One of the most-asked questions I hear from potentially new clients is, “Do you retouch/edit the photos?”  My answer is, “Yes!”  There’s a bit of controversy out there about whether or not this is being honest with the audience.  Fundamentally, headshots and other commercial photography is about marketing.  Marketing is about selling.

We live in an emotional and visually driven world.  Most successful sales people get that appealing to potential clients on an emotional level is where the $$$’s are at.  One of my broadcast professors put it this way, “Whatever you don’t do, ALWAYS strike the emotional chord.”  That’s what images are supposed to do for us- strike an emotional chord and that’s what I strive for with my clients- help them strike the right emotional chord with their audience.

So yeah, I ALWAYS edit/retouch photos before they can be called finished product.  In fact, camera’s and lights are generally just not overly friendly to faces so in my opinion at least some retouching is going to be required on every image.

In the days of film shooting (yes I’m all digital,) a photographer would labor intensively over his film and images in the darkroom, retouching, applying chemicals to adjust the color.  Today I do the same thing, in my digital darkroom sans the nasty chemicals. I labor over the images I create- it is this artists side of me, the perfectionist side that can get me into trouble with my business manager.

And where an Artists Series portrait is concerned, there is generally a great deal of editing.  Photography is about the art of seeing.  First I see the end product in my minds eye, then I use the raw materials- the setting, background, lighting to form the raw image.  The fine workmanship happens in the darkroom- my digital darkroom.

To retouch or not to retouch?  There is no question in my mind.