Retouching - A "Before" and "After"

Lots of clients ask me if I can take care of a few blemishes, a scar or sometimes to lessen the effects of time (yup, those wrinkles!) when I'm preparing their images.

My philosophy on retouching is pretty straightforward. A light touch, take care of anything that's temporary (blemishes, cuts and bruises from the playground etc.), and to make sure everyone look like they've had a great night of sleep before the photo session! Anything beyond that can be requested, and I can advise what's feasible to keep the image looking natural.

Every image is also colour balanced, adjusted for tones (highlights and shadows), and I also scour each image for lint, stray hairs across the face, loose threads, scuff marks on shoes etc. On smaller images these corrections might not even be noticed by my client, but on larger photos they can be quite obvious if not taken care of!

I thought I'd show you an example of the type of retouching that I apply to a typical image. My lovely daughter Suzanna agreed to let me post this before & after comparison. This image was taken in my studio, using strobe lights, reflectors and a background.

Suzanna was looking forward to showing off her new dress (let's call it aubergine colour), but in order to get her face nicely lit it was necessary to bounce some light with reflectors. Unfortunately this also reflected the colour of her dress onto her face - so removing the colour cast was the first step.

There were a few shiny spots (on her shoulder for example) that I wanted to minimize. These hotspots can draw the viewer's attention away, so away those went.

A few minor blemishes and stray hairs across her forehead disappeared as well. Besides removing the purple colour cast, I toned down a bit of redness in her skin. The green background was enhanced a bit to compliment the colour of her dress and hair.

Being a studio shot, I also did a bit of complexion smoothing. But not too much, I still like the texture of the skin to show through (not like those "glamour" shots where the skin appears to be unnaturally smooth, that wasn't the look we were going for on this image!)

A bit of brightening of the eyes, reduce some of the shadows and we're done! Here's the final image. By the way, I've ordered this image as a large canvas to use as a studio sample, it'll be on display when I'm exhibiting at the Burlington Women's Show on Sunday, February 21st. And of course I'd be happy to bring it to any post - session consultations to show you what an impact a large canvas can make in your home!