The business of photography and retouching
Removing braces from teeth is a common retouching request. As long as the braces don’t fully cover each tooth, the retouching results should be pretty good.
Braces can be removed from formal portraits and business headshots. But for casual photos, you might want the braces left in place because braces are a part of a person’s life. Later in life, the person may want to look back and remember how “wonderful” they looked with braces.
Retouching a pet portrait and a human portrait have quite a bit in common, even though the subjects are quite different.
It’s important to remove distractions from portraits. Acne, blemishes, and stray hairs are removed in human portraits. Eye goop, flyaway fur, and scratches are removed in pet portraits.
In both types of portraits, the background often needs to be cleaned up. It’s also necessary to ensure the colours, contrast, and brightness are accurate and pleasing.
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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.
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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Photo retouching isn’t just for portraits and business headshots. Any photo can benefit from retouching.
Retouching can fix technical flaws in an image. It can also enhance colours, emphasize details, and polish a photo to give it more impact.
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Retouching real estate photos plays a crucial role in enhancing the visual appeal and marketability of a space. Photo retouching is both a technical and an artistic process. It can refine an image to highlight the property’s best features and eliminate distractions.
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