MALE PORTRAIT RETOUCHING SKIN

Want to save this Portrait Retouching article for later? No problem, CLICK HERE to have it sent to you as a PDF. In this case, a Nikon 105 Micro lens added even more clarity to the image-and clearly, more clarity than was needed! The clogged pores, enlarged pores, small broken veins, splotchy spots all over his scalp, fifty-five-year-old chicken pox scars on his forehead and the general wear and tear that comes with age are all shown in painful detail when photographed with a contemporary lens.

MALE PORTRAIT RETOUCHING SKIN

The man in the portrait above has a series of skin flaws most people wouldn’t notice so intently if they were to look at him face to face, or remember if they spoke on the phone the day after they met. This leads to O’Connor’s Rule of Retouching:Ī retouched photo should look like the person in your mind’s eye when you think of them, neither more nor less. Human eyes are searching much more for emotion, expression and character shown in the eyes and expression than for the skin flaws. Is this what we see when we look at the person’s face? No. When you create a portrait of someone today, every flaw, every skin defect, every imperfection can be recorded in excruciating detail. It’s a portrait, not a clinical dermatology record.

Let’s start with a basic portrait of a real person, not a film star. I would propose that different types of images require different approaches to retouching. Others, as exemplified by the plastic-skinned images displayed on some magazine covers, think that radical alteration is essential. It should never deviate from the original capture. Some purists will argue that a portrait should never be altered, at all. It shows all the steps, using a well-aged face that benefits from retouching attention more than most. This post looks at fundamental techniques for retouching portraits that enhance an image, not distort nor disguise it. This truism is rarely more evident than when you see an over-retouched portrait, changing a face to something more resembling a Ken or Barbie doll than a living human being. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Male portrait retouching