Retouching Pet Portraits

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Retouching a pet portrait and a human portrait have quite a bit in common, even though the subjects are quite different.

Cleaning Up Imperfections

It’s important to remove distractions from portraits. Acne, blemishes, and stray hairs are removed in human portraits. Eye goop, flyaway fur, and scratches are removed in pet portraits.

In both types of portraits, the background often needs to be cleaned up. It’s also necessary to ensure the colours, contrast, and brightness are accurate and pleasing.

Enhancing Natural Beauty

Both humans and pets should look their best while still looking natural. Human retouching involves smoothing skin, brightening eyes, and evening out skin tones. Pet retouching may require smoothing fur, brightening eyes, and removing dirt or drool.

Facial Features and Expressions

We’re wired to recognize subtle emotions in expressions. Retouching often enhances the eyes and mouth, which are our two most expressive features. Similarly, in a pet portrait, the eyes and smile(?) are also emphasized. Animal expressions also come from the ears and posture but the eyes are the most important in a portrait.

On the other hand, there are definitely some differences when between retouching a pet portrait and a human portrait.

Human Skin vs. Fur

Human skin has a relatively smooth texture. Retouching often involves subtle smoothing, blemish removal, and evening out tones.

Animal fur/hair/feathers is complex. It is directional, layered, and textured. Smoothing is not required but instead it has to be cleaned and enhanced.

Unlike pets, humans can have shiny skin, wrinkles around their eyes and mouth, dark circles under their eyes, and perhaps a double chin. All these may need retouching.

Clothing and Accessories

Pets don’t usually wear clothes but they may need a collar or leash removed from a photo.

Humans often need retouching to fix wrinkled clothing, crooked collars, loose ties, or a missing button. Humans may also need reflections removed from eyeglasses.

Retouching Tolerance

People are very sensitive to over-retouched skin. It is very easy to notice bad retouching.

With pets, there is a bit more creative freedom, as long as you don’t make the animal look too cartoonish.

 

Retouching Headshots

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Retouching a business headshot or other type of portrait is often about enhancing a person’s appearance—making the eyes stand out, brightening the teeth, evening out skin tones, and cleaning up stray hairs.

But in most of my work, I’m fixing the photographer’s mistakes. When a photographer makes an error or omission, it’s usually the customer who pays the price—either by shelling out more money for retouching or settling for a subpar photo of themselves.

Ignoring Small Details

Photographing someone straight on is rarely a good idea. It tends to make the subject look wide and boxy. Retouching can’t fix a poor pose. In the above photo, a simple turn of the body toward the light source would’ve created a more flattering pose. It would also have softened the shadows on the right side of the face and jacket, and brightened both eyes.
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Retouching Eyeglass Reflections

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In most cases, you want to avoid reflections in eyeglasses when taking photos. The only time reflections are acceptable—or even desirable—is when they contribute to the story or mood you’re trying to convey.

However, eyeglass reflections are a distraction in family portraits, business headshots, and wedding photos. Reflections obscure a person’s eyes and hide their emotions and personality. If you can’t clearly see someone’s eyes in a photo, it becomes harder to connect with them. Reflections reduce the emotional impact and make the image feel less engaging.

Whether or not reflections can be removed depends on their severity. If the glare is minimal and the person’s eyes are still partially visible, retouching should be able to reduce or eliminate the reflection. But if the glare completely obscures the eyes, there’s little that retouching can do. You can’t recover details that were never captured by the camera in the first place.

 

Retouching Commercial Photos

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Photo retouching isn’t just for portraits and business headshots. Any photo can benefit from retouching.

Retouching can fix technical flaws in an image. It can also enhance colours, emphasize details, and polish a photo to give it more impact.
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Real Estate Photo Retouching

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Retouching real estate photos plays a crucial role in enhancing the visual appeal and marketability of a space. Photo retouching is both a technical and an artistic process. It can refine an image to highlight the property’s best features and eliminate distractions.
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Retouching Real Estate Photos

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Retouching can often turn an amateur photo into a polished professional image.

When selling a property, it’s more appealing to show furnished rooms rather than empty ones. Virtual staging services can transform empty spaces into decorated, furnished rooms. Virtual staging can even replace existing decor with something better.

But if you need to showcase the existing decor, virtual staging won’t work, and photo retouching becomes essential.
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