This program is great for both experienced photographers and people just starting.

I’ve been a photographer for 35 years—maybe more—and in all that time, I’ve rarely done my own retouching. I’ll sometimes work in Lightroom or Photoshop for my travel images or exhibition prints, but when it comes to client portraits, I’ve always relied on a professional retoucher to bring my vision to life. Frankly, I’ve never had the patience to sit for hours doing skin touch-ups or cleaning backgrounds. I’d rather spend that time playing with lighting and connecting with my clients to get the best energy in a portrait. It also gives me more time to talk to potential clients and field phone calls. It is amazing how the industry has changed since I started. We used to shoot black and white film for actors' headshots, which was one of my specialties, and print the photo. I would send it to my retoucher, and with a small exacto knife, he would etch the photos. The print would look like there were cuts in it. Then the photolab would convert it and make multiple images.

I photograph celebrities, aspiring actors and have done some advertising work over the years. My clients expect a very high standard, and that’s always made me hesitant to try automated editing tools, especially AI. I just didn’t think anything out there would give me results that were subtle, natural, and professional enough.

A few months ago, someone recommended Evoto AI. I downloaded it but didn’t open it—I assumed it was just another AI gimmick that would make everyone look fake. It has been sitting on my computer for 6 months.

Then one day, while testing lighting with my assistant (no makeup and hair, just casual), we had a few extra minutes and decided to upload the image into Evoto. The photo wasn’t great—flat lighting, nothing fancy—but we figured, why not? We clicked a few options… and were amazed. Over and over again, we kept comparing the before and after. The changes were subtle but transformative. We even discovered that Evoto does makeup, and I was able to dodge and burn to give it some depth. My assistant looked amazing. Then we tried the “smile/teeth” button just for fun—again, totally surprised by how natural it looked. I am not sure if it will always look that good on everyone, but for my assistant, she had her mouth closed, and it gave her a beautiful smile.

I tested Evoto on a client image next. I thought I’d have to send it to the retoucher, but I ended up doing almost everything inside Evoto. I was happy and sold it to the client. It took me a little longer than 10 minutes, but that is because I just started working and did not see all the things it does.

I am still insecure that my work would not be up to par, so I sent some photos to my retoucher that I have been working with for years, and I am going to try to do the same images in Evoto. I started one and it is looking amazing.

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Features That Impressed Me

Skin Retouching

• Blemish Removal: Quickly cleaned up acne, spots, and under-eye circles.

• Skin Smoothing: Maintained natural skin texture—no plastic look.

• Complexion Correction: Balanced uneven tones caused by lighting or makeup.

• Wrinkle Reduction: Worked on facial wrinkles and even clothing wrinkles in one click.

Hair & Face Enhancements

• Flyaway Hair Removal: Cleaned up messy hair while keeping a natural look.

• Hair Volume Control: Gave subtle lift and improved hair shape.

• Eyes & Teeth Tools: Brightened eyes and cleaned up teeth with natural results.

• Glasses Glare Removal: Another helpful and often overlooked feature.

Background Tools

• AI Background Removal: Let me swap in my backgrounds or use built-in ones.

• Distraction Removal: I removed light stands and gear from the background easily.

Why I’ll Keep Using Evoto

1. Speed – It’s fast enough for me to retouch a portrait in just a few minutes.

2. Quality – I finally get results that meet my professional standards.

3. Ease of Use – Tabs for everything, helpful hover tips, intuitive layout. I simply followed the order of the tool tab from color adjustments to portrait retouching to the background tab, clothing tab, and crop tool. It was easy.

4. Control – I can dial back the effects to get just the right look.

5. Affordability – It’s incredibly reasonable for what it delivers. I was amazed.

6. Creative Ideas – It even gave me inspiration for new edits I hadn’t considered. I am not used to retouching, but the drop-downs were helpful.

7. Slimming & Face Adjustments – I was still able to keep it looking real and slightly thinned my clients like my professional retoucher did.

8. Clothing Cleanup – One-click wrinkle removal blew me away.

I honestly never thought I’d say this, but Evoto has changed the way I think about editing. It’s made me want to do more of my clients' retouching—for the first time. If you’re like me and you love the creative part of photography but dread the retouching, this tool is worth trying. You might be surprised, too. Please don't tell my retoucher what I am considering after I practice a little more with Evoto.

I recommend this to beginners because I know it will be a ton of fun. Pros will love it and make them more money, and have more time to grow their business. I did the retouching on these images before I watched the videos they have posted. It was so intuitive, and now I am going to pick up some tips from other pros on the Evoto website.

— Alan Weissman