Cropping in tighter is something that you'll see portrait photographers do time and time again, and a slight tilt to the frame when cropping will often result in a more pleasing angle. Tilting the head backwards towards their higher shoulder, like in this image, is seen as a more feminine angle, while a tilt forwards is more masculine. The Crop tool also offers a'rule of thirds' guide - CS6 users can access further compositional guides via the View drop-down such as the Golden Ratio. For a classic composition, loosely position the eyes or face along one of the thirds.

9. Tone down eye bags

Day-to-day life takes its toll on your eyes. Unless you've spent the past month being pampered in a luxury spa with 10 hours of sleep a night, it's likely that you'll have dark circles under them.

As with most retouching techniques, we don't want to remove eye bags completely, as this will look fake. We just want to tone them down.

Zoom in close to the eyes then click the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Grab the Clone tool from the Tools Panel then go to the Options bar at the top of the screen. Choose Mode: Lighten (this means you'll only replace areas that are darker than your clone source), set the Opacity to 20%, and set Sample: All Layers.

Hold down Alt and sample a clone source on the cheek directly below the dark area, then make a couple of swipes with the Clone tool to tone down the bag.

10. Skin smoothing using High Pass filter

Pro retouchers will often spend a few hours working just on a model's skin, painstakingly removing every imperfection with the Clone and Healing tools.

Of course, most of us don't have the time or patience for such work, but luckily there are things we can do to cut corners. One of the best loved - not to mention fastest - skin smoothing techniques is the High Pass method. It gives your subject silky-smooth skin while still retaining some of the detail and texture. Therefore you don't end up with the dreaded plastic look' some methods can give. Instead, you get beautifully realistic smoothness.