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| You may be able to see the details better if you click to enlarge. |
My retoucher tells me things.
OK, not really, because I do most of my own retouching. But a colleague of mine who is a professional retoucher sees things I don't see, like photos done by photographers who are less experienced and less detail oriented than another one might be. I wondered why anyone would be unwilling to pay for good photography, but would be willing to pay to fix bad work. Probably because they don’t anticipate the additional cost. When my colleague shared with me some of the things she has been asked to fix I decided to write this post to try to spare whomever I can the pain of totally unnecessarily high retouching bills and time wastage due to backing and forthing by e-mail days and weeks after the shoot.
Wouldn't it be far less painful, and maybe even cost a similar amount to get a good, experienced photographer who knows what to look for while shooting (and tells you how much time you need to get good shots) and just takes good looking photos in the first place?
My illustration is extreme to make a point, but here are some things that aren't uncommon: having one side of a collar pop out from under a jacket lapel, wrinkles, an earring hanging wrong*, lipstick/gloss having partially worn off or hastily applied, mascara smudged, hair on face or food between teeth after lunch.
(*I know you can't really see it here but viewed at full size, or in one of the other frames where the earring showed more, you'd see it and you'd be bothered.)
These are all things that can happen, and that a retoucher may be asked to fix, but could so easily have been avoided with a little care.
Despite the many advantages of digital photography (it's hard to imagine we used to shoot on film and had no Photoshop), when the digital revolution happened it removed a huge barrier to entry into the world of "professional photography" and made way for the notion that "anything can be done in Photoshop." When people proceed with the idea that any number of indiscretions can be fixed in Photoshop, there is a clear path created to a loss of precision and professionalism.
While it may be true that anything can be fixed in Photoshop, there's a cost. Good retouching can cost a lot. The point this that there is risk associated with sloppy photography. From a practical POV, some issues like those on the left photo are not even really fixable, meaning clients end up settling for poor quality, and organizers end up with unhappy bosses.
Here's another reason to make sure you hire a good photographer...it is clear to me that there are lots of people who can't really tell the difference between a bad picture and a good one. This is not a criticism...their skill sets lie elsewhere. So if you don't know what's good or bad but you understand that photography is sending a message/telling a story, it really behooves you to hire an expert who does know what makes an excellent photo. Otherwise the story your photo is telling may not be the one you want it to be telling.
While we're here I have a couple of "Don'ts" to pass on regarding portrait wardrobe, because what you wear can play a big part in the success of your photo. Neither the blouse nor the jacket were great choices. Why not? The shape of the jacket and sheen of the fabric meant that unless I could get it to sit perfectly flat on my body (which I couldn't) it would show wrinkles I wouldn't be able to fix in retouching. So make sure your jacket fits and sits well if you wear one.
Also, for some reason, one side of the collar on this jacket tended to stick out way further across the shoulder area than the other side did. I needed fabric tape to pull them in and even them out for the photo on the right. It's rare to have time at a business portrait session to be fiddling around with fabric tape. And the blouse was made of very soft, floppy, wrinkle-prone, patterned fabric. I had to use a lot of fabric tape to get it to hold its shape in the photo on the right, and I still had to retouch it. If your shirt collar can't sit properly without being taped into shape (!) wear a different one.
That's it for now. Good luck with your next photo shoot!
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