Photos Skin Retouching Common Retouched People Remove Making

Most people want to "look their best" (show their best, most attractive appearance) in photos, so it is common for people to "retouch" (improve through minor changes) their photos before printing or sharing them.

One of the most common "techniques" (a way of doing something) used in retouching photos is to remove "red eye," which is the way that light reflects off a person's eye, making it appear red in a photograph. Computer software can easily remove the red color, replacing it with a natural eye color. Another common technique is "teeth whitening," which makes the teeth appear whiter than they actually are.

Sometimes photos are retouched to change the skin color, usually to make the skin slightly darker, making it appear more "tanned" (slightly brown from exposure to sunlight). Sometimes the photos are retouched to make the skin appear lighter or "brighter" (seeming to have more light).

Photos can also be retouched to "remove" (take away; get rid of) "spots" (small areas that are a different color than the surrounding area), such as "moles" (small dark, usually round, shapes on the skin), "blemishes" (pimples or acne), or "bruises" (dark areas on the skin produced by bleeding under the skin, usually as a result of being hit).

Professional photo editors, especially those who work for fashion magazines, take photo retouching "to another level" (to an extreme), actually editing the photographs to "dramatically" (in a big way) change the "model's" (the person who is being photographed) appearance, typically giving her more "prominent" (easily noticed) "cheekbones" (bones in the face below the eyes), reducing the size of the arms, waist, and "thighs" (upper leg), and increasing the sizes of her breasts.