portraits

Why Retouch Your Business Headshot

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Your business headshot probably* won’t be hanging in an art gallery but it still has to get favourable reviews. When potential customers visit your web site, your business portrait should imply that you’re confident, competent, friendly and trustworthy.

* Many of the early painted portraits you see in art galleries were, in fact, the equivalent of today’s business portraits. Those paintings were portraits of royalty, aristocrats and other distinguished people. The purpose of those portraits was to assert status and power. Today’s business portraits try to assert a kind of status – that of being a trustworthy business person.

Congratulations, you finally got a new business headshot done. Good for you and good for your business.

But is the photo ready to be displayed on your web site?
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Photo Retouching of Clothing

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Crooked ties and loose collars are a common clothing mishap. It’s faster, easier and cheaper to straighten clothing before the photo is taken rather than relying on retouching.

Photo retouching of business portraits isn’t just about the person’s face. Retouching can also fix clothing mishaps such as a crooked tie, a loose collar, wrinkled clothing, a missing button, an open zipper, a twisted pocket flap, etc.

Clothing mishaps aren’t a big deal in personal photos but they shouldn’t be ignored in a business headshot. If it looks like the person doesn’t care about their appearance, then how much do they care about their job?
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Retouching Business Portraits

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The original photo isn’t usable for a business portrait. The dark eyes, the reflections in the eyeglasses, the odd skin colour, the sour facial expression, and all the distractions in the background make this photo very weak.

The retouched photo still isn’t the best business headshot, but all the flaws are fixed and the photo is very presentable.

Business headshot photography has been part of my business for about 30 years. I’ve learned that some companies understand the purpose of business headshots and some don’t.
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A Close Shave

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Removing a small amount of facial hair is usually easy to do. But realistically removing a beard, moustache or a lot of stubble can be impossible.

Removing Facial Hair

One of the more difficult, if not impossible, retouching tasks is removing facial hair. Removing a beard or moustache can be impossible to do because the facial hair has to be replaced by realistic-looking skin that matches the person’s face. Also, the photo retoucher has no idea what the person’s jaw and mouth look like under the facial hair. The retoucher can only guess and the results will not be accurate.
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Why Professional Portraits Need Retouching

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Of course I’m going to retouch my own headshot and make myself look as good as possible.

Almost all professional portraits and business headshots require retouching. Photographers typically do this to correct technical mistakes or fix overlooked details like a crooked tie.

Retouching your business headshot isn’t about vanity. It’s smart business marketing.

When a photo shows even skin tones, a genuine smile, and sparkling eyes, it makes you look healthier and more attractive. This, in turn, makes you appear friendlier and more trustworthy. This is the exact impression you want to convey in a professional setting.
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Prompt For Business Portraits

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You don’t have to look too closely to notice that there’s something wrong with these business portraits.

Artificial intelligence image generators are so much fun. The above images were created using a simple text prompt of “business portrait of company CEO.” Every time the prompt was run, the Stable Diffusion image generator kept creating very similar looking images of white males.
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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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