Finding the right balance in portrait photo retouching is something that most budding photographers struggle with. This is because inexperienced photographers think that retouching should mean that the subject should always look flawless – to the extent that they end up changing the subject’s face shape.
In portrait photography, it’s important to remember that certain imperfections can contribute to the overall look of a photo. These types of flaws can humanize a photo and make it more enchanting to viewers. Professional portrait photo retouching service providers know that over-retouching one’s photos can make them look unnatural and boring.
In this blog, we discuss how to balance portrait photo retouching to make it visually impactful. We’ll give you some of our best tips and tricks to create images that look naturally beautiful. Let’s get started.
How to avoid over retouching portrait photos
Retouching photos is a powerful tool that can take your photos to the next visual level. But, if used excessively can turn an image from classy to tacky so, you must exercise caution and balance in your photo editing services to bring out the best in your work.
Here are some of our best tips to help you with your retouching process.
Have a good photo
Making a photo good from bad is a difficult take, even if you have the best retouching software at your disposal. Trying to execute this can also lead to over retouching because you’re trying to compensate for a bad photo.
Our best tip to avoid over retouching a photo? Have good ones. The better the original photo, the less work you’ll need to do on it. It’s true that retouching photos is a part of the creative process, however, you want this part of the job to be focused on enhancing the features of your subject and the overall feel of the photo.
Be selective
When it comes to portrait photo retouching services, it’s easy to go overboard by trying to fix everything on the photo. Doing this can take away certain charms of a photo and it can even take up too much time – which can be detrimental to a project’s timeline.
What we’re trying to say is, don’t try to fix everything on the image. Be selective and smart with your retouching process. Focus on enhancing key areas of the subject such as their eyes, lips, and skin. Once you’ve accomplished this, you can see how your photo’s overall look has improved.
Use a light touch
The secret to excellent portrait photo retouching vs over retouching? A light touch.
We recommend that you practice subtlety in your photo retouching, simply because overdoing it is much easier to do – and trickier to undo. Think of your photo retouching process as a time to enhance the natural features of your subject, not a time to correct blemishes. Shifting your mindset to the former will help you exercise caution in the editing process.
Tip: When retouching your photos, we recommend that you create a new layer whenever you’re editing, that way if the edit doesn’t turn out well, you can simply delete it.
Take breaks
Retouching photos takes a lot of time. You may think that focusing on completing the photo by working on it straight can help you finish the work faster but, it can be counterproductive to your process, which is why we recommend that you have frequent breaks during your retouching process.
Taking frequent breaks will give your eyes the rest it needs, and it helps you recalibrate your eyes to see if you’re overdoing parts of your editing process. Not to mention that taking breaks from staring at your screen is healthy!
Get feedback
Once you’ve finished editing a photo, you should show it to others and get feedback on your work. Having another pair of eyes can direct your attention to things you may have missed. Take this opportunity to improve your craft and your output.
Go experiment
If you’re not on a strict deadline, take the time to experiment with your photos and see how you can improve them and how you can make them yours.
Take this time to understand your style and how you can retouch photos to reflect your photography skills. Remember, while there are portrait photo retouching guides available online, there’s no set of hard rules preventing you from making your signature style.
Finding the right balance in portrait photo retouching
Portrait photo retouching may not have a set of rules but, one thing remains to be true: balance is key. Finding the right balance between perfection and imperfection is what will make your photos stand out from other artists.
This type of skill takes time to master so, you should continuously practice your editing skills by working on different subjects and studying more about it.
If you’re looking to learn more about the art of photo retouching, feel free to visit our blog and go through our trove of resources.
