Photo Retouching Makes You Look Good

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A vinyl banner on the side of a van. The centre photo has a shower with blue masking tape left over from the installation. The shower on the right has window reflections. All three showers are crooked and curved. The crookedness is emphasized by the way the outer pictures lean into the centre photo.

Today I saw a big, shiny van belonging to a company that makes and installs glass showers. The sides of the van had large photos of glass-enclosed showers. But apparently no one bothered to look at the pictures before they were printed on vinyl and attached to the sides of the vehicle.
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Retouching Business Headshots

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Prison mugshots from Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario, 1913. (Library and Archives Canada)

I’ve retouched a lot of business portraits, a few actor headshots and even some family portraits. Common retouching requests include removing stray hairs, brightening eyes and teeth, minimizing facial wrinkles, eliminating double chins, fixing skin issues, and repairing clothing malfunctions.
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Pricing for Business Event Photography

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If you’re lucky, the conference that you’ve been hired to photograph will be held in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows and big skylights. The afternoon light will let you shoot at ISO 400 and a reasonable shutter speed.

A few months ago, I was asked to quote for a three-hour business event. So I quoted for a three-hour event.

Two days before the event, the event organizer said they needed me onsite 45 minutes sooner to do some early photos. They also wanted me to stay after the event so I could edit “one or two pictures” right away for their social media.

On event day, I arrived one hour before the start and, as requested, I was ready to go 45 minutes before the start. But the event was 45 minutes late getting started. It also ran 1-1/2 hours longer than planned. After the event they wanted some group photos. Then the “one or two pictures” that they needed right away became 16 images. What was originally supposed to be three hours onsite turned out to be more than 6-1/2 hours.
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Photo Retouching Using Human Intelligence

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A recent example of my retouching. The photo is by Vancouver photographer Mark Gibbon. A public affairs agency requested the retouching.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may some day make photo retouching as simple as a few clicks. But the technology isn’t there yet. Current AI software is only for retouching human portraits.
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Artificially Intelligent Mayor

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A photo from the published campaign platform of Toronto mayoral candidate Anthony Furey. Uhhhh, do you notice anything wrong? If you do then maybe you should run for mayor. I see at least six things wrong, ten if you want to get picky (see the comment section below).

But maybe nothing is wrong with the photo. Maybe Furey is saying that having a third arm will make you more prosperous. Vote for him and get another arm!

Note: The link to the original version of the campaign platform no longer works because it has been updated. Care to guess why it was updated?

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Retouching Business Headshot Selfies

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Before cellphone cameras, if you wanted a selfie, you had to use a real camera. This picture is from 1991 when bungee jumping without a second safety harness was thought to be safe. The camera was duct-taped to my hand so I couldn’t drop it.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

Is it common for a company to require its employees to supply their own business headshots? Most of these self-supplied headshots are, of course, cellphone selfies.
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On Photography – 50 Years Later

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If you don’t like what you see in front of your camera, you can often wait a few minutes and a better picture might come along. These two skyline pictures were shot less than 20 minutes apart. In those few minutes, the wind blew in the clouds and the automatic lights in many buildings turned on.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

It’s the 50th anniversary of the publication of US author Susan Sontag‘s essay Photography (link to PDF) which was later re-edited and renamed “In Plato’s Cave.” This renamed essay became the first of six essays in her book, “On Photography.” In Plato’s Cave is probably the most well known of the six essays.
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