The Myths of Digital Retouching & Digital Makeup

Most people think of “retouching” as a standard component of true professional photography; the term “digital makeup,” however, drudges up the preconceived idea of “faked photos.”  This couldn’t be further from the truth – yes, digital makeup in its most extreme forms is used for national editorial ad campaigns, and much of that could very well be labeled as deceiving, as that is its purpose – to get you to buy something.

On a far more personal level, digital makeup can do the exact opposite… make the image represent you, not your flaws, and let the memory or image captured serve its purpose – to capture a moment, not a malady.  For example, we have a client – an author and online expert – who has sixth nerve palsy.  She’s quite a beautiful woman, but an accident left her with a nerve condition by which one eye is always askew.  She was struggling to garner a genuine audience of readers who could look past her headshot and see her expert advice.  Worse yet, she had ultimately come to excluding headshots altogether, and everything from social media profile pictures to “About the Author” excerpts showed only a logo, not an engaging personality with whom people could relate.

When working with digital photography and with a true professional, the possibilities are endless.  We took some digital portraits and, after a few days, delivered to her the first headshots she had ever seen of herself without 6th nerve palsy.  She very quickly donned every online profile, page and blog with the new headshots, and gave her publisher the images for promotions, publications, etc… she soon had the audience she was looking for, and finally no one noticed her… they noticed what she had to say.

Not all cases are so critical… sometimes it just means relaxing and knowing that you don’t have to get a makeover and you don’t have to learn how to use makeup to get a wonderful, professional portrait.  Enter the advantage of having a Creative Director working with you to understand exactly what you want – you’ll have an experienced, dedicated professional on set to ensure your final product is better than you thought it could be.  Maybe your goal is to be the most blushing bride-to-be who ever hit boudoir; perhaps you’d like to see yourself without a medical scar that’s been making you shy away from the camera… and let’s face it, those fine lines really don’t need to be there, do they?

An example below shows a “before shot” of our Creative Director Camille in a fashion head shot.

Here is the same shot digitally retouched… by the way, she was the woman with the scar.