Retouching Dating Profile Photos

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Around 2008, a photographer-friend, who owned a portrait studio, started getting customers who wanted dating profile portraits. Cellphone cameras were becoming popular back then, but many people wanted higher quality photos with better lighting. Shooting online dating photos became a popular service at his studio.

When he closed his studio at the end of 2019, he had said that the demand for shooting dating photos had dropped to zero. My friend speculated that, because cellphone cameras had become so much better, most people were using cellphone photos for their dating profiles.

Yesterday I retouched two cellphone selfies for someone who said the images were for her dating profile. The image quality was pretty good because she used a recent cellphone. But there were problems.
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When To Retouch Your Headshot

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Deciding whether or not to retouch your portrait depends on the purpose of the image and your personal preferences. Here are a few things to consider:

Purpose of the Portrait

If your portrait is going to be used for professional use (e.g., on a business website or a LinkedIn profile) then a polished image is essential to help convey professionalism. Some level of retouching is a common practice such as skin smoothing, removing blemishes, and brightening the eyes. Just to be clear, “skin smoothing” is not a glamour glow or a soft-focus effect. Skin smoothing evens colour and luminance tones.

For personal-use portraits, you most likely don’t need retouching. The exception is if you want to add a creative effect, a dramatic look, or a style that you like.
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Benefits of Headshot Retouching

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A recent Spanish study, published November 2024, confirmed once again that people whose portraits are perceived as attractive are also seen as more intelligent and trustworthy.

The study used 462 pairs of portraits, each showing a person before and after a beauty filter was applied. The photos were rated by 2,748 participants, aged 18 to 88, with an equal number of males and females from the UK, US, and Canada. The participants were shown random subsets of the portraits, but never both versions of the same photo.

The results were clear: portraits with the beauty filter consistently received higher ratings for traits like intelligence, trustworthiness, and sociability.
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Give Your Photography Value A Nudge

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Price is set by you, the photographer, but value is set by your customers. Your task is to align the two. You have to align your prices with the perceived value of your photography.

Perceived value refers to the benefits a customer believes they will receive from your photography. The higher the perceived value, the greater the customer satisfaction. Additionally, a higher perceived value allows you to charge higher prices. Since a strong perceived value benefits both you and the customer, it’s essential to focus on enhancing it.

While price will reflect tangible factors like your time and costs, value is subjective. It’s emotional and varies from customer to customer. Value to the customer depends on:
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Understanding Photography Pricing

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Price is set by you, the photographer, but value is perceived by the customer:

Perceived value = Expected benefit(s) – Perceived cost

where Perceived cost = monetary cost + the effort needed to make the purchase.

If Expected benefits = Perceived cost, then value is zero. The customer probably won’t buy.
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How To Write Full IPTC

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(A very long post about a simple topic.)

Much to my surprise, one of the most popular posts on this blog is a 2018 article about how to write a photo caption. As a follow-up to that article, this post will explain how to fill out the other IPTC data fields found in most photo software.

IPTC refers to the International Press Telecommunications Council, a consortium of major news agencies formed in 1965. The consortium established, and maintains, universal technical standards for the exchange of news data. This means that some of the IPTC fields will apply only to news photographers and perhaps stock agency photographers. But there are several fields that every photographer should be using.
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Observations from Photo Retouching

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Lately, I’ve been retouching a lot of photos shot by other photographers. Some are really good and need only minor edits or some compositing. But others, not so much. A lot of my work involves fixing photographer mistakes, trying to salvage images marred by poor posing, bad lighting, or weak composition—issues that retouching can’t always fix.

Retouching Family Portraits

I recently worked on two sets of outdoor family portraits shot by different photographers.
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