Photoshop, the basics

Member lesson

Retouching a product photograph

Lesson 4 of 8 in Photoshop, the basics.

Checked against the makers' documentation on 9 October 2026.

Rescue Your Photos from Reflections & Distractions | Adobe Photoshop · Adobe Photoshop
Lesson

Retouching a product photograph means removing what the camera caught by accident. Dust on the glass, a scratch on the table and the reflection of your own phone in the bottle all go. The product itself does not change. Its shape and its colour stay exactly as photographed, and so does every word on the label, because a buyer reads the picture as a description of what will arrive.

shadows liftedhighlights heldthe look lives inthe shape of thisline, not in asaturation slidergrading is contrast first, colour second
A grading curve lifting the shadows and rolling off the highlights.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    A scratch crosses the straight edge of a shelf behind the product. Which tool suits that repair best, and why?

    • Spot Healing Brush, because it needs no source point
    • Clone Stamp, because it copies pixels exactly without blending
    • Healing Brush, because it blends texture and tone
    • Remove tool with generative AI on, because it redraws the edge
  2. Question 2, locked

    According to the ASA's chief executive, why were the two L'Oréal foundation adverts banned in 2011?

    • L'Oréal used a celebrity's face without permission
    • The adverts showed the foundation in the wrong colour
    • The adverts named a competitor's foundation
    • L'Oréal could not show how much retouching had been done
  3. Question 3, locked

    You need to remove a speck of dust from a printed word on the label. Which Remove tool setting does the lesson recommend?

    • Mode set to Generative AI is off
    • Mode set to Auto
    • Generative AI on, processed in the cloud
    • Find distractions set to General distractions

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