Do you have commitment issues? Well, if you're anything like me then you certainly do! What do I mean by this? In my two decades as a professional retoucher I've learned lots of things. Things that should always be done and things that should NEVER be done. One of those "never do" things is combining your color moves with your retouching. If I've seen it once I've seen it a thousand times... inexperienced retouchers working on files that have a bevy of layers interconnected with one another. The client doesn't like how things turned out and like Quincey(1970's drama about a forensic pathologist who has to solve crimes using vague clues), I'm called upon to save the day. What I find is often frustrating- layer upon layer of cloning, curves, comping and all sorts of business combined in an obfuscated way so that even the most seasoned retoucher would have problems figuring out what goes where. DO NOT DO THIS!

So, how do we solve this problem? Simple, we learn the proper techniques and develop sound working practices. One of these practices is separating your color moves from your retouching layers. This may seem complicated, but it's really not. After all, Photoshop's power lies in it's layers and groups ability and is what makes Photoshop such a powerful program. To better understand what I'm trying to convey, be sure to check out Art Direction & Revisions as well as Conrad's Photoshop Workspace & Workflow Setup here on the site. In both of these in depth studies I discuss organizing your workflow and keeping things that shouldn't mingle from mingling. Long story short... All your color moves should reside in layers ABOVE your basis retouching and compositing layers. This way you'll be able to make color adjustments without having to redo your retouching. Here's a quick video explaining an example of how and why I use this concept.