Business headshot and portrait retouching generally falls into two categories.
The first is corrective retouching. This is fixing problems caused by the photography such as uneven lighting, distracting shadows, incorrect exposure, and colour casts.
The second is enhancement retouching. This helps make a good portrait look even better by removing distractions such as stray hairs and clothing wrinkles. It also includes refining details such as skin tone and texture.
Some portraits may need a combination of both types of retouching.
Professional photo retouching can make a significant difference. But it’s important to understand what retouching can realistically accomplish and what should have been handled during the photography session.
Here are some examples of business portrait retouching.
Fixing Unflattering Light in a Business Portrait
There is a good portrait hiding inside this image, and retouching can bring it out.
The main problem is the lighting. The light on the right is positioned too far back and this causes the bridge of the nose to cast a shadow around one eye. That same shadow also makes the bridge of the nose appear crooked.
The light on the left is also incorrectly positioned. It spills onto the side of the nose, making it appear wider than it actually is.
The overall colour is too cool, and there’s not enough separation between the subject and the background.
Headshot retouching corrected all of these problems and created a more natural and flattering portrait.
And, just for fun, a part of the subject’s beard was shifted slightly toward the centre of his face to create a little more symmetry.
With the exception of the beard adjustment, the problems in this photograph could have been avoided during the photography session simply by repositioning the lights.
Retouching can rescue a photograph, but good lighting can prevent many problems from happening in the first place.
Retouching Severe Lighting and Exposure Problems
This headshot has several obvious lighting problems. The subject’s skin appears oily or sweaty, the skin tone is uneven, and the eyes are too dark. There’s a distracting shadow near the right side of the mouth. The slightly open mouth is unflattering.
The light on the right is flaring toward the camera. This causes the backdrop to appear faded on that side and creates a pink reflection inside the right eyeglass lens.
Professional portrait retouching can correct most of these issues and turn the image into a much more presentable headshot.
There is, however, an important limitation to understand. When skin is severely overexposed, as it is on this person’s forehead, some of the original detail may be permanently lost. Retouching can’t recover information that the camera never recorded.
In those situations, a retoucher may need to rebuild the missing detail using skin from another part of the photograph or, in some cases, carefully incorporate AI-generated detail. But a large area of AI-generated skin rarely looks convincing on its own. It usually requires additional manual retouching to make the texture and transitions look natural.
Again, better positioning of the lights during the photo session could have prevented these problems.
Making the Eyes the Focal Point of a Portrait
This portrait has several small problems, but the biggest is the subject’s eyes. Eyes are the focal point of a portrait. They should be noticeable, natural, and expressive.
In the original image, the eyes are too dark and don’t attract enough attention.
There are several other distractions as well: the colour is too cool, the pant zipper is visible, the blouse has a few noticeable wrinkles, the collar is crooked, the hair is untidy, and the camera angle makes the photograph look slightly crooked.
Portrait retouching addressed each of these issues. The eyes are now immediately noticeable and readable.
Cleaning up the clothing and tidying the hair gives the subject a more polished appearance.
Retouching can’t fix the distracting text, colours, and patterns on the magazines. There’s little reason for a person to hold props in a business photo.
A well-retouched headshot can help communicate competence, confidence, and professionalism before a potential client or colleague ever meets you.
More information about retouching business headshots.
General information on my photo retouching services.
