demanding something bee given free of charge to them? That’s ridiculous!
And complaining about the interviews? Some of us really enjoy gaining a greater insight into the life and work of talented artists. It’s not all about learning the latest drop-shadow and gradient methods.
I’m starting to think this site is frequented mostly by 16 year olds with illegal copies of Photoshop and little common sense.
( )Daagen November 7th
What Lubes said.
( )visions of 778 November 7th
i will never pay for a tutorial…
( )Jammin November 7th
After the editing the model doesn’t look real!?
( )Wazdesign November 7th
Its like some type of Gaming Really gonna to use this tech
( )Ani November 7th
Gotta agree with a lot of the above – the quantity and quality of tutorials in recent months (eeek yes it’s been that long!) has begun to slip and more ‘articles’ have taken the place of what was a regular flowing high standard tutorial blog.
Due to how much revenue the site has generated from originally focusing on tutorials increasing the tutorial payout should be considered around about now in my opinion. Why? Because to write a top quality tutorial at high standard takes up quite a lot of time. I can only assume that the decline of tutorials of old is due to FlashDen and ThemeForest paying out more $/£ per hour ratio and the stock work income is constant whereas the tutorial sum can be somewhat less in comparison.
In order to tempt the decent designers to invest their time, I think all of the tutsites (not just this one but all of them) should rethink the price they pay per tutorial (or increase the payment for plus tutorials at least).
I love the family of sites we have here, they were great…but the standard has dropped a lot and by the looks of peoples reactions, they’re impatient for tutorials. Time to dig out Plan B guys before people start moving on.
Good luck and hopefully we’ll see more tutorials on the tut sites and the articles and interviews etc moved onto the article blog creattica.
( )Sam November 7th
oh, jeez, sorry, I didn’t mean to sound angry.
I’d like to pay and support you guys, I really would, but, I’m only thirteen years old, and have no credit cards, and therefore cannot get a membership.
this site, and one other, are all I turn to for tutorials, and seeing as the other only updates about every three weeks, this is the more important of the two to me.
( )Hugo November 7th
Not only cheap people dont pay for tutorials. I’m a computer technician from Argentina, and besides I dont have international credit card (only local), 9usd its more money here than in usa or europe.
Anyway, I enjoy the free tutorials, and I hope to support this site in other different ways, like recomendations. Keep the good work.
( )kamel November 7th
loooks simple dudes!
( )its just some brush and some other eassy steps and fuckin around with smudge tool
eassy shit bro
Nikola November 7th
Not giving any money to something that I can find somewhere else on the web.
( )EMPIRE November 7th
kool got learn that !!!
( )poo November 7th
i was merely voicing my opinion, not being a whiny bitch lubes. there are tutorials that are almost identical to this one, free of charge, so i see no need to pay for something thats already been covered. if i see an outstanding piece of work that is original and has unique artistic merit to it, of course i will pay for it.
ps. also dont go around assuming that 16 year olds are incapable of voicing an opinion.
( )Beck November 8th
@ Rob,
PSDTUTS is still bringing in more than $7,000/month in advertising profit. That’s more than a lot of individual incomes.
( )Chanty November 8th
@ Lubes: Um, magazines and books need to be printed and distributed, so ofcourse they aren’t free! I know website hosting isn’t free either (and that can easily be compensated with a couple of banners), but it’s far less expensive than printing. Though there even are free newspapers, at least there are where I’m living (Netherlands). I still think PSDtuts just needs to put up a donation button or something instead of locking all the cool tutorials for subscribers, and only having a few free tutorials, a bunch of interviews and boring articles (seriously, it’s not what I come here for) for the people who don’t have/want a subscription. It’s a shame, really…
( )Takumi86 November 8th
Looks Great!!
( )Sjoap November 10th
A plus tut worthy tutorial, Finally
( )Jordan November 11th
Nice. Really nice.
( )Brian December 2nd
yee, seems good
( )