retouching

Retouching Wedding Photos

No Comments

Textile conservators uncrate Lady Diana’s 1981 royal wedding gown in preparation for a celebration of her life in Toronto, 09 December 2003.

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

A large portion of my photo retouching is fixing and polishing business headshots so the person looks their best. I’ve also done some commercial retouching where the work was more technical than creative. For examples: placing images onto TV screens and computer displays, changing a company’s logo in its marketing photos, and adding drop shadows to various products.
Continue reading →

Photo Retouching To Fix Bad Photography

No Comments

I just finished retouching another batch of business headshots. The customer appears to have hired a professional photographer. I say this only because the Exif data embedded in the photos showed that a pro camera and pro lens were used. But the headshots looked like they were shot by an amateur:

• The photos were shot with an off-camera hotshoe flash in a white umbrella. I know this because the catchlights in everyone’s eyes clearly showed the reflection of a small flash, the ribs of an umbrella, and a light stand.

• It was painfully obvious that no posing advice was given to anyone. Nothing but slouchy, sloppy, awkward poses along with some poor facial expressions. None of this could be fixed with retouching.

Continue reading →

Photo Retouching – Higher Rates Can Be Better

No Comments

During a long day of photographing the same thing over and over again, such as shooting five or six tennis matches in a day, it’s good to find something different to photograph. Often I will shoot the players’ shoes as they serve, their hands as they hold a cluster of tennis balls, or their towel-covered face as they wipe off the sweat.

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

Someone recently asked for a price to retouch two business headshots. I said my rate is $140 per hour but I would first need to see the photos. After reviewing the two pictures, I quoted them 20-minutes per photo or $93 total plus tax. They accepted the quote, I did the retouching, and they were happy with the results. Another normal day of photo retouching.
Continue reading →

Photo Retouching of Clothing

No Comments
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?
Continue reading →

Retouching Business Portraits

No Comments
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.
Continue reading →

Cheap Is Not A Bargain

No Comments

If you wear eyeglasses, this is how your business portrait should look. No reflections on the lenses, no greenish tint from the anti-glare coating, no lens refraction on the sides of the face, minimal shadows caused by the frames, both eyes fully visible, the whites of the eyes are white, good colour in both irises, and nice catchlights in both eyes.

Many professional photographers know how to achieve results like this and it isn’t difficult. If your business headshot with eyeglasses doesn’t look like this then your photographer failed.

The Peril of Cheap Photography

A company this week asked to have its business headshots retouched. The photos were shot by a cheap photographer.
Continue reading →

A Close Shave

No Comments
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.
Continue reading →

css.php