For most of us, in the photography industry postproduction is key to making your pictures stand out, as well as making people look his or her best, which is what most women request, along with taking off 20lbs and taking off 20 years. Now, I am not saying to take an 80 person and make him or her look 20 again, but people tend to appreciate an edit here and there.
This is a bit embarrassing, but it took me awhile to get used to Adobe’s Lightroom and in the beginning most of my edits were done in Adobe Photoshop. Now as you know, it works and matter of fact it is amazing. The downfall is that if you have 100+ pictures, it can be painful and take you awhile to edit all of them. Of course you can use Adobe Bridge to do some edits, but after you use Lightroom, you probably won’t.
One of my biggest pet peeves is the need to strive to make people look their finest. I know this doesn’t sound like a bad thing, being a photographer; but I hate to say that I can be a little anal about it. For most people, importing their pictures, doing some global edits, tagging, and exporting can take a few minutes. I wish this were the case for me. Once a picture has been tagged and rated, I move onto the next step, I call it plastic surgery and my scalpel is Photoshop. Now, I am not an expert, by any means, but I attempt my best to have the image come out perfect. If you have ever shot people, you know what I mean. With sleep deprivation running rapid in America, bags under the eyes are par for the course. For this area, I like to use the Adobe Patch tool, now some people will blend and that works as well. Another area in need of attention is Crows’ feet, those pesky wrinkles around the eye. Once again, the Patch tool works wonders, just make sure you select your area properly and your correct destination. Now, of course if your model/client is a little bit older, you will probably need to tend to a few more wrinkles around the face and neck. Repeat after me, Patch tool again. Which brings me to another area, the chin? This can be a tough one as well, but can be manipulate using good old Photoshop and a little tool called Liquify. One of the reasons that photographers tend to charge extra for major touchups, is because it takes time. A quick touchup can take 15 minutes, while major reconstruction could run an hour or longer. So remember this when making a quote.
I hope I have not bored you too much. I had fun writing this one. I trust I have given you some valuable tips to think about, before planning your next shoot. It’s not all bad, just be clear and informative, it will save you a lot of headaches. Remember nothing is set in stone and there is not perfect formula, so go out and have some fun.
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