retouch

UK/ɹɪˈtʌtʃ/US/ɹɪˈtʌtʃ/

verbC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Other forms: retouched, retouching, retouches

To retouch is to correct small faults in a photograph. Retouch the portrait, lightly retouched, retouch the print.

It was done with a brush on the negative long before software existed, and the line between retouching and altering a picture is where every argument about photographic honesty sits. News organisations forbid anything beyond basic adjustment.

Definitions of retouch

1verbretouchTo correct small faults in a photograph.C1
“The photographer retouched the wedding photos to remove a spot from the bride's chin.”

retouch is a correcting.

Where it comes from

French retoucher is re-, again, plus toucher, to touch.

French
retoucher
English, today
retouch

From French retoucher.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Photography & Film

Practise this word

retouch in the wild

Other techniques include retouching using ink or paint, airbrushing, double exposure, piecing photos or negatives together in the darkroom, and scratching instant films.
Photograph manipulation
Melentiev in the 1970s and is characterised by geometric microliths with Helwan retouch.
Seroglazovka culture
Other forms of retouch may include burination, which is retouch that is conducted in a parallel orientation to the flake margin.
Retouch (lithics)
The extent of reduction, also known as the retouch intensity, is denoted by a measure of the reduction index.
Retouch (lithics)
Flake tools could be sharpened by retouch to create scrapers or burins.
Flake tool

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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