
We like to talk about a photographer’s “style”. Well typically when we think of a photographer’s style we concentrate on how they take a picture. Outdoor vs. indoor. Natural light vs. artificial light. Photojournalistic vs. formal portrait. Sometimes what gets overlooked in that discussion is how the photographer retouches. To me, retouching has as much to do with a digital photographer’s style as does any of the things listed above. Retouching determines how the final product looks. I guarantee that every portrait that a photographer shows you, with a few exceptions, has some form of retouching work applied. Retouching is another element that separates professional photographers from amateurs! Because of that, I think it’s necessary to discuss what is retouching. But in order to ask the right questions, we had better have a brief discussion on what retouching actually is. “Retouch” as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary: To rework in order to improve To alter (as in a photographic negative) to produce a more desirable appearance To color (new growth of hair) to blend with previously dyed, tinted or bleached hair Based on those definitions, anything we do as photographers to change the appearance of the photograph we captured = retouching. Examples can be as extreme as completely smoothing out the skin (some call it airbrushing) to very subtle such as cropping or rotating of the photograph. Now you understand why I say that almost every photograph you see has some form a retouching applied to it. I can tell you with [ Read More ]