The best photo retouching plugins allow you to work better in Photoshop with minimum effort, as you receive additional functions and can automate multiple time-consuming processes. Rather than wasting hours editing an image by hand, you can simply apply an appropriate plugin.
In just a couple of clicks, you can delete all blemishes while making the skin smoother and more appealing. That said, finding the most fitting plugin for a photo is no easy task. Thankfully, you can rely on the following Photoshop extensions that should be in the toolset of any professional photographer.
Top 20 Bundles of Photo Retouching Plugins
The rundown below goes over Photoshop plugins dedicated to all aspects of image retouching. This post offers both paid and free Photoshop plugins. However, even with premium plugins, I’ve only chosen those that are truly worth their money.
1. Free Portraiture Retouching Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Ensure you always satisfy your clients with perfect portraits with minimum invested time by downloading this Photoshop skin plugin bundle of actions. It includes thirty effects that are compatible with Photoshop and can be used for deleting freckles and blemishes, smoothening the skin, adding a bit of glow, making the eyes or lips more pronounced, and much more while not losing any details.
2. Free Smooth Skin Retouching Plugins Bundle: Actions
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If you want to receive smooth skin without any pores while also preserving all the details, you can either spend hours learning how to smooth skin in Photoshop or simply get this action package.
All included tools let you create the perfect skin texture for fashion portraits, dealing with all flaws while maintaining a natural look, which is nearly impossible to do for a beginning retoucher without having the best photo retouching plugins at their disposal.
3. Free Frequency Separation Retouching Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Frequency separation is among the most effective and time-demanding aspects of high-end retouching. This process relies on dividing the skin hues from its texture, which is the optimal way to achieve the ideal skin tone consistently.
This bundle of three actions can make this process a lot easier by automating it, while also being functional enough for tasks like tidying up the background.
4. Free Teeth Whitening Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Are you interested in the best photo retouching plugins meant to give the model a smile of a Hollywood star? These 6 tools can deal with both the subtle yellow tint added to the teeth and more complex situations that require in-depth whitening while still having the teeth look natural.
5. Free Eyes Retouching Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Since eyes are the central attraction of most portraits, this bundle is a must-have for your toolset. By applying one of the included actions, you’ll improve the color, highlight the details, and increase the sharpness, achieving the perfect results regardless of what is the model’s eye color.
6. Camera RAW Retouching Plugins
Camera RAW is one of the best photo retouching plugins for RAW, TIFF, and JPG images, especially if you don’t want to constantly flip between Lightroom and Photoshop. Camera RAW is meant to let you change the settings that you usually tackle in Lightroom (white balance, saturation, contrast, etc.).
This tool relies on non-destructive editing, ensuring the original photo remains intact and allowing you to revert all changes if you’re unhappy with the result.
7. Layrs Control 2
Layrs Control 2 is among the most useful photo editing plugins designed for layer organization. Rather than merging layers in Photoshop manually, you can simply automate this procedure.
This plugin provides seven tools used for renaming layers, deleting unused layers, flattening effect layers, rasterizing smart objects, converting layers into smart objects, etc. Learning how to use all of these features properly can save you hours of your time in the long run.
8. Skin Beauty Retouch Photo Retouching Plugin
This might be the best retouching plugin for skin retouching, as it can enhance a portrait in a blink of an eye or be used to add a decorative layer. That said, this tool is rather disappointing when it comes to big photos and customization.
It’s recommended to get the pro version if you prefer to fine-tune your images rather than relying on a plugin to do everything for you.
9. Highpass Sharpen Photo Retouching Plugin
This plugin allows you to sharpen an image by relying on high-pass frequencies, which give you better control over the procedure. This technique is particularly handy for photographers, which is why you can find this tool in the arsenal of most professional retouchers.
The filter comes with a radius slider that lets you determine the frequency size while the intensity setting allows you to choose how impactful the effect will be. You can also pick between looking at the working composite or the high-pass layer to fine-tune the result.
10. Retouch Panel Photo Retouching Plugin
This might be the best retouch panel for Photoshop if you want to work on a portrait photo. The expanded UI makes using this plugin and adjusting the result a breeze.
The panel comes with a plethora of settings and options designed for portraiture, and you can make use of the provided video guide to learn how to use this plugin with maximum efficiency while enjoying multi-language support.
11. High End Retouching Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Price: $99
This expansive bundle for professional retouchers includes all the tools necessary for handling all aspects related to image editing – from fast, basic skin smoothening, to complex, highend retouching.
If your goal is to create photos that look like they belong in a high-fashion magazine, then this collection of 90 actions needs to be in your toolset.
12. Frequency Separation Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Price: $25
Frequency Separation is an advanced method employed for adding softness to the model’s skin without affecting its texture. This way, you get to maintain a natural texture while significantly improving the look of the subject.
This retouching toolkit includes six actions for deleting freckles, wrinkles, and stray hairs in just a couple of clicks. Moreover, you’ll be able to rid the skin of all blemishes without affecting the natural skin color.
13. Smooth Skin Retouching Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Price: $20
This collection of the best photo retouching plugins contains actions that are used for automating the commonly performed retouching tasks while ensuring the final photo looks natural. If you need a cost-efficient solution to deal with poor skin, this is the bundle for you.
Use these actions to tidy up and soften the skin while keeping it highly detailed. They’re beginner-friendly and don't demand perfect precision when being applied. Additionally, you can customize each action to achieve the exact effect you imagined.
14. Portraiture Retouching Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Price: $42
This collection was designed by experienced professionals that are credited for some of Photoshop best plugins. It contains tools that should be at the disposal of any up-and-coming portrait retoucher who wants to boost their productivity. With over 30 actions included, you can create the exact look you’re going for in record time.
15. Pro Skin Retouch Plugins Bundle: Actions
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Price: $33
If you’re interested in the best photo retouching plugins, these actions should be of interest to you. They’re designed for making the skin of your subjects cleaner and softer while preserving their natural beauty.
The provided actions are also used for smoothening and rejuvenating the skin without affecting its texture or the model’s eyes, lips, and so on. If the model’s face has any spots or wrinkles, these tools will help deal with them as well.
16. ON1 Portrait AI 2022
Price: $69.99
ON1 is among the best photo retouching plugins when it comes to face detection and automatic image enhancement according to the user’s preferences. The tools included in this plugin allow you to smoothen the skin, minimize shine, delete blemishes, adjust the facial shape, whiten the teeth, and so on.
All retouching tasks are completed automatically, but more experienced retouchers have the freedom to perform manual manipulations such as mouth- and eye-morphing, hand-drawn mask borders, blemish deletion, and so on.
17. Ultimate Retouch Panel Photo Retouching Plugin
Price: $29
This is one of the best photo retouching plugins for portraiture photographers. It received plenty of updates over the years, and now offers a friendly UI with plenty of features, including 4 quick retouching functions, 4 frequency separation tools, and 15 local editing functions
18. Beauty Box Photo Retouching Plugin
Price: $99
Beauty Box Photo is among the best photo retouching plugins for anyone who needs to remove blemishes, correct the skin tone, and eliminate shine with minimum time and effort. The plugin employs a complex smoothening algorithm that will make your retouching work a lot simpler.
Even if you don’t adjust any parameters, the results you receive will already look fantastic, and you can improve them even more by tweaking some of the settings. Besides, you can use one of the 30 included presets to enhance the colors and contrast of your photographs.
19. Portraiture 3 Photo Retouching Plugin
Price: $199.95
Portraiture exists to minimize the time you spend editing your portrait images. It’s particularly useful for wedding, fashion, and portrait photographers that need the best photo retouching plugins available to ensure their models look perfect. Portraiture relies on automatic high-precision masks and quality presets.
You can use the plugin to eliminate all flaws from the model’s face by only affecting the areas that don’t match the primary skin tone so that the texture doesn’t get damaged.
20. Magic Retouch Pro Photo Retouching Plugin
Price: $18
Magic Retouch Pro is one of the most multifunctional Photoshop color plugins that are suitable for all sorts of purposes. It can be used by both experienced retouchers who want to boost their productivity and beginners that need professional tools to enhance the look of their images.
The plugin has a large toolset that includes skin retouching, teeth whitening, eye and lip enhancement, and digital makeup features, as well as the ability to change the skin’s appearance, and much more. Magic Retouch Pro is very simple to use and you can find all the relevant documentation and useful video lessons on the developer’s official website.
