Retouch Every Face in Your Gallery: A Guide to Imagen's AI Retouch Suite

Imagen · Retouch Suite

The color is done. The culling is done. The gallery looks like yours. Then you zoom in on the bride’s face and remember the breakout she was worried about all morning. And the flyaway across the groom’s mom’s cheek. And the 300 other faces that need the same care.

For most photographers, retouching is the last manual step before delivery, and the one that never scales. In our own research with photographers, 96% said they retouch at least sometimes, and 60% retouch every image they deliver.

So retouching usually gets outsourced (expensive), skipped (and clients notice) or rushed (and consistency slips). The Retouch Suite is built to take that step off your plate without taking the polish out of your hands.

What is the Retouch Suite?

The Retouch Suite is 3 AI tools that finish the faces in your gallery:

• Face Retouch gives every face a natural, professional polish in 1 of 3 retouching styles.
• Whiten Teeth detects and brightens teeth in every photo.
• Stray Hair removes loose strands that fall across the face in portraits.

You can use 1 tool, 2 or all 3 on the same project. They run in the same pass as your Imagen edit, so your gallery comes back edited in your style with the faces already finished. Edited photos arrive in batches as they process, so you can start reviewing early frames while the rest finish, then send the results to Lightroom Classic or export finished files from Imagen.

All 3 tools are free for every Imagen user, on every plan.

Face Retouch: 3 styles, adapted to every face

Face Retouch on a portrait, before and after

Most retouching tools hand you a wall of sliders: smoothing, blemishes, wrinkles, eyes, shine. Then they leave you to dial them in and keep them consistent across hundreds of images.

Face Retouch works differently. You choose 1 retouching style, and Imagen applies it to every face it detects in the gallery. No masks. No sliders.

Style	What it does	What it keeps
Clean	Removes temporary blemishes like acne, with a very light reduction of dark circles and shine. Think of it as the person on a good day.	No skin smoothing. Wrinkles, freckles, moles, scars and skin texture all stay.
Polished (recommended)	Gently softens fine wrinkles, evens out skin tone with mild smoothing and may brighten eyes slightly. Ideal for portraits and weddings.	Pores and skin texture stay visible.
Refined	Removes acne and noticeable imperfections, softens wrinkles without erasing them and visibly evens out skin tone. A flattering, editorial finish.	Texture is preserved, with controlled smoothing.

The 3 Face Retouch styles

It reads every face on its own

A style isn’t applied the same way to everyone. Face Retouch reads each face individually and adapts to cues like age and gender. The grandmother, the groom and the teenage cousin each get the treatment that suits their face.

Babies and children are always protected. In every style, Imagen only removes temporary marks, like a scratch or a rash that will fade on its own. Freckles, birthmarks and other permanent features always stay. This is built into the tool, so you never have to remember to exclude the flower girl.

Small or blurry faces are skipped. If a face is too small in the frame or too soft to retouch well, Imagen leaves it untouched instead of guessing.

Why it doesn’t look smoothed over

Face Retouch uses pixel-level correction: it fixes the blemish itself instead of blurring a mask over it. Even Polished and Refined keep smoothing controlled, so pores and freckles stay visible at 200%.

Whiten Teeth: brighter smiles, every photo

Whiten Teeth, before and after

Whiten Teeth detects the teeth in each photo, masks them precisely and brightens them. Nothing else in the frame changes.

Unlike Face Retouch, Whiten Teeth has adjustable settings. If you want the result brighter or subtler, click Adjust in project setup and save your changes. Those settings carry over to your future projects, so every gallery gets the same smile standard.

Stray Hair: flyaways, without the brushwork

Stray Hair on a portrait, before and after

Stray Hair removes loose strands that cross the face: hair over an eye, across the nose, on the lips or stuck to a cheek. These are the strands that pull attention away from the expression, and they take ages to clean up by hand.

It’s built for portraits, so it’s available when your project’s photography type is set to Portraits.

How to set up the Retouch Suite

1. Create a new project

Select the photos you want to edit and choose your AI Profile as usual.

2. Choose your Retouch tools

When you choose AI tools for the project, select Face Retouch, Whiten Teeth, Stray Hair or any combination.

3. Pick your Face Retouch style

Click Compare styles, then select a face from the portrait strip at the top of the screen. Expand the preview and use the style switcher to flip between None, Clean, Polished and Refined. Choose your style and click Save. Imagen remembers it for your future projects, and you can change it any time.

4. Let Imagen edit the gallery

Your edit and your retouching are applied together. You’ll get an email and an in-app notification when your edits are ready.

Reviewing your retouching in Lightroom

Everything Imagen does is non-destructive, so you can review every photo before it goes to the client.

Face Retouch is applied in the Denoise area of the Detail panel. You’ll find it in Lightroom Classic (Develop module), Lightroom (Edit panel), and Photoshop and Bridge (through Adobe Camera Raw). To compare before and after, move the Denoise slider down to 0 and back up to 100.

Want to change something? You have 3 options:

• Remove it from 1 photo: Clear the Denoise check mark on that photo.
• Try a different style: Edit your project again in Imagen and choose a new style.
• Remove it from the whole gallery: Edit your project again and clear Face Retouch when choosing your AI tools.

You can’t fine-tune Face Retouch inside Adobe apps. If a style feels too strong, the fix is a lighter style. Clean is the most minimal.

Good to know before your first gallery

Face Retouch and Stray Hair can’t share a photo with Adobe Denoise. They’re applied in the same layer as Denoise, which keeps your retouching stable when Adobe updates its AI models. On any photo, choose one or the other.

Face Retouch works on up to 500 photos per project. For bigger galleries, split them into more than one project.

Retouch runs with Imagen’s editing. It’s applied as part of your Imagen edit, not as a standalone step.

Retouching applies to every qualifying face. You can’t target specific people, like only the couple. Every face that’s large and clear enough gets the same style.

Face Retouch covers most photography types: weddings, events, sports, portraits, family and newborn, and school.

Using DNG files? Upload them from your Lightroom catalog, not from a folder.

Tips for getting the most out of it

Start with Polished. It’s the recommended style for portraits and weddings. Try Clean if your look is documentary, or Refined for editorial work.

Match the style to the job, not the person. Face Retouch already adapts to each face, so you don’t need a different style for kids or older guests.

Keep faces clear and well-lit. Faces that are tiny in the frame or out of focus are skipped on purpose.

Pair Stray Hair with Face Retouch on portrait sessions. Flyaways and skin get finished in the same pass.

Check a few hero shots at 100%. Use the Denoise slider to compare before and after on your favorites, and you’ll know within minutes whether your style is right.

What’s new in Imagen: Imagen is now an intelligent, agentic Studio for professional photographers, where you cull, edit, review and export a gallery in one project and in any order. For portrait work, edited photos arrive in batches as they process, so you can start checking early frames while the rest finish, and you can export finished files straight from Imagen or send AI edits back to Lightroom Classic. The Studio is rolling out gradually as a beta.

FAQ

What’s included in Imagen’s Retouch Suite?

3 AI tools: Face Retouch, Whiten Teeth and Stray Hair. You can use one, 2 or all 3 on the same project.

How much does the Retouch Suite cost?

It’s free. Face Retouch, Whiten Teeth and Stray Hair are available to every Imagen user, on every plan, at no extra cost.

Does Lightroom have AI skin retouching?

Lightroom has manual tools for skin, like masks and healing. With Imagen, Face Retouch is applied to every face in your gallery during your edit, and you can review the results in Imagen as batches of edited photos arrive, or inside Lightroom Classic.

Can I retouch a whole wedding gallery at once?

Yes, for galleries up to 500 photos. For larger weddings, split the gallery into 2 projects.

Does Face Retouch treat every face the same?

No. It reads each face individually and adapts to cues like age and gender. Babies and young children always get minimal retouching, whatever style you choose.

Can I preview the styles first?

Yes. Click Compare styles in project setup to see None, Clean, Polished and Refined side by side on sample faces.

Can I adjust the intensity of Face Retouch?

Not with sliders. The 3 styles are your levels of polish. If a result feels too strong, choose a lighter style.

Can I remove the retouching after it’s applied?

Yes. Clear the Denoise check mark to remove Face Retouch from a single photo, or edit your project again to change the style or turn it off.

Can I use Face Retouch with Adobe Denoise?

Not on the same photo. Face Retouch and Stray Hair are applied in the Denoise layer, so you choose one or the other.

Does Stray Hair work on all photos?

Stray Hair is available for projects with the Portraits photography type.

Can I adjust Whiten Teeth?

Yes. Click Adjust in project setup to change the settings. Your changes are saved for future projects.

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Gallery-scale retouch. Personal to every face. See the Retouch Suite on your next gallery, free.