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.
The photographer should’ve removed the pens from the subject’s pocket and straightened their shirt collar. Both are distractions. The papers on the back wall are more distractions. The photographer tried to blur the background with software, but did a poor job, leaving black smudges near the top-left of the subject’s hair.
This photo is mostly okay, but the colours are noticeably off. The photographer also failed to straighten the shirt collar and jacket sleeve—quick, simple adjustments that make a big difference.
Sloppy clothing, no matter how small, makes a person look less competent and less professional. Many photographers overlook this. Professionalism is in the details.
Big, toothy smiles rarely work in portraits—they can make the subject look goofy or unprofessional. But a genuine laugh, like in this photo, can feel authentic and engaging. However this image is totally undermined by the dishevelled shirt. It makes the subject appear careless—like they couldn’t even dress themselves properly. Also, a white shirt without a tie looks unfinished and unpolished. All of this is the photographer’s fault.
The white shirt was replaced with a darker, solid tone that doesn’t compete with the face. A darker shirt without a tie looks more natural and professional. Darker tones tend to blend in, while white demands attention—and not in a good way.
Poor Backgrounds
Too often, people are photographed straight on in front of a wall. This makes the photo feel flat and uninteresting, and the person looks wide and square. Rows of bricks and visible mortar lines pull attention away from the person. Posing the subject farther from the wall would’ve added depth and softened those background distractions. While retouching can’t fix a bad pose, it can improve the background.
General Sloppiness
In this example, the photographer didn’t ask the woman to brush the hair away from her eye. A business portrait should have both eyes fully visible because this creates maximum connection with the viewer.
Hair covering an eye poses a real challenge in retouching. Often, we try to copy the other eye, but the success depends on how much is obscured. Thankfully, in this image, only a small part of the eye was covered, and the detail was sharp enough to work with.
The photographer also failed to notice the woman’s shirt collar was askew, which makes the image sloppy.
Retouching can fix wrinkled clothing to an extent, but patterned fabrics are a different story. Fixing wrinkled patterns is extremely difficult, if not impossible. In those cases, we often end up replacing the clothing altogether with a similar pattern or a solid alternative.
