Retouching Headshots And Portraits

A lot of my retouching is fixing photographers’ mistakes. If this photographer had fixed the woman’s hair before taking the photo, retouching may not have been necessary.

Retouching also fixed a few minor issues. This person is wearing a hair weave and, in a larger photo, the netting is visible in the hair part. The hair was retouched to make the part look more natural. Also, the lighting was a bit harsh and the skin was over-sharpened. These were softened with retouching.

Too many catchlights in the eyes were caused by the photographer’s two umbrellas and three silver reflectors. And where’s the shirt? Too much open neck distracts from the face.

The inside eye sockets are dark because the lights are too far off to the sides. These eye shadows could have been prevented if the photographer had paid more attention to the lighting. Better lighting would also have reduced the smile lines around the person’s mouth.

People with long necks should not wear shirts with small collars or no collars. They should also be photographed from a slightly higher angle. Failing that, a retoucher could shorten the neck :-)

Strong side-lighting emphasizes skin imperfections. Every bump and wrinkle becomes more noticeable.

Dark portraits can be very dramatic. But proper exposure is important. There should also typically be tonal separation between the subject and the background. This will help if the image is printed. Mostly black images may look nice on a backlit screen, but they are very difficult to print due to the limited dynamic range of ink and paper.

Red is a very strong colour because our eyes always go to red before any other colour. This red background is very distracting, it competes with the skin colour, and it adds a colour cast to the skin. Notice how much easier it is to look at the retouched image with a different colour background.

Retouching did a number of things including straightening the eyeglasses, removing reflections from the lenses, and correcting the lens diffraction on the side of his face. The photographer should have done all of this before taking the photo.