Many retouching courses are available online, but do they cover everything you need? What about sticking to your schedules? If you are a busy professional or a student looking to learn photo retouching, it is easy to become confused and lost while searching for the right course on the internet.
We are here to make things easy for you!
We’ll go over a detailed list of the 11 best online retouching courses that will completely change your photo editing game.
We have highlighted the key features of each retouch course to assist you in deciding which one is best for you. We’ve also included courses with certificates; if you want to discover everything, keep reading.
Best Online Retouching Courses with Certificates
Obtaining a certificate, in addition to taking a course, will allow you to showcase your skills and accomplishments, particularly on job portals. We have included the 6 best online photo retouching courses with certificates for you.
1. Professional Retouching Course in Photoshop [Udemy]
As the first item on our list, we include this popular photo retouching course from Udemy that has helped so many people master the art of retouching. You will learn beauty, portrait, and outdoor retouching, and you will receive 80 lessons and 6 hours of content.
The best part about this photo Retouching course is that you will be given high-quality raw images, allowing you to follow along with the instructor while also doing your own retouching. Even though this course is intended for intermediate students, a beginner will also find it very useful because it covers everything from the fundamentals to advanced retouching topics.
Highlights –
- Learn about the powerful software Capture One and everything about raw processing in it. If you are not a big fan of Capture One, don’t worry about it. You will also learn how to do raw processing in Adobe Camera Raw.
- Learn how to examine and analyze each image to determine what needs to be done to it. You will learn the best tools and techniques for complete retouching in an easy way,
- One of the most important retouching techniques is dodge and burn. By the end of the course, you will master this skill and learn how never to overdo it.
- Learn how to use lights and shadows by comparing and viewing real-world examples.
- Get to know the most effective adjustment layer for color grading and how to work with specific colors and areas.
Duration: 9 hours
Level: Intermediate
2. Portrait Retouching Course [The School Of Photography]
School of Photography is a platform that provides excellent courses to help photographers and photo editors become experts in their fields. They are so confident in their courses that they offer a money-back guarantee for 60 days. The Portrait Retouching Course is a learning and practice class that includes 57 videos, 10 worksheets, and 15 image files.
You will learn how to do raw image processing in Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, and all other retouching techniques and tools. This course will also train you in retouching to achieve a natural look, which is preferred by many clients in today’s market. You can either become a member and gain access to all of their high-quality courses, or you can buy this course once and have access for 6 months.
Highlights –
- Learn advanced retouching techniques for studio portraits.
- Learn how to do newborn retouching that can make anyone smile.
- Master the healing and cloning tools.
- Learn advanced techniques for outside portraits.
- Download all the course content and study whenever you want.
Duration: Self-paced
Level: Beginner to Advanced
3. Adobe Photoshop CC Essentials| Photoshop Retouching [Udemy]
This Udemy course is a comprehensive guide for beginners seeking to enhance their skills. You will learn everything about retouching in Adobe Photoshop CC, the most popular software among professionals. You will not miss out on learning the fundamentals of retouching with 51 articles, 31 assignments, and 39 downloadable resources.
The best feature of this course is the 37 hours of Photoshop tutorials recorded in 1080 HD, which are suitable for both beginners and advanced students. You will begin with basic Photoshop retouching topics and progress to professional creative techniques by the end of this course. You will also examine the differences between Photoshop and Lightroom.
Highlights –
- Gain a solid foundation in retouching with Photoshop and get tips for fast, productive workflows.
- Learn how to create vectors in Photoshop and add layer styles to add an extra touch of creativity.
- Learn how to use typography with Photoshop and become a pro at adjusting layers and masks.
- Discover how to clone and heal to master retouching.
- Learn to make your own Photoshop actions.
Duration: 37 hours 22 minutes
Level: Beginner to Advanced
4. Lightroom Retouching Faces [LinkedIn Learning]
One of the biggest perks of taking a course in LinkedIn Learning is the ability to showcase your skills with a certificate on LinkedIn, which is one of the largest professional network platforms. We recommend this course if you want to get hired quickly and interact with professionals who have similar backgrounds to you.
Launched this year, this course contains everything you need to learn about retouching in Adobe Lightroom, which is much easier than using Photoshop. The course is taught by Kristina Sherk, an experienced retouching professional who aims to make retouching simple and time-saving for anyone interested in learning. You will also be given one exercise file to practice while learning.
Highlights –
- Learn everything about retouching using Lightroom, starting with the optimal settings and speed.
- Learn about new masking panels, features, and how to use them.
- Get a complete guide to retouching each part of the face professionally.
- Discover how to create smart beauty presets.
- As a bonus, learn about portrait photography.
Duration: 2 hours 34 minutes
Level: Intermediate
5. Retouching and Color Correcting Photography Portraits [LinkdIn Learning]
This is yet another excellent LinkedIn Learning course on photo retouching and color-correcting photography portraits. This course is taught by Natalie Fobes, a Pulitzer finalist, owner of Fobes Photography, and co-founder of Blue Earth Alliance.
Natalie understands the difficulty and demand for photo retouching and shares her knowledge of how to use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to effectively fix or enhance the skin.
You’ll learn how to create preferences in Lightroom and Photoshop, as well as how to easily apply Lightroom adjustments made on one photo to the rest of the series. You will be given a shareable certificate that you can use to make a mark in the retouching industry.
Highlights –
- Get tips for taking one element from an image and pasting it into another, adding makeup to a portrait subject using only Lightroom tools, and much more.
- Learn how to make color adjustments in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
- Discover how to tone down distracting features in Lightroom.
- Learn how to add makeup in the lightroom.
- Learn the coolest trick of head swapping in Photoshop.
Duration: 1 hour 20 minutes
Level: Intermediate
6. Photo Retouching [Noble Desktop]
Noble Desktop is a well-known learning and career development center. Since 1990, they have been NYC’s top school, and they teach in smaller groups of 8-10 students. This photo retouching course is ideal if you want more personalized attention throughout the course. To make learning easier, you can create your own custom schedule.
The class is taught by three instructors who are industry veterans and expert educators. This program includes Adobe Photoshop, Advanced Retouching, and Adobe Lightroom classes designed for students of varying skill levels.
The best part about this program is that you will get remote support for live online classes.
Highlights –
- Get a free one-time retake of the class.
- Learn in real-time with small classes.
- Earn a shareable New York State license certificate.
- You can record your class and watch it whenever you want.
- Get practical skills by working on real projects with an instructor’s guidance.
Duration: 48 hours
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Best Online Retouching Courses without Certificates
Here are the top 11 online retouching courses you’ll absolutely love and that will help you become a professional retoucher in no time; however, these do not come with Certification.
1. Professional Beauty Retouching – Start to Finish [SkillShare]
A fantastic course by Marcin Mikus, this Skill Share course has excellent reviews and provides great insight into its content. As the name implies, this course will teach you professional retouching from start to finish. You’ll learn how to do raw processing and other retouching techniques in Capture One and Camera Raw.
This seven-lesson course is specifically designed to provide everything a student is looking for in a short period of time. To support your workflow, you will be given a hands-on class project with resources such as images, actions, and the instructor’s custom-made brush.
Highlights –
- Learn how to do raw processing in Capture One and in Camera Raw.
- Discover what it takes to clean up a beauty image professionally and learn how to use the appropriate tools for it.
- Make the images stand out by learning the tricks of color contrast.
- Learn how to do professional dodge and burn to retouch.
- Learn how to do the final touch-ups in retouching to achieve perfection and get access to high-quality raw images.
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 1 hour 23 minutes
2. Adobe Photoshop for Editing and Retouching [Domestika]
This course by Domestika will teach you everything about retouching in Photoshop. Taught by Daniel Arranz Molinero, a professional photographer and certified photo retouching specialist who has won more than 40 international awards, this course has received nothing but positive reviews.
This course is a bundle of five sectional courses that will take you from beginner to advanced topics in retouching. You will learn about digital photography and the importance of developing your images. The best part about this course is that it includes 22 exercises for you to practice.
Highlights –
- Get lifetime access to the course and learn whenever you want.
- See a 3D demonstration of how layers work in Adobe Photoshop and get a better understanding.
- Get a detailed explanation and demonstration of blending modes, dodging, and burning techniques.
- Learn what channels are and how to extract characters with channels.
- Learn how to do magic with Photoshop by deleting and filling with tools and techniques.
Duration: Self-paced
Level: Beginner
3. The Art and Business of High-End Retouching [CreativeLive]
This amazing course from CreativeLive is taught by Pratik Naik, a high-end retoucher specializing in commercial and photo editorial work with a stellar career span of 10 years who has been featured in many reputed magazines. The software covered in this course is Adobe Photoshop CC 14.2 and Adobe Lightroom 5.
The instructor absolutely understands the challenges faced by photographers, from making everything ready for the pre-shoot to creating a beautiful, high-end finished photo. You will be taught all of the necessary tools and techniques, as well as how to manage your time so that work does not take over your life.
You will see Pratik working with photographer Felix Kunze and how retouchers and photographers must collaborate to get the perfect final product.
Highlights –
- Learn everything about shooting for retouching in the beauty and fashion industries.
- Get an overview of Photoshop’s workflow.
- Understand the retouching techniques and tools in depth.
- Get all of your questions answered in the Q&A session and receive fantastic bonus content.
- Learn how to work with clients and the business of retouching.
Duration: 15 hours 16 minutes
Level: Beginner to Advanced
4. Skin 101: Lightning, Retouching and Understanding Skin [Creativelive]
This retouching course from CreativeLive is a fantastic class by Lindsay Adler. This class specifically focuses on skin retouching, and you should definitely go for this course if you want to master this highly demanded-skill. From this photo editing course, you are going to get an in-depth education in shooting and retouching a variety of skin textures and tones.
In this course, Lindsay Adler will take you through the essentials of understanding, lighting, photographing, and retouching skin in all its variations.
You will lay the foundation for a great shoot by learning easy makeup tips and understanding how light modifiers, reflectors, and the direction of light impact the appearance of skin for both natural light and studio lighting.
Highlights –
- Learn how to retouch a wide range of skin textures and tones, whether the skin is very pale, extremely dark, extremely oily, or has severe blemishes, among other things.
- Learn how to shoot each skin tone in different lights.
- Discover how to contour wrinkles and alter the shape of the face.
- Learn how to do retouching in Adobe Photoshop CC 14.2.
- Get lifetime access and exclusive bonus content.
Duration: 15 hours 17 minutes
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
5. The Retouching Series [Portrait Masters]
Portrait Masters is an online platform that provides excellent photography courses and tools. The entire course is created by photographers, making taking the Portrait Masters course a unique experience. This course, taught by Pratik Naik, one of the most sought-after retouchers, can improve your workflow and the final product.
The course includes 144 videos that will take you from beginner to master photo retouching techniques. Each course is downloadable, and Pratik also provides practice files to help students gain a better understanding.
You will be given 55 specific retouching tutorials, ensuring that you do not miss anything. This course is a package that includes ongoing topic updates. There is also a portal where you can submit problem images to help the courses grow.
Highlights –
- Get a retouching PDF guide as a bonus gift.
- View full retouches with client reviews to see what people really look for.
- Learn detailed retouching for different parts of an image.
- Get 11 PSD files to work along with Pratik, a keyboard shortcuts guide, and a PS Actions set.
- Learn advanced dodge and burn techniques.
Duration: Self-paced
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Enhance Your Skills With These Photo Retouching Courses!
That’s all! We hope that by the end of this list, you will have decided on a retouching course. The best course for you is one that fits your schedule and learning style and includes the specific skills you seek.
So, begin your learning! Also, we hope this article helped you find the perfect Photo Retouching Course you intend to take.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are the Basics of Photo Retouching and The Tools Used?
Retouching is the process of editing a photo to enhance its beauty. The term retouching is mainly used in the fashion industry. Retouching is done for numerous things, from modifying the shape of eyes to achieving the look of fabulously smooth skin. Editors use many tools for retouching, such as burn and dodge tools, noise reduction tools, curves and layer masking tools, patch tools, and hue/saturation tools, which form the basics of retouching.
Is Photo Editing and Retouching the Same?
Editing is simply photo corrections or changes made for artistic effect or to achieve a specific style. Retouching is a step above and beyond editing. Consider retouching to be the manipulation of the appearance of the photo, where you can change the skin, body, and so on!
Which Software Is the Best for Photo Retouching?
Even though each user’s preferences may lead them to prefer certain software, Adobe Photoshop CC is widely regarded as the industry standard and the world’s number-one graphic editing tool in the current year.
It’s all done with FAQs! We hope we have answered some of your retouching-related questions.
