Photoshop, and Lightroom method to professional high-end retouching. This video demonstrates how I use the Liquify filter, patch tool, rubber stamp tool, Frequency separation, Curves, Adjustment Layers, and Noise to retouch in a non destructive manner.
Unfortunately, consumers are not the only ones who may misunderstand the process of retouching. I have come across many photographers and photography portfolios where an “all-in-one” magic filter was used. Well, at least we would like to think it’s magic. Usually these products promise to deliver perfect skin retouching within a matter of minutes. That is just simply not the case. It’s incredibly sad that so many photographers fall for this, and waste good money on a product that makes imagery look very plastic, unnatural, and edited. The trick to being a great retoucher is to give the illusion that the photo was never edited.
If you are looking for a photographer who claims to do image retouching, make sure, their final products don’t look unnatural. Make sure that the texture of the skin is still preserved, and the photo looks well balanced.