THE BREAKDOWN ON RETOUCHING

WHAT IS RETOUCHING?

Technically Retouching can be anything from removing a small pimple to making someone's skin look like ceramic. It really depends on the photographer's style and really what the client wants. When I think of Retouching, I think "what does this person look like to me when I see them in person in my mind's eye?", and that is the guide I like to use when I send images to my Retouchers. I don't like to make someone look like someone they're not. Its just not healthy to put that out into the world and effectively tell someone "oh this is how you SHOULD look, but you don't".

DO I NEED RETOUCHING?

If you have to ask, most likely no. See this is really a personal thing here. I don't send out images to be retouched willy-nilly. When I shot for publications, they would tell me "we need these retouched, and here is what, why, and how much retouching we want there. With people, I'm never going to tell someone "oh yeah remove that about you". If I put an image in my portfolio I may remove a pimple before I print it or post it to the website, but that's really it.

Where I do send out for retouching is when someone is uncomfortable with something on themselves. For instance, a scar that has really bad memories behind it, or scars from acne they had as a teenager/adult. Those things all can be removed to make someone feel better when they look at an image of themselves. That said though, I try to get those things covered or dealt with before we even take the picture. If it's unavoidable and you want it changed though, all you have to do is tell me.

As a photographer coming from film, I make sure that once I hit the button only minor things need changing after the fact. Color, contrast, sharpening, all that stuff is taken care of as soon as I hit the button and the image hits my computer in Lightroom. If you look at the image and you're like "OH THAT'S GREAT!", sweet prob not going to need to be retouched. However, if you see something when they get posted and you're like "OH, can we take that out?!" I got you covered. That's why I always include retouching in my packages.

EXAMPLE

WHO DOES MY RETOUCHING?

I work with a lovely company called Photographers Edit. They are known for doing Wedding image processing, but they also have a branch just for Retouching that is out of this world good. I've found over the years that it's best to spend the money and hire pros to do things that take time away from you doing what you love to do. I don't want to be a full-time retoucher! It's a lot of work, and really hard work to do quickly but also correctly. I seriously tip my hat to them because they turn images around so fast that I get stressed out trying to figure out how they got that back that quickly.