IMAGE RETOUCHING / EDITING.

WHAT IS PHOTO RETOUCHING

You have probably seen images of models in the magazines, images that looked absolutely perfect. In many cases those images were edited/retouched with added skin smoothing, in some cases eyes and teeth of models were whitened, sometimes faces sculpted with additional shadows, breasts and bodies enhanced. To achieve those images, photographer and model, or model’s agent, or client collaborate and jointly agree on goals of the image to match the brand the model will represent. After the agreement is made, hair and makeup professionals, stylists and photographer work together to achieve the desired goal for the photoshoot. Each team member has impact on the final image, and each has an associated cost.

During session consultation, prior to the shoot, we will discuss your brand goals, how you would like to be represented in the images. We will discuss what additional team members you will need for the photoshoot. I assure you – we will achieve your goals.

Over the years I have developed a great team of best hair and makeup professionals, stylists, photography assistants. We will pull in those professionals that are needed, and review the additional cost/availability prior to photoshoot.

Photo Retouching is one of the examples of achieving your desired brand image, read below what is included in the photo session and how to request personalized retouching.

Great article on how to manage your own brand by Tom Peters, Brand Called You, Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/28905/brand-called-you

What retouching is included in the Session Package by default?

I retouch images after you have selected the “Final” images from the photoshoot. Retouching is a time consuming process that requires me to inspect and adjust each image. Included is minor skin smoothing and fixing any minor glitches from the photoshoot.

For example sometimes you may have a perfect image but one piece of hair is covering your forehead – we will remove it. You may have a skin blemish that showed up the morning of the shoot – we will remove it 🙂

What retouching is outside of the scope of Session Package, not included in the price?

Body reshaping/enhancements, chin fixes, face sculpting, scar removal, eye and teeth whitening are all personalized portrait retouching requests outside of session packages offered. I do offer this level of personalized portrait photo retouching for $35 per image, contact me to get more information.

DO IT YOURSELF – RETOUCHING SOFTWARE FOR PORTRAIT ENHANCEMENTS / SKIN RETOUCHING

A lot of my clients have asked me about do it yourself software packages. Here is a short list of recommended products I have used and have capabilities to achieve good retouching results.

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard photo editing software, there are many presets you can use for photo retouching.

If you do not want to spend a lot of time and money learning Adobe Photoshop or purchase retouching presets, there are many do it yourself software packages that will do a great job for you and they are easy to use. Of course these tools give you a wide range of flexibility of what you can do – the challenge is “when to stop”.

PortraitPro – This is a great retouching software for amateur photographers, also for a very reasonable price $39. If you are interested in using the software as a plug in in Photoshop or Lightroom, you will need to buy a “Studio” version for $59. If you are a professional photographer, working with a lot of images, you can purchase the “Studio Max” for $119.

• By default a lot of portrait effects are “on”, and initially it may seem a lot, but you can turn all of them off, for example “Face Sculpt Controls”.
• Keep only those effects that you are interested in
• Try it before you buy it.

Portraiture SkinRetouching – is intended for professional photographers made by Imagenomic LLC.

• Sold as a plug-in for Automatic skin smoothing, healing and enhancing effects plugin.
• Cost about $199, but worth it, and during Holiday season they run 30% Off.
• Try it before you buy it.