Even though the newest AI tools allow retouchers to enhance photos in seconds, it would be a mistake to think that human-touched photo editing is no longer relevant.
According to a report by WiFiTalents released in June 2025, 65% of professional photographers already use AI when working on their projects, while 60% of pro retouchers rely on AI when retouching their photos, especially using object removal and background manipulations. These numbers show that one should learn how to benefit from the power of automation to get an edge.
AI can significantly streamline the retouching process, but human editing is still impossible to replace.
AI tools do not understand emotions and may fail to grasp an artistic vision in the right context. They also deliver low-quality performance when used to enhance body shapes or facial expressions. The usage of AI may result in misaligned eyes, extra fingers, and a plastic skin effect. While AI tools can help professionals expedite their workflows, you should also tweak the generated outputs manually to achieve impressive results.
Common Problems of Relying on AI
Even though AI-driven tools can streamline photo editing, as they allow companies to edit images more quickly, they might affect the overall quality of a photo and even change its meaning and emotional impact.
Overprocessed or “plastic” results. AI tools often produce excessive results, especially when it comes to skin retouching. As a result, images have a flat and unnatural look, as their texture looks fake. Natural human touched photo editing allows professionals to avoid this.
Basic anatomy issues. AI tools often distort human bodies and faces, making them hardly suitable for complex retouching and body corrections. As a result, edits may look unrealistic.
Inconsistent color grading. Automated tools often fail to perform advanced color correction, fix complex lighting issues, or tweak skin tones. They might make colors look unnatural, worsen white balance, and produce images that look poorly edited.
Limited contextual understanding. AI may fail to provide an accurate interpretation of the emotions behind a photo. They do not understand why a photographer used a specific lens, lighting setup, or angle. This failure to recognize the original intent may lead to distorted artistic vision and making all images look the same.
AI tools may remove intentional imperfections or other important elements. Without manual editing, AI edits will look too generic.
You stop being creative. Those who rely on automated tools too much may fail to achieve creative results. The more professionals outsource tasks to AI, the fewer opportunities they have to improve their skills.
High-quality photography only. Auto photo enhancers might be suitable for editing high-resolution images taken in good lighting conditions. However, such tools fare worse when they are used to edit low-light, noisy, or stylized photos.
Manual work is still needed. The outputs produced by AI tools still require fixes. You may need to correct issues caused by inaccurate object removal, retouch difficult areas, and add a professional touch to your image.
Where Human Eyes and Hands Still Lead
As the top companies from the industry strive to implement automation solutions, they discover the importance of human-touched editing for photo work. Even though AI photo editors can be trained to recreate specific patterns, only human retouchers can accurately interpret emotions, make adjustments in real time, and improve photos to give them a creative feel.
Emotional interpretation. Retouchers understand what feeling a photographer was trying to convey and edit photos using this knowledge. It allows them to produce outputs that evoke the same feelings as the source image. Human editors can highlight a specific emotion by tweaking lighting, hues, and details without making a photo look overly edited.
Creative vision and personal style. AI relies on presets, making it impossible for such tools to enhance photos in a unique style. Human retouchers can add a creative touch to each image while retaining the original intent and realising crazy photo editing ideas. It allows them to preserve the photographer’s voice or the brand’s identity.
Real-time adaptation. Photographers can change their approach in the middle of a photoshoot when lighting changes or they receive client feedback. Only human retouchers can adjust their retouching approach depending on the situation and choose the right techniques.
Nuanced retouching. Manual retouchers can preserve natural skin texture, adjust lighting in a realistic way, and fix focus issues. It’s impossible to achieve the same effect using only AI tools.
Trust & ethical boundaries. AI tools do not often recognize when to avoid sensitive topics. Human photo editors are more skillful at altering body shapes and removing unwanted elements without breaking any ethical rules.
Complex manipulation. Unlike algorithms, experienced retouchers know how to replace the sky in a realistic way, add reflections, and create well-balanced compositions with realistic shadows.
High-resolution output, without limitations. AI tools often worsen the quality of input files or fail to process images of larger sizes. Professional human touched photo editing techniques make it possible to enhance high-resolution, uncompressed files while preserving their original quality. It makes such output files suitable for printing in large-scale formats.
Top Human-Touched Photo Editing Services
Even though many platforms have fully embraced the power of automation, the best services combine AI and manual editing, which allows them to give photos a professional look. These companies achieve the right balance between fast turnaround and creative outputs.
1. FixThePhoto
FixThePhoto has been providing its services for 17+ years. This reputable photo editing service caters to the needs of photographers working in different genres, including wedding, portrait, landscape, fashion, and product photography. The team uses AI tools for basic, repetitive tasks like background enhancement or exposure adjustment. The retouchers also enhance photos manually when working on creative tasks or projects that require extra attention to detail.
This approach allows the company to reduce the turnaround time to 24-48 hours and provide custom photo editing services. The team specializes in human-touched photo editing and can complete tasks within tight deadlines.
Clients can order skin retouching, background enhancement, item removal, color grading, tonal balance adjustment, virtual staging, and real estate photo editing services. Besides, the FixThePhoto professionals can perform creative manipulations and old damaged photo restoration.
You can place your first order for free. Basic tasks cost from $0.25 per photo. Users can get a 30% discount for placing bulk orders with a total value of $2,000+ within six months.
2. WeEditPhotos
WeEditPhotos has been offering professional, manual photo editing services since 2003. It has a team of experienced retouchers and photo manipulation artists who specialize in different genres. Clients can order portrait, wedding, fashion, landscape, and e-commerce photo editing services.
The team can cope with any task, from simple color correction and skin retouching to more advanced manipulations. Clients can ask the professionals to remove the background and replace it with another one or perform glamour editing. The turnaround time is about 24 to 48 hours.
WeEditPhotos has a transparent pricing system. Its customer support team is available 24/7. Clients can order basic photo retouching services for $2.50 per photo. WeEditPhotos has an official blog with handy photography tools and many creative ideas for inspiration, including wedding picture ideas.
3. Pixelz
The company provides a set of basic retouching services, making it an excellent choice for e-commerce and product photographers. It can create clipping paths, crop and align images, as well as perform other tasks. The only shortcoming is that the turnaround time is around 48 hours.
Pixelz has several affordable plans for clients with different needs. Basic edits cost from $1.45 per image.
4. Retouchup
If you want to order advanced retouching services, be ready to pay at least $10 per image for the services provided by Retouchup. The company has a flexible pricing policy. The price depends on the complexity of a task.
Basic retouching services cost from $2.50 per photo. Clients can ask the retouchers to make the skin smoother, remove blemishes, and make more detailed edits. The team can remove distracting elements from the background, perform color correction, and do beauty retouching.
5. Photza
Photza offers photo retouching services online. The prices for basic retouching start at $3 per photo. Advanced services cost from $15 per photo.
Among the company’s clients, there are photographers who specialize in portrait, wedding, fashion, and commercial. Photza’s team performs skin retouching, color correction, background removal, and beauty edits. Even though the editing quality is quite consistent, the customer support may take its time to respond during peak times.
The Bottom Line
AI photo editing makes sense for solving basic, routine tasks faster. This method helps photo editors optimize their workflow. However, manual editing still remains important, as experienced editors use a more nuanced approach to produce unique outputs with a distinct creative feel.
The most efficient strategy involves combining AI-driven tools and using professional human touched photo editing techniques. Professionals use AI features available in Photoshop and rely on and Skylum’s AI features, and then tweak photos manually. This approach allows professionals to produce polished images with an artistic touch.
