Smoothing Out The Wrinkles

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Customers sometimes request that all facial wrinkles and lines be removed from their portraits. I smile when I get these retouching requests because I know the outcome: when the customer sees the retouched image, they’ll say it appears unnatural, with their face looking like plastic.

Wrinkles and lines are a natural part of aging. Everyone has lines on their face, except young children and magazine cover models. When a person’s face is completely wrinkle-free, it looks unrealistic. A smooth, line-free face appears artificial because it doesn’t reflect the beauty of aging.

For better or worse, our appearance continually changes throughout our life. Photo retouching isn’t about erasing all signs of aging, but rather it’s enhancing the image while preserving authentic features. Instead of removing lines entirely, the goal is to subtly lighten them while keeping the character and texture of the face, allowing the person to look their best.

Similarly I also get requests to eliminate every grey hair from a person’s head. But just like with wrinkles, the result will end up looking fake. Once you’re past your late forties, grey hairs are completely natural and expected.

When retouching hair, the focus should be on enhancing it, not transforming it. This could include removing flyaway hairs or tucking in loose strands. Adding a few highlights or shadows can also provide depth and dimension. Subtly boosting the colour is fine, but going beyond that, such as eliminating all grey or making the hair appear unnaturally uniform, will always look unnatural.

Portrait retouching is about balancing enhancement with authenticity. It’s about showcasing the true beauty of the person, wrinkles and grey hairs included, rather than trying to make them look like someone they’re not. The best retouching is unnoticeable.

 

Without Sunglasses, Please

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If a man takes off his sunglasses, I can hear him better.

– Hugh Prather, US writer

Two customers recently asked me to retouch some of their vacation photos. The pictures included a mix of cell-phone selfies and professional shots. (When travelling to a popular holiday destination, tourists can often hire a local photographer to capture their holiday memories.)

In the selfies, everyone was wearing sunglasses and the lenses were filled with distracting reflections. Most importantly, no eyes were visible.

One customer had some family photos taken by a local photographer and everyone in these images was wearing sunglasses. No eyes were visible. Despite the people’s smiles, the absence of visible eyes reduced the emotional impact of the photos.

Both of these customers asked if I could make the hidden eyes more visible. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible.

Eyes are the primary way we express emotions and connect with others. Our eyes communicate our feelings, intentions, and personality, and they help establish a connection with others. When sunglasses cover your eyes, you lose that emotional impact, making the photo feel less personal and less engaging.

The next time you take a selfie or pose for a photo, whether on vacation or at home, remove your sunglasses. Unless you’re specifically photographing the sunglasses themselves, it’s best to take them off. Visible eyes make a significant difference in the emotional impact of a photo.

 

Retouching Isn’t Just For Photos

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A customer had commissioned a small caricature of themselves and they wanted to print and frame it. But the caricature was drawn on an iPad and was relatively low resolution. The drawing looked great when viewed on a small computer screen but the low resolution only allowed it to print at the size of a playing card. The customer wanted a 12″x16″ print.

Simply enlarging the image made it look worse because it was a bitmap, not a vector image. Enlarging a bitmap image causes it to appear out of focus, with jagged edges.

So, I “retouched” the caricature by enlarging it 1,000% and then redrawing all the edges to smooth out the jaggedness. I corrected the blacks and whites to ensure they would print true to colour. Finally, I sharpened the image so the lines would print crisply.

Retouching a digital drawing without altering the original look can be tricky. It’s necessary to match the digital brush strokes, texture, colours and shading. The success of retouching depends on the drawing’s complexity.

My background is in photography not illustration. Retouching a photo is about pixels; retouching a drawing is about lines. Photo retouching should preserve the realism of the image. Retouching a drawing should preserve the artist’s style and expression.

 

Narrowing The Field

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You don’t have to be a great photographer, although that would be nice. Instead, you have to be consistently better than average. Over time, you will become more experienced which can elevate your skills to an expert level.

Being an expert is not about talent. It’s about putting in the time and truly learning something. For example, you can become an expert at portrait photography if you really learn about portraiture. This has nothing to do with raw talent or being gifted. It’s about putting in the time and effort.

As your expertise grows, so can your rates. The more you charge, the narrower your niche becomes. As your niche narrows, the more concentrated you become and the more your expertise grows. The more expertise you gain, the more you can charge.

It’s a cycle: expertise leads to higher rates, and higher rates lead to a more focused niche, fostering further expertise.

 

Business Attitudes Toward Photos

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1.   We know our website photos are lousy, but we don’t care.
 
These businesses view website photos as a necessary evil. Image quality doesn’t matter to them because photos are used only to fill empty space on website pages.

2.   We don’t know our photos are low quality.
 
These businesses use photos taken by employees or other amateurs. They think all images are essentially the same because they don’t understand how to use photography.

3.   Our photos are technically perfect, but they still fall short.
 
This is especially common with business headshots, where the lighting may be ideal, but the pose or facial expression doesn’t convey the right message. The reason is always that the company hired a low-priced photographer because cheaper is seen as better. Inexperienced photographers don’t understand the true function of business photography.

4.   We know when our photos are weak and we make an effort to fix them.
 
These businesses recognize the importance of brand image and understand that photos are a key communication tool. They make an effort to reshoot or retouch images when necessary in order to maintain their brand reputation.

 

Which one best describes your business?

 

The Cost of Prevention

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What will it cost if your photo project fails? If your photographer misses the mark and the photos are not effective, how much will that impact your business? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Perhaps even hundreds of thousands of dollars?

What will it cost to ensure your photo project succeeds? A few hundred or a few thousand dollars more? Far less than the potential loss from failure.

So why take the risk of hiring the cheapest photographer, the lowest bidder?

 

How Retouching Enhances Wedding Photos

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Professional retouching can significantly improve wedding photos by correcting technical issues, enhancing skin appearance, and adding artistic effects, all while preserving the natural beauty of the moment.

Correct Technical Issues

Wedding photographers often work quickly and with limited equipment. They don’t always have control over the lighting in venues like churches, hotel ballrooms or parks. As a result, uneven or unpredictable lighting can affect the quality of the images. Photo editing and retouching help correct these lighting issues, ensuring the final photos are visually balanced.

Most wedding photographers do some basic editing before delivering the photos. But few perform detailed retouching. This is usually because it’s time-consuming, not cost-effective, or simply outside their skill set.
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