Families and friends will usually make the effort of having a group portrait photo to commemorate special occasions or capture a time when they’re together. However, even the best captured moments can benefit from group portrait photo retouching. This practice can ensure that everyone looks their best, remove environmental blemishes, and reduce harsh lighting, all these combined can enhance your photo’s composition.
In this article, we discuss some of our best tips in retouching group portrait photos so you can employ high end photo editing techniques to keep your clients looking their best.
Why should you retouch group portrait photos?
As a photographer, taking group portrait photos can be very difficult especially if you’re not in a studio. If you’re shooting outdoors, it’s easy for different factors such as the wind, sun, and nature to interfere with your shot.
For example, the wind could blow your subject’s hair at the moment you’re taking the photo, or the sun may look too harsh on a subject’s face in one shot.
Retouching is a powerful tool that can correct these mishaps. But it’s important to remember that there’s such a thing as over retouching, which can make your subjects look unnatural. So, you should know when to stop retouching to keep your subjects looking their best.
Some photographers would rather outsource the portrait photo editing services to another professional but, retouching is an essential skill that every photographer must know how to do.
Now that you know the importance of retouching, let’s go through some group portrait photo retouching techniques that can help you bring the best out of your subjects.
Do: Choose the best photos
If you’re the photographer of this group portrait, make sure to use high-quality equipment to capture the moment. The better your photos are, the nicer the results will be. You’ll want to take multiple shots of the same moment to ensure that you have options when you’re in the editing room.
Remember, it’s better that you take more photos and have a myriad of options to choose from versus scarcity.
Don’t: Over retouch
Over retouching your subjects and your surroundings may lead to photo distortions that’ll make the photo look fake. This is why it’s best that you exhibit a light touch when you’re retouching group portrait photos to keep everything and everyone looking as natural as possible.
Do: Remove imperfections
Group portrait photos take time, planning, and effort to push through. That’s why it’s important to give clients a photo that they can fondly look back on by making sure that everyone looks good in the photo.
On any portrait photo retouching guide, you’ll see that removing blemishes and stray hairs is a common practice during the retouching process. This small act can direct viewers to look at your subject’s faces instead of the imperfections.
Tip: Using a clone stamp or healing brush tool, you can easily remove imperfections from your photos.
Don’t: Leave the brightness and contrast as is
While it’s possible to get the perfect brightness and contrast through proper lighting and set composition, you can also adjust the brightness and contrast of your photo during post production.
Your photo editing platform gives you the ability to tweak the photo’s contrast and brightness sliders to improve the overall look of your group portrait image.
Do: Crop the image
One of the best ways to enhance your image is to straighten and crop it. Cropping a photo is a quick way to improve the overall composition of your group portrait photo and remove unwanted elements from the image.
Don’t: Change the face shapes
Expert portrait photo editing service providers can modify their subject’s face and body shape without it looking unnatural. However, as a newbie in the retouching process, we don’t recommend that you practice this because it can make your subjects look unnatural and distorted.
Do: Find the best software
Not all photo editing software are not built the same. Taking the time to find the best one for you is crucial to your creative process. There are several photo editing software out there so, it’s best if you take advantage of the free trials available see you can figure out which one is the right one for you.
Retouching group portrait photos with the help of a professional
Now that you have a general idea of how to retouch group portrait photos, you can start practicing this for your clients. However, mastering this skill will take time so, you may want to ask for help from professionals while you’re still trying to get the hang of this process.
If you’re looking for a professional photo retouching company that can help you bring out the best in your photos, you can reach out to us at Paper Boat Creatives.
