Produce perfect portraits

How to retouch your portraits to present more flattering versions

Portraits have always been a popular subject for a photograph. In the distant days of analog cameras, we’d pop framed family portraits on the mantelpiece. In today’s digital era, however, a portrait can be viewed worldwide mere seconds after it has been snapped, thanks to social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

You may also use your portrait to attract a companion via dating sites such as Cupid.com, or impress potential employers on LinkedIn. For these reasons, you can’t afford to put out a picture that’s less than flattering.

Fortunately, you have all the portrait retouching tools required to make you look your best, courtesy of Affinity Photo.

Affinity Photo is the perfect app for the selfie generation. You can use its tools to flatter your complexion by banishing blemishes and reducing wrinkles. Patches of sweat can create unflattering shiny hotspots on skin, as you can see from the specular highlights on our subject’s nose.

Thankfully, you can mop up sweat digitally using a skin–colored brush tool. Once you’ve improved skin tone, we’ll also show you how to whiten teeth for a fresher smile, brighten up the eyes, and even tidy up distracting stray hair strands.

Snapping a portrait on camera can create unflattering results too. Our example start image is underexposed so the subject looks dull and drab, and doesn’t really come to life in the picture. The camera’s white balance setting was incorrect so the shot is too warm, making skin tones look an unflattering orange.

In the steps opposite, we’ll show you how to create a more correctly exposed shot and counteract color casts for a more natural look. Then we’ll cover some common retouching techniques to create a perfect portrait.