In this day and age where everyone is looking at photos via a small screen called the Smartphone, clients have been coming up to me to ask if Retouching is even necessary. It is a valid question because retouching is typically a separate add-on fee from photography, and if the effect is not visible, then why pay for it?
Retouching refers to any distortion of reality made in post-production on the photo that comes out straight from the camera.
Most corporate and commercial photographers like myself would include retouching into our workflow and we still hold on to this practice despite budget cuts because it is integral to the standards required for these genres of photography.
If you’re a client who’s thinking whether this is necessary, I hope this blogpost helps you better understand the type of retouching work involved and judge for yourself if it’s necessary.
“Having retouching is like having a capable butler around. It’s a service you think you don’t need, until you realise you do.”
One inherent “problem” of retouching is that when done too well, its effects are not observable to the untrained eye. Many times, it’s not until I show my clients the Before and After, do they agree with me that retouching is indispensable.
Here are 3 typical situations when Retouching is required:
1. Basic Face Cleanup
Everyone has flaws, even the most beautiful of models. Fortunately or unfortunately, the powerful resolution of cameras nowadays brings out so much detail it also magnifies the flaws. Hence, for any photos with humans, we’ll do a basic cleanup of the face.
This includes:
Removal of spots or pimples
Lightening of wrinkles and eye bags
Whitening of teeth and eye whites
Cleaning up of stray hair around the face
Below is an example of my friend, Agnes, a already beautiful lady shot under beautiful lighting. Notice how retouching further enhances her beauty? It’s something you can’t unsee.
2. Etching and Composites
There are situations where not all your photo subjects can be together in one location. Especially shooting under the “New Normal” conditions, it’s highly recommended for photo subjects to arrive at staggered timings, shot individually and eventually composited into one big group shot. This might seem like a simple request but it takes quite a bit of additional effort.
Firstly, the photographer has to ensure lighting and pose consistency across all the individuals. Secondly, he has to crop out each individual (this takes around 30 mins per photo). Lastly, he has to arrange these etched individual shots into a harmonious-looking group photo. Typically this takes around 2-3 rounds of mock-ups before final approval from the client.
Below is an example of photography and composite work I did for OFX, an Australian FOREX company. The brief required me to photograph 3 of their local representatives and composite them with their existing asset of 5 reps from their HK office to form a 8 pax group photo. Can you tell which individuals were shot by me? ;)
3. Removal of Distractions
If you’re a commercial client selling a product or service, this would be essential to you. If you’re using this photo for advertisement, you want your product or talent to be the hero of the shot. Any element that doesn’t add to the narrative could take attention away from the hero and dilute your advertising message. Retouching helps keep the image clean and message to the point.
Below is an example of a photo I shot for a recent client, Nanolumi. Due to the placement of the lights, there were many unwanted fixtures, shadows and objects that needed to be removed. The fire extinguisher sign also had to be removed as it doesn’t add to the story. These edits took about 2 days inclusive of comments.
These are some of the basic retouching scenarios that I face in my day to day assignments. Other more advanced requests include: Composite of image plates, extension of backgrounds and recreation of light sources, which I’ll touch on more in another blogpost.
I hope this helps you see the value retouching can bring to your images. As usual, if you’ve any thoughts, drop me a comment below. Happy to hear your thoughts!
Till next week!