Photography is fun and essential. However, product shots always need re-touching to remove imperfections, dust & fingerprints after being handled by people who just ate donuts. Shooting humans is great too, but we all have pimples and wrinkles that need a sympathetic re-touch.
As with this next shot from cosmetic company Beauty GARDE, sometimes I’m given photos shot by themselves that just need to be knocked out and put on a white background. With smoke added. And re-touched foil. And some shadows. And blemish removal. And levels adjusted. No problem!
With people, I prefer to keep re-touching subtle, not massively airbrushed. If something is distracting, then I’ll deal with it, but I don’t like to remove the character of a person’s face. You’re beautiful! But yeah, we’ll get rid of that huge zit.
Now here’s a fun example of having to work to deadlines…what if you need a photo of some packaging for a press release, but the packaging hasn’t been made yet? Well I want everyone to be happy, and I’m not going to let something as trivial as the packaging not existing yet get in the way.
All done, and we all live happily ever after.
Here’s a few more snaps from the archives.