The Art of Beauty: Portrait Retouching

It may be cliche, but it’s true. No body is perfect. Even the most genetically gifted celebrity supermodels have something they wish they could change or hide about their bodies. For the perfect piece of wedding photography, sometimes retouching goes beyond even people to tweak pieces of fashion and the environment.

The idea behind hiring a professional artist to create your images and do your wedding photography is to mask the characteristics you’d rather not share with the world (or those closest to you!) while showing off your very best features. 

That is our art, and what we strive for in every single photograph we take. With years of experience in posing, angles, lenses, and lighting, we’ve found what works for others - and for you, too. You are a beautiful person, and we’re going to prove it to you (with the help of a certain elan and a little bit of post-production).

Broadly, post is a two-step process of editing and retouching. 

Editing is the process of winnowing out duds (the flash didn’t fire, someone is making a weird face) and correcting crop, exposure and color. Apart from an extra step to bring a little vibrancy back to the colors, most images will only see this part of post.

Retouching is just what you’re imaginging. It’s where we take a plain image and turn it into something extraordinary. We are able to remove blemishes, smooth skin, hide wrinkles, add toning and glow, and enhance your natural features. There will also be similar work on the background to ensure there are no distractions from the essence of the picture.

Each image delivered to you in your portrait gallery will include this retouching process. Any prints and larger print products you may order will, if necessary, include a second round of retouching to make your images look absolutely incredible.

There are some limits to what we can do in post-production. Your portrait should celebrate your beauty, not some perfectly plastic image out of a magazine. So our default approach to beauty retouching is with a light hand. There are some limits to what we can do in post-production.
At your initial consult with us, we’ll discuss retouching and how to show off the best side of yourself to the camera so you can walk into the shoot feeling totally confident.

-Ryan Richardson is a wedding and portrait photographer based in Massachusetts.