A skill that makes Claude write the brief a retoucher works from, and check what comes back. It turns a contact sheet into picks with a reason for each. It writes the grade for the whole set as numbers: white balance, black and white points, contrast and a colour tolerance for the product. Each image gets a card of notes on crop, cleanup, skin, product, background, comp and colour, and every note says where, what, how much and what must stay. Then it sets the masters, the file names and the delivery sizes for a product page, Amazon, Instagram, Pinterest and print, and puts the never-change list on page one.
Inside are five reference files: a complete brief for an invented body-oil brand, a method for picking selects, grade numbers and a never-change list, file specs and platform sizes, and a QC checklist with small scripts. The never-change list protects the product and its label, skin texture, body shape and permanent marks like moles and tattoos. It draws a hard line at anything the product claims to change. The rules on retouched images in France, Norway, the UK, the US and the EU sit in the files with their sources and the date checked, and so does every platform size. Claude never invents a product colour, a label, a consent or a rate, and asks for them instead.
Claude cannot retouch or generate images. It writes the brief for your retoucher or your editing tool. It sees full frames scaled down, so dust, pores, thin halos and single letters on a label need 100% crops, and it says when it could not check something. Turn on code execution and it can measure pixel sizes, colour profiles, pure white backgrounds and product colour against a reference. It can also map every change a retoucher made, draw numbered pins on your proofs and export the brief as a PDF. Shoot a colour chart in the first frame of each setup and colour becomes a measurement.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Retouch brief
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In the download · 7 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows, in six stages: job, selects, grade and guard rails, image notes, specs and handoff, QC.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/worked-example.mdA complete brief for an invented body-oil brand, covering every stage through the round-two notes.
- references/selects.mdHow to pick selects from a contact sheet: four passes, kill reasons, the retouch cost ladder, plates and ratings.
- references/grade-and-guardrails.mdGrade numbers, product colour tolerance, the never-change list, and the rules on retouched images in France, Norway, the UK, the US and the EU, with sources and the date checked.
- references/file-specs.mdMaster file specs, print pixel maths, platform sizes and AI-label rules, with sources and the date checked.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/retouch-brief.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /retouch-brief. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the retouch brief skill. These are [NUMBER] frames from a [PRODUCT] shoot for [WHERE THEY RUN, FOR EXAMPLE SHOPIFY AND INSTAGRAM] in [COUNTRIES]. [WHO RETOUCHES] will retouch them by [DATE]. Start with the job sheet, then pick selects from the attached contact sheet.Attach a contact sheet with frame numbers visible and no more than six columns. Add a photo of the product beside a grey card or colour chart if you have one.
Checklist
Before a retouch brief goes out
- The never-change list is on page one and names the exact label wording and every permanent mark on the people in frame.Retouchers read from the top under a deadline. "Keep her natural" means nothing. "Keep the mole on the right collarbone" does.
- Every note has a location, an amount and a line saying what to keep."Clean up the skin" gets you smoothed skin. "07.2 [B1] remove two red marks, keep the freckles" gets you what you meant.
- The product's colour has a reference and a tolerance in ΔE00.A colour chart frame or a measured value turns an argument about colour into a number anyone can check.
- Nothing the product claims to change is enhanced: lashes for a mascara, sheen for an oil, whiteness for a whitening kit.In the US, the ad industry's self-regulator has said a disclosure does not fix an enhanced product demonstration.
- Each market's retouching rule is written down with a decision, such as no skin changes in any file that runs in Norway.Norway's label covers one removed spot, a removed tattoo or smoothed skin, as well as body shape. One decision in the brief saves a second set of files.
- Delivery sizes come from a dated source, and pure white is measured as 255 wherever a platform asks for it.Shadows that fade into a white background often leave 252 to 254 in the corners, which a marketplace can flag.
- Every comp names its plate frame, taken from the same setup.A hand from another setup is lit from another side. It shows at full size even when it looked fine as a thumbnail.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
- PhotoshopSubscription
Still the place a picture is finished. Generative fill, expand and remove now sit on the same layer stack as everything else.
Bad at Generative fill matches its surroundings rather than obeying a brief, so it is a patching tool and not a directing one.
- LightroomSubscription
Raw processing, colour and a catalogue, with masks that find skies and people by themselves.
Bad at Its denoise and its presets pull everything towards a current look, and that look dates.
- Capture OneSubscription
Raw processing and tethered capture, with colour handling professionals prefer to the alternative.
Bad at Priced for working photographers and organised the way they think. A designer will find the catalogue alien.
- ColorCheckerSubscription
A printed chart shot at the start of a session so colour can be made objectively correct later.
Bad at Only works if somebody remembers to shoot it. Fades with age and must be replaced.
Why it matters
Without a brief, retouching drifts towards one look: smoothed skin, brighter whites, a product colour that is close but wrong, and a letter on the label healed away. Ask a chat for retouch notes and you get "clean up the skin" and "make it pop". This skill makes Claude write located, measured notes, name what must stay as clearly as what goes, and reject any change to the thing a product claims to do.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing