40 Amazing Before and After Photo Retouching Photos
Models and celebrities always look stunning with their flawless skins on magazine and album covers. Photoshop not only can do enhancements to poorly shot photographs, but also able to turn an ordinary person into someone with superstar qualities. Below are 40 great examples in showing the magic that Photoshop can do to an average or lousy image. The original photo is on left and enhanced version on right.
I have written a simple tutorial earlier on how to do photo retouching on a bikini model. It may help a little if you wish to try doing one by yourself.
Every image is linked to their original source and you are recommended to check out other amazing works of the photographers/designers.
Aaron is a writer for 10Steps.SG Other Design Articles You May Find Interesting
130 Comments | Write a Comment
If thats the best some professional touch up artists can do then i should be doing their job.
Alot of them are so over done they look nothing like the original person, more like a cartoon.
The skin tones are over saturated and and have lost a lot of the details, i.e the skin pores.
Tbh i would be ashamed to have released any of them as a final touch up.
I am all for removing a few flaws to improve a picture, like dark shadows under the eyes or a spot but some of these people go over board with the touch up.
these pictures are all fake. they have all been played around with and we are putting these images into magazines, on t.v, on the internet and then they sit back and watch teenage girls grow up feeling bad and thinking they look ugly and try meet these looks when you actually cannot. self esteem is ruined, eating disorders occur and much much more. teenage boys are the same they go to gym, take steriods, and there thoughts on what real beauty is changes. they all think fake is beautiful when it is not. and the only reason the media does it is for the MONEY
Are you kidding? Amazing? More like “amateur”. Most of them, of course..
This stuff is cool, Julia Styles looks the same edited and not. She’s so pretty she doesn’t need photoshop.
the black guy is probz my fav ;~)
This was really useful for my airbrushing essay! Thank you!
I am a photographer and I am trying to understand the art of photography now days. I have done many searches on the web for examples of art photography and everytime I get a list of photos that have been photoshopped the hell out of by adding things in the photo. I do not call that are photography at that point. It may be called photoshop art but not photo art! People or photograhers should really rethink what they are calling art photography now days. Yes we have always changed photos in the darkroom but burning in or holding back to changes the light and dark areas but it was still a art photo even though we did that. When you start adding items that where not even in the picture there is no way you can call it photo art anymore!
Hi Steve
Thanks for your comment. I guess pure photography art shouldn’t include any additional changes but with new art forms coming out, who can say what is art anymore?
I don’t refer to the work I do as photos any more unless it’s unaltered. I refer to them as images. They has always been a lot of photo retouching. In the past it was done with airburshes. Now it’s just easier. While there are a lot of folks who what to do “straight” photography, there is a huge abount that wants to push the bounds of photography and try and do new things. I’ve spent so many frustrating years in the darkroom that I totally enjoy what can be done with Photoshop. Adobe asked what I like about PS, and my response was that it let me create whatever I could imagine.
Great that you found photoshop to be useful. I agree that it is harder and harder to tell the difference between unaltered photos and those that have been touched up.
I am sorry, but this is not at all retouches ! People here look very unnatural.
Where is the natural effect and the real meaning of ‘Retouch’ on these pictures ?
Well, I allowed to myself to subscribe this article, because I am a retoucher, and I have an artistic view ..
I would like to show you some of my work , You can add me on facebook ” Abdel Kebdani ”
and then you can see the difference !
Cheers .
Why suddenly are faces supposed to look flat and PLASTIC, with no shadows on them or anything? A lot of these “after” pics look more like CG people! Is that what we’re saying here? We wish everyone looked CG? No wonder we all start feeling really bad about ourselves for just being HUMAN!
My good friend uses retoucher Bianca Carosio and ever since I can’t find other artists that match up to her.
hi, can u plz send me any one retouched pic with original one to see how good is your artist Bianca. I have never touched photographs but im good at photoshop. send me one pic to retouch and let me know where i stand.
thanks
I think this is very well done. So much so that I wrote a blog and linked back to this site to further a point I was making. Thanks for this good piece of work.
Jai
You guys are fucking great, this is awesome. If it weren’t for people like you, women all over the world would think they’re good enough as they are, WITH human pores and creases and freckles and all that really nasty shit. Thank God there’s you guys, retouching the fuck out of everything and making sure that anorexia is here to stay. Cheers!
I say leave people natural. At least they look real and honest and not some fake!
the old woman in the pink has no hand in the newer image on the right.
This is cool for people who like photo retouching. And this website really helped me write my paper. I am writing about how mass media affects anorexia, and this website shows it perfectly. We look at a picture in a magazine that has been retouched, so it looks “perfect”, and it gives us a view of what we “should” look like, but in reality thats not what is really under the picture, pretty depressing in my eyes.
hi michelle, i agreed with you.the website helped me too.currently i’m doing my research of cosmetics advertisement cause to depression and most of the images in cosmetic advertisements are using too much manipulation.i’m happy if you can give some comments or opinion. thank you
This can be a excellent article. It seems like you did you research and it is very informative. Thanks a lot and I’ll subscribe to the blog so I will keep reading. Regards, A Fellow Blogger
That one with the black guy looks stupid. They ‘fixed’ his legs and now they’re so anatomically incorrect it makes me want to punch the touchup artist in the throat. They’re way out of proportion with his upper body.
Also, some of these girls’ boobs were fixed up and made rounder so slightly that you wouldn’t notice it unless you were conciously looking for it. And it just makes me go ‘Why?’ Why bother? Are they so bothered by normal boobs that they absolutely NEED to do it, if only to ease their own mind? Why in god’s name are we so nitpicky that we need to do stupid stuff like that?
These examples started really good, but some of the later options are terrible.
Don’t people know you can do way more in Photoshop than clone/heal skin and add curves/levels.
These examples are way better.
http://fixmypics.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17
Awesome… All are cool one. thanks for sharing with us.
The before pictures here are not originals. They have been edited in many cases to look worse than the originals actually do, with freckles, lines, etc obviously accentuated (probably with any automatic plug-in.)
In all cases the after photos have been edited so heavily as to make the photos look over-saturated and over-exposed. The editing generally is amateurish and makes many of the so-called after photos completely unusable for print or even online purposes. Just thumb through a Maxim or Cosmo and try to find photos that look like the after ones…they are MUCH higher quality, even after all the edits.
This may be an interesting project for the end of someones beginner Photoshop course, but it is not what it claims to be – some kind of statement on modern beauty or whatever.
…. not that amazing really, its just the liquify tool, pin tool, curves adjustment, photo filter, and Prophoto plugins…. just the standard work for photographers during their editing process really.
wow nice and amazing work… i wish to learn.
Lol, at someones they are before nice too lol
Most of these have just had the contrast, brightness and colour saturation adjusted – hardly retouching, just improving the rendering of the photo.
wow !! nice thank you
Thank you so much for posting these!
I am really surprised by how radically different skin looked after the re-touches. I used to think that I was just not one of the girls born with perfect skin, and needed better make-up to get my skin to look so even. Whoops – huge waste of time thinking those thoughts!
After looking at these photos, I came to prefer the normal coloring of the models and found all the blending and combining to make them all look…alien. Thanks for challenging my perceptions!
wow these should be shown to young teen girls you just cant look like the girls in the pictures have any magazines been made for schools health class or values class maybe it could help some girls who are strugling with self esteem and weight issues kelly
this is crap. many of them are much better “before”… (if you can say whichone is before for them…)
Well, good to know that all those celebrities are actually human being; they just need help as much as we do… by the way, tempted to see myself being photoshopped like that – and to decide where to place it!
Oh my days! Some of these are really really Shocking!!
I had no idea about the reality of such things, thanks alot to the poster, it has actualy really made me think.
I enjoyed this article and the images displayed here. – at least until I scrolled down and read some of these replies. I’m not usually one to comment or do a lot of blogging, but I HAD to jump in on this one! So, here’s what I have to say, should anyone care to read it;
Hey guys . . . COME ON! Why soooo negative. I get it; we’re all entitled to our own opinions, but digital art is just that – ART. Though the interpretations may vary, the work takes some talent, time, creativity and ‘eye’ for color, contrast, lines; etc. It’s important to remember that many artists have frenzied thoughts and define beauty in many ways, (whether photographer or manipulator). The idea is to express oneself, yeah we see a great deal of ‘surrealism’ here, but it’s the way of digital art.
I do agree that the use of this type of imaging in magazine ads may give young people the wrong idea of beauty, and set into motion a poor sense of self esteem. However, I think that most young people DO have a grasp on reality and understand the difference, ESPECIALLY in this digital age!
It just seems to me that most responses to the article are from closed-minded individuals who fail to see the point here. It is simply a demonstration of what CAN be done with images, whether or not the artist has any experience or the type of software used, is irrelevant. The author is simply sharing examples and providing some education for people who WANT to know. So calm down, and find something else to look at if you don’t like it! many artists DO appreciate critiques, it helps us to know if we’re getting our point across, or where we need to focus n our endeavors to retain the attention of our intended audiences. It’s extremely counter-productive to outright ‘slam’ the work. Please, keep in mind that there are ‘humans’ at work creating the software, taking the pictures and manipulating the images.
I see things that I might have done a little different, but overall I think that the before and afters ARE pretty amazing. So, to the artists that spent many hours developing these works . . . . KUDOS! I see alot of talent here, as well!
Keep it up – YOU ROCK!
-C
You seem kind of overly impressed. You can go on MySpace and see the exact same thing on any teenage girl’s profile… it’s mostly just that the contrast and saturation have been upped in most of these pictures. Trust me, there’s not a whole lot of artistic skill or vision that goes into it. Or hours. Most of these take just a couple minutes.
I have to disagree with you. I believe that the vast majority of the people who view “photographs” believe that they are looking at a “snap shot” of the real world. Most people do not realize that they are not looking at reality, but an altered reality. Sure, you may see that as art. It may actually be art. But, most people don’t expect to see any sort of “manipulation” when they see “photographs” (digitally captured pictures included).
Now, if this is simply a demonstration of the technical capabilities of photo-manipulation, then why do all of the photographs contain human subjects? Why no landscapes? Why no wildlife? Why no abstract compositions? I contend that this was not a piece about what the software can do. This was a piece about how to “make people look better with photoshop.” And THAT is what all of the negative comments are about.
very very good works.
This compilations sucks. Why? Cause 80% of these pix have just higher contrast, and the rest has added blur + few brushes to this effect. A child could do such work.
wow, almost scary. what is the media doing to our perceptions of what beauty is? nothing is natural anymore…. disgusting.
Wow. Some of those look like totally different people. And then some of them look so perfect that it’s creepy. *shudders*
i miss britney murphy
I do to she was such a good actor:(
A few of those were pretty good.
.. most of them were shite.
fiquei chocada na foto da madonna…
Nice compilation. Thanks for inpiration
Almost all of these “after” pics are downright HORRIBLE….amazing???Yeah *^%^$)! right!They all look like WAX DUMMIES,not cute,NOT pretty..but just fake ass hell.They look like they belong in a museum!
I personally HATE,I DETEST photoshop!All it does it make BOTH men and women want to have all of this plastic surgery to look like what?An ugly ass ALIEN they saw on a cover of a fake ass magazine?
What happens when the public sees you in real life??You’re going to look like a jackass!Anyone that condones this needs SERIOUS mental help,sorry,but you do!
Hey, chill out. Put your feet up and pour yourself a nice beverage of some kind.
With some exceptions here and there, I think the general consensus in the comments is that these retouching jobs are, for the most part, very overdone to downright awful. But of course, we see similar retouching jobs all the time in magazines and posters and what-not so it’s easy to see where some “artists” get their ideas of how they should go about doing these jobs.
To blame the software, though, is – if you don’t mind my saying – pretty ridiculous. Photoshop is a tool and, as such, is only as good as the artist wielding the mouse. Or the Wacom. Photoshop can produce exquisite results in the right hands…or thoroughly plastic results like many of the examples above.
It’s society’s unrealistic expectations and retouchers who lack finesse that are to blame. Not Photoshop. Release that hate. You’ll feel much better. : )
Wonderful Pics
People, people, there is some very good work there. You can blame society, not the artist.
Put your personal ethics aside and realize, that when it comes to fashion crime, photoshop can get you a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card.
Good work … a little too heavy on some, but good work nonetheless.
I’m sorry. I couldn’t even look through all of the retouched photos. I’m no pro (educated in- and I’ve been payed to work with retouch, but still: no pro)
Most of them burn out (like if “auto-contrast” is a retouch tool) and even more employ that simple “Barbie skin”, which the contractor would find f*-ugly.
The work showcased look like:
1) Something I’d done while drunk and using a regular mouse (instead of my Intuos tablet, I’m crazy good drunk)
2) A class’ first assignment in a basic Photoshop course
I know, I’m over exaggerating, but seriously: Could you not find better pics to make a statement of? I’m actually serious that I could’ve done most of them better while being drunk. Which brings me to my other point of interest this day … Cheers!
Hi, Johnson. How are you?
Man, i am crazy looking for some tutorial used at penultimate model. The Vaio’s Girl. She was into a dirty background. After she showed up into a new brown background quiet convinced/ valid. Do you have any tutorial about it?
I would be really grateful for you.
Hope you get in contact.
See you!
ma!
If its a good Photoshop you won’t be able to tell its Photoshopped. Most of these are fucking disasters. They’ve gone from normal, attractive looking people to scary, out of proportion, plastic monster people. That poor woman in the pink coat doesn’t even look human any more.
I think it was free preformance using photoshop to fix an image. the problem is whether it is in accordance with the ethical originality of form, but yes that is the function of photoshop so it all depends on our thinking. keep it up brother..
for more than half of the sets, the original is better. and why do u make people so much whiter?
WOW GREAT PIECE OF WORK
Sad and some are fake!
I admire photoshop if it comes to changing colors and light-effects, but it’s just so…. cheap when commercials use it to make their models even slimmer.
or they photoshop every frame in their damn beauty product commercials. NOT LIKE I HAVENT NOTICED, OLAY (AND A MILLION OTHER BRANDS!)
I have found more nice examples on http://www.retouch.dorota.tv/portfolio_retusz.php
Some of these are indeed much better in that, although the retouching is obvious, the texture and humanity of the model has been retained. However, there are quite a few more that exhibit the same plastic model syndrome that we’re seeing above. And I find that disappointing in the extreme.
WOW!!!!! Its awesome… I am very much interested in editing… Can U share some tips
Most of these images would fit great in a photo retouching DISASTERS compilation.
Waxy is not sexy
Yeh, how disappointing to see the truth behind those artificial enhanced faces/bodies.
I actually like the original pic in most of these… I frankly believe it’s ridiculous the things they’ll retouch in women, for example.
itz really amazing……..
photo retouching tends to watch more…..
you got a nice style and nice workouts……..
look like reality…Awesome
This was a disappointing post. Most of the pictures look like someone just clicked the auto-enhance button on any basic photo program. No skill required.
but you can also make a nic pic to an ugly one
Hmm, the Madonna one is really hard to believe, not because she looks like an old bag (which I am sure she does) but because I dont believe she would let that get out. she is too rich and powerful and image conscious to let that happen.
I dont know, I think that photoshopping pics is a work of art. I get really surprised that people get warped views of beauty. Thats kinda like saying:
“you have painted or drawn that portrait too well, you should have made it look ordinary”
I think most people should be taught more about photoshop as an art rather than pretending its some evil tool that destroys self esteem for people who are too naive to understand that it is artistic portrayal.
Should we not wear make up or dye our hair? Thats touching up too.
Maybe we should put warning at the bottom of ads and mags declaring that images are artistic interpretations?
To me, the problem is not that photoshop is being used. It’s the fact that it’s being badly used.
When the skin is too waxy, when the frekles are removed, when shadows are so toned down that the original lighting is ruined, then photoshop is misused.
Especially when it’s on a page that says “Amazing before and after photo retouching photos”…
There’s nothing “artistic” about removing natural wrinkles and freckles from the faces of real humans in attempts to make these real humans look flawless. They aren’t paintings, they’re pictures. Pictures, once again, of real people. No one is painting a picture too perfect. They’re taking photos of real people then editing away everything they feel is wrong with them. It’s done to sell mags, not for art’s sake. If it were art, it would be done sparingly and to make some sort of point. This is just typical work for editors.
For magazines, where it’s done 99.9% of the time (the .1% only occurring when there’s an explicit point about ‘natural beauty’ being made for some article), it isn’t at all done to be “artistic,” and if you think it is, then you’re definitely the naive one… as well as just plain old ignorant.
I’m relieved that someone has actually pointed out the fact that this is not Art. It can only be categorised as design as it conforms to all of the criteria of the genre; i.e. having a standardised means of production, having a clear utilitarian purpose, having definite rules that direct the construction of the final image, and pertaining to a particular ideology.
I don’t mean to portray design negatively, this just doesn’t happen to be Art.
Suggesting a warning statement “declaring that images are artistic interpretations” is gross abuse of the actual artistic rights that an artist should have. Perhaps there is something that could be said about how the commercial sector in its attempt to dominate every aspect of human creativity has corrupted general understanding of what it means to be an artist or to create artwork. Design has a very rigid box that Art does not belong inside yet for some reason there is some belief that Art can be placed inside it.
For what little it is worth, please don’t box Art in with design. The correct terminology is always worth using, and if you don’t know what you are talking about, at least do some research.
For the record, my problem is with unprofessional Design work and specifically the tendency to pass off its’ failures and inadequacies as Artworks. I’m not going to say why this is wrong.
If it is art, then it should not be portrayed as reality. Like it or not, there is an inherent expectation of reality when you look at a photograph. Sure, most people understand that photographs CAN be digitally manipulated. But, I contend that most people don’t realize just how many photographs ARE manipulated. And that is the problem. If you go into a studio and see photos, people expect art. If you look at a magazine cover, or article, you expect to see reality. When photo’s are photoshopped, they should be labeled as such. If it is actually art, as you claim, then people would appreciate the photos that much more knowing that someone “fixed” it instead of believing that they are looking at reality.
These are WAY over shopped. Why did the beefy dude need to be slimmed down? It looks unnatural. The face retouches look waxy. This is not sophisticated work at all.
Hi, i am a great fan of photo retouching i mostly uses the photo retouching services that helps me to make the strong relations in the social media when i post these pic in facebook and other site. But, as you know it is not a free thing to do lot of providers are there. You are adding very appealing pictures i like it…):
…can I just point out that NONE of these are amazing at all. I can see 4 of them that are ‘impressive’, another 5 or so that are reasonable, another 4 that are terrible and the rest are changes that you could literally make with free software off the internet. Clearly very low standards for ‘amazing retouches’, frankly half the changes on here could have been done by any makeup artist.
I go to live in the photoshopped world ..lol
Cool photos ……..
i want know how to do this
i whant to know how to do this
Now I get why society’s beauty ideals are so F%&#ed.
see we admire and get jealous from these people we these ppl we think they are angels from heaven while the truth is something else …they spend hours on make up and grooming themselves then the picture is taken ..they still dont look amazing so they have to make it look beautiful by all this
Anyone with a basic understanding of Photoshop could do these.
This would all be amazing to anyone who has never used Photoshop, but to those that have, this is like someone who has never used Word saying a .doc is ‘cool’ because there is some text that is bold and some other words that are italic. Entry level stuff here.
beautiful photo retouching listing. thanks for sharing
This is the proof that there is no ugly people.. there is a bad photoshop! lol!
What I wonder is: what does the photographer/retoucher has against freckles??
Ha! Good question. I wouldn’t allow that retoucher anywhere NEAR Evangeline Lilly : )
I don’t know, I think some of these are kinda bad examples of retouching. My idea of a good retouching is one that isn’t so blatantly obvious. Some of these don’t even look like photo’s anymore, but digital art.
Clever but also very sad. They remove all the imperfections which make us human and produce bland pictures.
Sad collection: a lot of these are just a matter of moving one or two sliders in Photoshop to improve the exposure or the contrast.
And a lot of the more drastic retouching is very fake-looking.
Just stumbled on this, and had to comment on the image of the black guy. That new crotch he has is so bad it isn’t even close to believable. Otherwise the rest are pretty good. Just throwing in an honest opinion.
Totally true!
And he seems better on the original. They just made him thinner, the poor photoshop guy didn’t know that with men the rule is the oposite than with women.
everyone wants to look beautiful…..why not.
Is it just me or do most of these originals look better than the retouched versions? Give me a real person over an airbrushed fake polystyrene doll any day.
Thank you)
nice tuts
Cool, one of those is mine!
My “before & after” retouches: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeadamsphotographer/sets/72157622772914646/
nice edited, I always learn how toget a good adited phothograph.
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
Very neat. Its amazing what you can do with photoshop. I need to learn how to do this!
Sorry – not impressed!
I do stuff like that every day – only a lot better. 
A few of those examples look way too fake!
It’s amazing what Photoshop can do. With this software, looks can be really deceiving.
Oh. many superstars should thank technology for making them ever beautiful. LOL.
Nice compilation. Thanks for inpiration
There are some quite great “transformations” here, thanks for sharing. This is how you go from Beast to Beauty…
It’s actually how you go from “figure” to “fake”…
This kid’s a good photoshopper… But they’ve ruined the purple jacket lady by getting rid of her hand….
http://10steps.sg/wp-content/uploads/article132/28.jpg
lol, where is the hand!?
Gone =))
Great article. It’s truely amazing what an intense photoshop retouch can achieve.
I’m sorry, but I consider a majority of these to be photoshop disasters! There’s retouching to where no one knows you retouched which is what you want. And then there’s obvious and toy looking models which is awful.
Also, take the one where the lady is in the bright pink fur… her hat is all sorts of jacked up. The lace still has the background from the original image rather than the new background and you have this on a list of “awesome” retouches?
Thanks for the honest comment. I agree that the image you referred to is not made to its best and it also look a little weird without her right hand. But there are still certain areas that I think is an improvement from the original pic.
Feel free to share any good works with us too.
didn’t we always praise good looking gals look like barbie dolls, which is a toy too?
DD.. yes, barbies have indeed been praised. You may be correct, maybe this is just a preference. I just would rather look at a little more natural/believable photo in an ad than something that one can tell is photoshopped & beyond.
By the way, DD.. I love some of your work.. I recognize the name from a few tutorials that have passed across my screen in the past. You’ve got a great style with your textures & 3d work.
Just seen this comment from Kris and I totally agree with what he is saying…
Have to say I agree. I was going through the images and found myself wondering why anyone would hold these up as examples of good retouching when most of the models look like plastic in the after shots. Any hint of modeling/shading/imperfections obliterated? Sorry. Fixing up imperfections is one thing but making these lovely models look like they’re wearing plastic masks is NOT good retouching. It might do for a specific project if that’s the look that serves but most of the time efforts like these should be sent right back to the retouching artist for a do-over.
Can try putting up one of my pic LOL By the way nice work!
I love this set, I’m a big fan of photo retouching. Thanks for sharing.
Wow… this is a cool roundup. Bookmarked and will definitely try everyone of them now.