Professional retouching is a service you can add to your photography booking to help add the finishing touch and make your images stand out from the competition. It is most relevant on headshots and portraits, though there is also a lot of use for it when we shoot architecture and interiors photography. Aside from making your images look more professional, retouching portraits make subjects feel more at ease and give them confidence in their appearance.
It can include the following:
- Removing shine on skin
- Removing spots/blemishes
- Tidying hair lines/stray hairs
- Adjusting features (evening eyes/eyebrows/smiles, slimming face)
- Cleaning up or changing the background
- Detailed sharpening, colour toning, noise reduction
Is retouching untruthful?
In an ideal world, no one would retouch or alter any images. Sadly, we are many decades past being able to stop this becoming the norm - it started long before digital came along and even goes back to the dark room! It is our opinion that retouching really starts when you get ready in the morning - the way we style our hair, apply makeup, wear certain clothes, pop spots - we all care about our appearance and try our best to do as much as we can to get it to the standard we want. When we have the option of computers, it just makes things easier and quicker - the principle remains the same.
It is our preference to keep the retouching as natural as possible, which means that colour toning, sharpening, adjusting light/shadow, tidying hair etc. However, we fully understand that for many, a photoshoot is a good excuse to look one's best and a chance to sort out the annoying feature you've always lived with. Basically, we will always work with clients on an individual basis and will listen to specific requests.
The above images were all given a certain grade (toning) to help make them look like a consistent series for one client.
Aside from altering things and tidying things up, retouching can simply make your photos 'pop' from the page and makes a significant difference when viewing LinkedIn profile photos due to their small size. We can give an overall grade (toning) to your set of images which will make them look magazine-ready and relevant for today.
You can decide if you would like to invest in this service either before the shoot, during the shoot or after the shoot. Retouching is charged on a per-image basis based with discounts available on bulk orders.