The world of professional beauty retouching is very exciting, collaborative and diverse. However, the percentage of skilled professionals who are qualified to work for prestigious commercial clients in the beauty, health and wellness industry is very small. While a myriad of freelancers compete at the bottom of the retouching market, skilled retouching professionals are in high demand due to the sheer number of businesses that create an enormous amount of visual content today. They all need qualified post-production help: processing, retouching, color-matching.

Working pro retouchers are well-versed in common practices when retouching and handling their clients’ files. They know what is expected of them and know when and what to ask. Proper skills and reliability are all that matter. When budgets are measured in tens of thousands of dollars, no one has the time to deal with an incompetent or disorganized freelancer in the fast-paced business world.

While we can’t help you become more reliable or resilient, our course can undeniably help improve your skills and lay a foundation for professional retouching methods and habits, so you are completely prepared when the opportunity arises.

This course is created by commercial beauty photographer and retoucher Julia Kuzmenko McKim (Los Angeles, CA) and narrated by professional retoucher Sarah Tucker (London, UK).

Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Duration: 5 hours
Videos: 24 video lessons, including 2 full retouches from start to finish
Format: Streaming
Additional Materials: Custom Brushes + Job Application Checklist + Pro Retouching Vocabulary
Practice Files:  3 Raw files photographed by Julia Kuzmenko & Anita Sadowska 

Jumpstart your retouching journey with this in-depth practical course tailored to true beginners, aspiring retouchers, working photographers, makeup artists, or anyone looking to upgrade their online presence in the beauty, fashion or wellness industries.

Learn the nuts and bolts of retouching using a non-destructive approach taught in a digestible, accessible way — no experience necessary.

We’ve gathered the most impactful information to jumpstart your learning — and left out the fluff — so you can focus on what’s important and practice in real-time to speed up your progress. Each module offers the essential key topics, complete with video lessons, practice files, bonus materials, practical assignments as well as reading lessons that will allow you to integrate the newfound knowledge through multiple learning modalities.

Understanding, practicing, and perfecting retouching fundamentals will help you form good habits and step into the retouching world as a capable and confident professional.

Skill Level: (1) Novice / Beginner
Duration: Over 4 hours + Assignments
Volume: 40 lessons
Practice: 11 Assignments
Format: Streaming
Access: Lifetime
Bonus Materials:  2 custom Action Sets, D&B custom brush for Photoshop
Practice Files: 5 Raw & PSD files photographed by Michael Woloszynowicz, Julia Kuzmenko McKim, Mary Vostokova and Anita Sadowska + Additional Sphere PSD file for Dodge & Burn practice.

Unlike our previous courses that focused on specific retouching tools and techniques – albeit very important ones – this time we take a much more holistic approach and turn our attention to the area that beauty, portrait and fashion retouchers have to excel at the most – skin retouching.

While it may seem like a narrow focus, the challenges faced by retouchers dealing with skin are broad and diverse, making this subject one of the most difficult to master.

Our ultimate purpose with this in-depth course is that you come away with a great deal of confidence in tackling a variety of retouching skin problems and, after an adequate amount of practice, end up producing results that are both more polished and more natural.

Please note that this course is exclusively available in an online “streaming” format, however, the bonus materials and practice files are downloadable.

Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Duration: Over 7 hours
Videos: 39 video lessons
Format: Streaming
Access: Lifetime
Additional Materials:  2 Custom Action Sets
Practice Files: 7 Raw & PSD files photographed by Michael Woloszynowicz & Julia Kuzmenko McKim