Editorial Headshot Retouching, Part 2 of 3

Editorial Headshot Retouching, Part 2 of 3

With the skin retouching from Part 1 in place (you can also see the behind the scenes from this same shoot), this second part adds a controlled dodge-and-burn using High Pass, then cleans up and refines the hairline using the Pen tool, the Clone Stamp, and some hand-painted hair strokes.

Dodging and Burning Skin With High Pass

A different High Pass setup than a pure texture pass adds controlled highlights on top of the already-retouched skin.

1. Stamp a Visible Layer and Desaturate It

   Press Shift+Option/Alt+Cmd/Ctrl+E to stamp a merged layer, then press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+U to desaturate it.

2. Set the Layer to Soft Light and Apply High Pass

   Change the layer’s blending mode from Normal to Soft Light, then go to Filter > Other > High Pass and choose a relatively large radius — a lower radius favors recovering skin tone and sharpness, while a higher radius favors this kind of dodge-and-burn styling.

Isolating Highlights With Blend If

Restricting the High Pass effect to just the highlights keeps it from also darkening the shadows.

3. Open Blending Options and Restrict With Blend If

   Double-click the layer to open Blending Options, hold Alt/Option, and drag the underlying layer’s black slider from left to right so the effect isn’t visible where the underlying layer is darker.

Why Blend If Keeps This Effect in the Highlights Only

Restricting the layer so it isn’t visible where the underlying image is dark means the Soft Light and High Pass combination only brightens and adds character to areas that are already light. That’s what gives the skin its highlight character without also affecting or darkening the shadow areas of the face.

Grouping and Masking the Highlight Layer

Grouping the effect and controlling it with a mask keeps the added highlights confined to exactly where they’re wanted.

4. Duplicate and Group the Layers

   Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer, then shift-click both layers and press Cmd/Ctrl+G to group them.

5. Add and Invert a Layer Mask

   Add a layer mask to the group, then invert it and use a soft brush to paint the highlight effect back in wherever it adds life to the skin, on top of the retouching already done in part one.

Adding a Second, Subtler Highlight Pass

A second, slightly different version of the same technique gives more localized control over other areas like the neck.

6. Repeat Desaturate, Soft Light, and High Pass

   Stamp another visible layer, desaturate it, set it to Soft Light, and apply another High Pass filter at a slightly larger radius.

7. Mask It Into Specific Areas

   Add a layer mask, invert it, and paint the effect in only where it’s needed, such as the neck, rather than across the whole image.

Using the Pen Tool to Define a Precise Hairline

Cleaning up a hairline calls for a much more precise selection than a brush alone can give.

8. Trace the Hairline With the Pen Tool

   On a new layer, press P for the Pen tool and click and drag to place points along the hairline, holding Cmd/Ctrl to adjust angle points and close the path into a defined shape.

9. Convert the Path to a Feathered Selection

   Right-click inside the path, choose Make Selection, and set a small feather radius such as 3 pixels.

10. Check and Soften the Selection With Quick Mask

    Press Q to view the selection as a Quick Mask, apply a Gaussian Blur (about 3.4 pixels here) to soften its edge further if needed, then press Q again to return to the normal selection.

Why Quick Mask Confirms the Feather Before Committing

A feather amount is hard to judge from the marching-ants selection alone. Viewing the selection as a Quick Mask turns it into a visible, blurrable image so the exact softness of the edge can be checked and adjusted with a filter before it’s converted back into the selection actually used.

Cloning the Hairline Into Shape

With the selection defined, the Clone Stamp tool reshapes the hairline itself.

11. Hide the Selection and Clone From Outside In

    Press Cmd/Ctrl+H to hide the selection edges while keeping it active, then use the Clone Stamp tool to sample from just outside the selection and paint into it, effectively giving the hairline a cleaner edge.

Refining the Edge With an Eraser and Layer Mask

A hairline cloned at full strength usually looks too crisp and obviously edited on the first pass.

12. Erase Any Overly Sharp Areas

    Use the Eraser tool to soften or remove parts of the cloned edge that look too artificial.

13. Deselect and Mask the Layer

    Deselect, add a layer mask, and paint black right along the very edge of the cloned area so the transition looks natural rather than obviously retouched.

Filling Gaps and Hand-Painting Additional Hair

A final pass fills in any remaining thin spots, first with the Clone Stamp and then, where needed, by hand.

14. Clone Stamp Set to Darken for Thin Areas

    On a new layer, use the Clone Stamp tool with its blending mode set to Darken to sample nearby hair and add a bit more density to a thin area without lightening anything.

15. Hand-Paint Additional Hair Strokes

    On a new layer, choose a small brush close to the size of the existing hair strands, and paint individual strokes to fill out the edge further, working patiently one small shape at a time.

16. Add Highlight Colors Over a Dark Base

    If adding lighter or highlighted strands, paint a darker base layer of hair first, then add lighter color over it, rather than painting light strands directly.

17. Mask and Blend the New Hair

    Add a layer mask and fade the new hair strokes in so they blend naturally rather than looking pasted on.

Why a Dark Base Layer Comes Before Highlight Color

Hair with any texture or dimension has darker strands underneath before lighter strands sit on top of them, so replicating that same order when hand-painting keeps the added hair reading as physically layered rather than flat. Painting a highlight color directly onto bare skin, without a dark base first, tends to look like a stray colored line instead of a strand of hair.

Why This Approach Works

High Pass paired with Soft Light and Blend If turns dodge and burn into something largely automatic — instead of hand-painting light and dark areas, the filter and blending mode combination does most of that work, leaving masking as the only manual step. The Pen tool’s precision is what makes reshaping a hairline believable rather than obviously smudged, since a feathered, quick-mask-checked selection gives the Clone Stamp an edge to work along instead of a rough approximation. Finishing with hand-painted strands, dark base first and highlight color second, follows the same logic as every other step here: match the real physical structure of what’s being recreated, rather than faking the surface appearance alone.

Final Thoughts

None of these techniques demand a specific hairstyle or a particular subject — the High Pass dodge-and-burn setup works on any portrait, and the Pen tool hairline cleanup is worth having in your toolkit even if it’s only useful occasionally. The next part of this series moves on to stylizing the portrait further and working with color.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Stamp and desaturateShift + Alt/Option + Cmd/Ctrl + E, then Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + U
• High Pass shineSoft Light, Filter > Other > High Pass at a fairly large radius
• Highlights onlyDouble-click the layer, Alt/Option-drag the Underlying Layer black slider to the right
• Group and maskCmd/Ctrl + J, Cmd/Ctrl + G, add a mask, Cmd/Ctrl + I, paint white
• Hairline selectionP, right-click > Make Selection, Feather 3 px; Q, Gaussian Blur, Q
• Clone the edgeCmd/Ctrl + H hides the edges; Clone Stamp from outside in, then mask the edge
• Paint hairSmall brush on a new layer, dark strands first, then a mask to blend