Photo Retouching
Hi, I’m Michael and I am a portrait photographer based in South Jersey. I specialize in family portraits, children’s, teens, and adults. I shoot high-end magazine styled portraiture for everyday people. My sessions are customized for each client. Sessions include wardrobe changes, hair and makeup options, and a variety of looks. For more information, visit my WebSite. In this article I want to talk about photo retouching.
Retouching
So what does retouching or editing a photograph mean and why does it matter when you’re paying to have your pictures taken ?
In today’s digital age of photography, a photograph can through many steps before it is ready to be delivered to a customer. I remember the days when everyone would say how the photographs of women in beauty magazines like Vogue or Vanity Fair were “not how they looked” and I always wondered, what do they look like ? Working with photoshop now, I see for myself now that they are not far off. Look, we spend countless amounts of money trying to make our skin look beautiful. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all have our pictures taken, and have these blemishes or imperfections removed with a click ? We’ll now everyone can, not just supermodels.
What Changes are made to the photographs ?
Photographers’ styles are different and can look drastically different from one to another. As for myself, I have created a system I use when I start retouching a photograph. The first thing I start with is removing and blemishes. When being photographed professionally, the use of professional lighting can bring out spots that otherwise wouldn’t be seen with the naked eye. When the light comes across a person’s face at a certain angle, it will give a pimple a shadow, creating a dark spot. So the first pass is always cleaning up the skin of these blemishes. This process gives you a nice clean and smooth look for your portraits. From there I will start removing harsh shadows from the face and any other darkened skin areas.
Hair Retouching
Hair is always the tricky part of retouching. I find that there are a lot of different types of styling out there, and some make for a nightmare in retouching. This is why I recommend that my clients have their hair professionally done before coming to their shoot. Frizzy hair is the biggest problem for me. When the light catches it, it will show every piece of hair out of place. This takes a considerable amount of time to correct. I have passed on retouching a good photo because I know it would take hours to try and correct. One method I have used is swapping hair from another image if I like the pose and can find some cleaner hair to work with.
Below is the same image before & after with a hair swap. You can really see the improvement of the image here.
Slimming and reshaping
Before moving on to the final process, I make a pass-through and look for any unusual shaping. This can be caused by a pose being slightly off or a part of the body being pushed up against something making it look larger than it is. I usually take to this process sparingly. I do not want to create an image that no longer looks like the person being photographed. A slight nip and tuck here and there, fluffing out your hair to look a little fuller, sometimes maybe pulling down a shoulder slightly that looks tense. This is done to flatter your body and get you looking like you and fantastic in your photographs.
Color Toning Your Photographs
The last part of the retouching process is color toning. This is taking the overall image and pushing the color towards one direction. This comes in handy if let’s say, you have a room at home painted green, and you would like to hang a large print on your wall. So I would recommend to you during the consultation to picking outfits that compliment green, and then during retouching, push the tones towards colors that compliment green. This can be a big deal and an overlooked factor when having your photographs taken.
Final Thoughts
So what does all this mean to the average person who wants to have their photograph taken or family portraits done ?
There is a reason why hiring a professional photographer can be expensive, in most cases, you get what you pay for. Retouching is the most time-consuming of the entire process of taking photographs as a professional photographer. A photograph session will take anywhere from 2-4 hours in which hundreds of photographs are taken, to try and get around 25 or so really good photographs. I have spent upwards of around 1-2 hours retouching 1 photograph. I am not saying that is what a photographer has to spend on retouching a photograph. Sometimes I spend 15 minutes on a photo and it looks just as good as the 1-2 hour one because everything came together perfectly when I photographed it. The average time however is usually between the two times.
Something to think about
In short, the time that it takes to complete a 25 photograph portrait session, photographing and putting on the finishing touches, on average is upwards around 20-30 hours. Why does this all matter ? When your shopping for pricing, remember you are getting what you are paying for.
In the age of digital photography, it’s easy to retouch a photograph to perfection. However, there is a balance that must be struck between making a photograph look its best and altering its reality. When retouching a photograph, it’s important to consider the overall message that you’re trying to communicate. For instance, if you’re retouching a photograph for a magazine cover, you may want to perfect the subject’s skin tone and remove any blemishes. However, if you’re retouching a photograph for an art project, you may want to leave some imperfections in order to create a more raw and emotive image. Ultimately, the key is to find the right balance for each individual photograph.
If you would like to learn more about Michael Iorio Photography and my services, please visit my Website