portraits

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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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.

Fixing messy hair is one of the most common photo retouching requests. When only a few stray hairs need cleaning up, the process is quick and easy.
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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.
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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.

Deciding whether or not to retouch your family portraits follows a similar thought process as for individual portraits. But there are a few added considerations since a family portrait is usually a group photo. Here are a few things to consider:

Purpose of the Portrait

If your family portrait is for something formal like a holiday card, a website, or a living room wall, a little retouching can help enhance the image while maintaining a natural look. Common adjustments might include softening harsh lighting, evening out skin tones, or removing temporary blemishes.

For a family portrait that’s for personal use, retouching isn’t usually necessary. A family photo is more about the moment captured than perfection.
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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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