I just finished retouching another batch of business headshots. The customer appears to have hired a professional photographer. I say this only because the Exif data embedded in the photos showed that a pro camera and pro lens were used. But the headshots looked like they were shot by an amateur:
• The photos were shot with an off-camera hotshoe flash in a white umbrella. I know this because the catchlights in everyone’s eyes clearly showed the reflection of a small, rectangular flash, the ribs of an umbrell, and a light stand.
• It was painfully obvious that no posing advice was given to anyone. Nothing but slouchy, sloppy, awkward poses along with some poor facial expressions. None of this could be fixed with retouching.
• Also obvious was that the photographer never bothered to adjust people’s clothing. Wrinkled clothes, crooked ties, twisted collars, sloppy jackets. Only some of this was fixed with retouching.
• There were flash reflections in eyeglasses.
• Some people had dark eyes because their face was turned to one side and the flash didn’t light their face properly. This was due to the lack of posing advice.
• All the portraits were shot at f1.4 on an 85mm lens. This meant the eyes were in focus but the edges of each person’s body and their hair were very out of focus. Sometimes this isn’t a problem but it wasn’t what this customer needed.
Retouching To Fix Mistakes
The customer wanted the beige office wall background replaced with a subtle pattern similar to their logo. This required cutting out each person from the original portraits. The problem was that because every photo was shot with a very wide aperture, the edges around each person and their hair were very out of focus. This made it very difficult and slow to cut out each person (i.e. higher retouching cost). Even then, it didn’t look good.
The customer knew ahead of time that the photos were going to be cut out. They said they told the photographer he didn’t have to worry about the background because the background was going to be digitally replaced. But unfortunately the photographer didn’t know how to photograph for this. Normally you have to use a small aperture, perhaps f8, to ensure that all edges are sharp. If the edges are sharp with good contrast, cut outs will be quick and easy (i.e. lower cost) and it will look good.
I told the customer that all the problems with the portraits were the photographer’s fault. The company said they paid “almost $3,000” for the 16 headshots.
Experience Saves you Time and Money
I spend a lot of retouching time fixing photographers’ mistakes. These mistakes are almost always due to sloppy photography. I hate seeing people waste money on bad photography.
If you’re not happy with the pictures a photographer delivers, tell them! You don’t have to pay for substandard work. This is actually stated in most consumer protection laws. You don’t have to pay for substandard work and you don’t have to pay the photographer to fix their substandard work. But unfortunately if the photos can’t be reshot then you’re stuck with the pictures and you have to hope retouching can help.
You get what you pay for. Expensive photographers are expensive because they know more. They know about posing, they know to deal with messy clothes and messy hair, they know how to light properly, they know how to fix potential problems before the photo is made, and they know how to shoot for cut outs and composites. All this know-how saves you time and money.
