The reason non-destructive editing is essential in a retouching workflow is that it enables you to retain all the information for every step that you performed while editing, and it also means that you can revisit and/or edit, or completely undo your adjustments whenever you want. Non-destructive editing means that your corrections and modifications are never applied directly on the raw file, but are performed on a separate layer, mask, adjustment layer, or smart object. This means that the original file remains unchanged, and you always have access to it. The feeling that you have of security that this provides is hard to describe, but it feels like you can be more aggressive and try different things, because you know that there is no such thing as permanent editing.
The key to any non-destructive workflow is smart objects. When you convert a layer to a smart object, it contains the original data, meaning any filter, transformation, or adjustment applied to the smart object can be edited forever. This is particularly important when you need to perform multi-step retouching, such as frequency separation, dodge and burn, or liquify. A typical starting point is to duplicate the background layer, convert it to a smart object, then start stacking adjustment layers on top of it. Then, each step of retouching — whether it’s healing brush on a blank layer, curves to add contrast, or color balance to enhance skin tones — can be a separate layer, so you can turn them on and off, reorder them, or adjust their opacities, all without permanently altering the original image.
As a project becomes more involved, good layer management will save your sanity. This goes without saying: If you have a set of adjustments to do to the base skin, it should be in a folder named “Base Skin” — whether it’s done now or if you need to do a quick reference 6 months from now. The same with “Dodge & Burn,” “Color Grading,” “Final Touchups,” etc. If your folders have color, it’s also important to have a convention to come back to when it comes to naming. In my case, all of my adjustment layers are named with a number to indicate the order in which they should be stacked. When a client asks you to change the skin tone to be a little warmer, or your shadows a little deeper, you can open up the adjustment layer or mask, and hit “edit,” instead of trying to recall what you did the first time or having to do everything from scratch. All of this enables you to work more quickly and deliver more quality work.
One of the true power tools of non-destructive editing reveals itself in the final tweaking stages. Often, as retouchers, we work on an image and come back to it later, spotting a slight deviation from our intended path that requires correction. Since non-destructive editing allows us to do so, we can easily drop in a high-pass sharpening layer later and change the blend mode from ‘overlay’ to ‘soft light’ or simply duplicate a curve and change the mask so that it effects the different parts of the face. This, coupled with the capability to work with different versions in-view — by way of layer comps or the ‘snapshot’ tool — ensures that we are making the right choices for the image’s message, without compromising any of the steps taken before.
The third reason why working non-destructively is important is one of the reasons why you see differences between amateur and professional edits. It shows the editor is thinking ahead. This shows in how they decide the way they approach their edit, knowing it will affect the outcome and ease of later steps, or how they might need to edit it to look its best for different applications, be it a web edit, print, or even just different crop dimensions for social media. This is one of those techniques that after you’ve been working with it for a while it becomes standard practice, and when you’re not having to spend time cleaning up past mistakes, you have a lot more time to consider how you want your final edit to look. Non-destructive editing is more than just a way of working — it’s a mindset of preservation. It’s about preserving the original image, the truth of the subject, and yourself as a retoucher, because once an edit is done, it’s not the end — you should always feel like you can go back and edit it some more.