The RA Beauty Retouch Panel v3.2 is a popular extension for Adobe Photoshop designed to speed up the workflow of retouchers, particularly for fashion, beauty, and portrait photography. It automates tedious tasks like frequency separation, dodging and burning, and local contrast enhancement.
Here is a comprehensive guide on how to install, set up, and use the panel on macOS.
Let’s walk through a practical session using RA 3.2 on a Mac.
Step 1: RAW Processing (Camera RAW) Do minimal sharpening and noise reduction in Capture One or Adobe Camera RAW. Save as a PSD. RA Beauty Retouch Panel 3.2 for Adobe Photoshop macOS
Step 2: Frequency Separation Open the panel. Click "FS – Fine." Name your groups "Color & Texture." Hide the texture layer temporarily.
Step 3: Skin Smoothing On the Low Frequency layer (blurred), use the Mixer Brush or the panel’s "Heal Brush Helper" to even out large shadows. Do not touch the high layer.
Step 4: Texture Refinement Unhide the High Frequency layer. Use the "Texture Painter" brush (set to 1–2 pixels) to clone out stray hairs and skin pores that are too prominent. The RA Beauty Retouch Panel v3
Step 5: Dodge & Burn Click "D&B Soft." Use a low-flow brush (10% opacity) to paint white on the curve mask to lift cheekbones, black on the shadow mask to slim the nose.
Step 6: Eyes Use the lasso to select the iris. Click "Eye Enhance." The panel creates a folder with a Curves layer (contrast), Saturation layer, and a Sharpening layer. Reduce the folder opacity to 60% for realism.
Step 7: Final Color Click "Color Look – Cinematic." Adjust the LUT opacity to 20%. Then use the "Skin Tone Protector" brush (a unique RA feature) to paint over lips and hair, preventing them from shifting color. A Typical Workflow: From RAW to Cover-Ready Let’s
Step 8: Export Click "Web Sharpening – Full Res." Then "Save for Web." The panel strips metadata and applies sRGB.
This remains the panel's standout feature. It creates a specific layer structure that allows retouchers to paint light and shadow with a neutral gray base. The 3.2 update refines the density curves used in this process, ensuring that the transition of light is smoother than ever. It visualizes the "black" and "white" dodge and burn areas, helping retouchers correct volume and shape without affecting the skin texture underneath.