The business of photography and retouching
As a follow-up on my previous post about removing makeup with photo retouching, here are three more examples.
The first example (above) was relatively straightforward because the makeup and coloured lighting didn’t completely obscure the underlying skin texture. I could remove the makeup and coloured lighting while preserving the natural characteristics of the model’s skin.
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A customer (not shown in any photo here) asked to have her makeup removed from a portrait of herself. She had a photograph of herself from an evening social event and wanted to repurpose it as a business headshot. She was wearing elegant clothing and her hair was fashionably styled. The problem was that her evening makeup was too overdone for a business portrait.
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Business group photos can be surprisingly difficult to pose. You want each person to look professional and approachable, and the group itself should feel natural and cohesive. What you don’t want is a photo that looks like a police lineup or a sports team portrait where everyone has the same pose.
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When you look at a portrait, your attention should naturally go to the person’s face. But an awkwardly positioned arm or hand can quickly steal the spotlight.
In most portraits, the arms rest naturally at the sides, cross comfortably in front of the body, or rest on a nearby surface. What you generally want to avoid is an arm that hangs away from the body or juts out at an unusual angle.
A good portrait pose has a sense of visual flow. The hands, arms, and rest of the body should work together rather than compete for attention.
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A strong business portrait communicates personality as much as appearance. The most effective retouching is usually subtle; people should look like themselves on their best day, not like a different person. Here are some techniques professional retouchers use to enhance business headshots.
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Wedding photos capture one of the most meaningful days of your life. So it’s no surprise that wedding photo retouching is a popular service. The most common edits include removing unwanted people from the background, fixing messy hair, correcting a slipped bridal gown strap or other fashion mishap, restoring detail to an overexposed wedding dress, and removing distracting background objects.
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Professional hair retouching can make subtle or dramatic changes to the hair in a portrait. But the results depend on the quality of the hair in the original image. Factors such as image resolution, lighting, hairstyle, and the amount of visible hair all affect what can be achieved. The more hair detail there is to work with, the more natural and convincing the final retouch will look.
