Pixiq

What Professional Retouching is (and isn’t)

Hi everyone at Pixiq! It’s great to be here and I hope I will be providing some interesting insights into my world of pro retouching. I work with all kinds of photography, from snapshots to fine art images and I’m not a snob when it comes to retouching photos; I’ll work on anything if I feel I can make it better and more meaningful. I’m also a photographer and a painter so in time my section here at Pixiq will surely meander about, but right now I’m on a mission for sharing retouching technique that goes WAY beyond “run this action and paint it all over the face” – I want to show you how to do beautiful work.

So let’s start with what retouching isn’t. It has nothing to do with removing blemishes and wrinkles from people’s faces, nor does it mean creating an idealistic representation of a real live person.

The first priority of retouching is to make sure the image is the best it can be. Crop, adjustments for contrast, value, color and sharpness, removing or toning down distracting background elements, head swaps – whatever it takes to create the perfect image is always addressed prior to working on the main subject, whether the subject is a person, a landscape or a still life. This type of work can be considered corrective retouching and I’m not a purist here – if I can improve the composition by moving a tree over a foot or so, I’ll do it, plus I’ll make bushes, change skies, whatever it takes.

When the global aspects of image are as perfect as can be, the retoucher will move on to the subject. We want that to be perfect, too – but in a natural way that looks believable using “invisible” technique. The goal is for the viewer to think, “Wow, that’s an amazing shot of this person, or object,” not, “Wow, look at the retouching that was done to make this look good!” I work on a lot of people and I stick to a simple, common sense approach based upon the psychology of what people look at when they see pictures of themselves.

What do YOU look at first when you see a photograph that includes a full-length image of yourself? I’ll bet it’s your body. I’m going to make sure your body looks great without you noticing what I do to you. If you have a bit of fat around your middle, it will still be there (maybe a bit smaller though). I’ll likely broaden your shoulders slightly, trim a little bit of fat off of your arms and legs and lift your chest and tummy – without actually changing the way you look. I’ll press your clothes, straighten your jewelry and make sure your hair looks awesome but I’ll be sure to leave plenty of “imperfections” – the ones that make you perfectly beautiful just the way you are :-)

The next thing you’re likely to look at is your expression. I’m going to make you shine. Your face is super important; it’s who you are, and I’m going to be really, really careful. I’m going to shape the lighting so it sculpts each facial feature to perfection. Then, I’m going to add subtle colors to project health and vitality and I’m going to brighten your eyes and add sparkle to your expression. If you have temporary things on your face, like blemishes or razor burn, I’ll remove them. If your eyes are smiling but your forehead says, “I am stressed to my last nerve!” I’ll give your forehead a good massage. And if you are wearing makeup, I’ll make sure it’s applied perfectly right down to the eyeliner. You’re going to look your best.

This is what retouching is: shaping the light to show each feature of the face accurately and beautifully and bringing out the best expression on the subject.

When it comes to making people look younger, anti gravity work is more impactful than line and wrinkle work. As people age, everything heads south, starting with the jawline drooping, the neck rolling up with extra skin and, well, the rest of the body heads down, too and then pooches out in the middle. Delicate lifting of the body and skin provides impressive overall feelings of youth and vitality – but don’t do too much or your subject will notice the work and feel bad about themselves – and they will never love your picture of them because they know it’s just a fantasy.

What about the lines and wrinkles then? Most of them get modified somewhat during the sculpting of light but most will remain on the face. The lines that make the subject look angry, tired and stressed can be lightened. Lines that pull the face down might be shortened, but if the initial retouching has been done well, you will find that very little need be done to the wrinkles. In fact, I love to sparkle up the “twinkles” around the eyes to add even more life to my subjects’ expressions.

So my first post is just an intro to my philosophy of retouching “normal” people so they love the portraits I make of them and think that I’m a really, really good photographer because the look great – without retouching. I don’t show the before and after images! In my next post I’ll share with you a general retouching check list you can refer to when retouching different age groups of people.

For you fashion photographers – forget I said anything and never let the truth spoil a good story! Do what you dream of, but if you cross the line of believability the artwork takes over and the message becomes diluted. Just like there is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept (Ansel Adams) there is nothing that spoils a meaningful image more than a bunch of meaningless artwork.

Til the next time!

Jane