Retouching As An Art... Or Not.

So, a client emailed me a few days ago. She was thrilled with her wedding photos but she wanted a little more flash, fun, and a little less wrinkles, blemishes and dull teeth.

So my reaction was "Of course, I can do whatever you need."

These photos were the results.

The photos themselves are wonderful. They are well done but just need some polishing to be spectular.

This first one here is of the groom and his two new stepdaughters. It's a fun look and really shows the two girls personalities. While our little blonde is outgoing and affectionate here, our redhead is slightly more reserved and poses more for the camera than just letting go. Our groom couldn't be happier with his girls though.

Mom wanted to up the fun factor in this one and of course give everyone a little spit shine.

The result was this little gem. Some teeth whitening, some skin smoothing, and a little photo magic.

You'll notice that the photo is slightly red-ish in tone and is over saturated with color. -An artistic effect that makes the photo stand out from an ordinary posed wedding shot.

Placing a border like this one on a photo requires you to be very careful in matting and framing the image but done correctly this could become the feature of your wedding album.

This next set of images is strictly a view on facial retouching, color blancing and overall improvement of the photo opportunity.

The first photo here was taken with an external flash, bounced off the ceiling at a 45 degree angle and on an Appeture Priority Mode setting. Generally it is a well lit photo and both the bride and her father have genuine smiles.

The background is fairly static and does not detract from the focus of the photo.

It could however use some polish.

The next photo is exactly that-polished.

As you can tell, the photo was sharpened slightly, the exposure corrected slightly and the photo put under a glamour lighting filter.

Both faces were retouched and the laugh lines around the eyes and the mouths were smoothed out. The skin tones evened, and the photo cropped to improve the posistioning of the subjects.

The result is a very traditional photo but one that shows both subjects in the best possible light.

It is not necessary to retouch all your images, nor is it necessary to use the VERY expensive programming to do so. But retouching can give you a whole new look on a photo. Try it.

Well friends, here we are, almost a year after the conception of this sweet little idea and it has been an adventure. Running a business is not easy. Running your life and a business is even harder.

Finally, I have finished my new and improved website (if you haven’t seen it, go check it out~I totally rock and I’m so proud of myself for figuring it out). Hopefully, this new website will draw in more business. There is no point being great at photography or anything else if your client can’t see how good you truly are.

I have been booking weddings and events like mad over the last few days. So much so that I had to create a huge wall sized calendar for my office wall so that I can answer that all important question, "Are you available on ______ date?" at a glance.

With gas prices being what they are I have had to raise my rates just slightly, however I am still WELL under other photographers (60% or so) for event and wedding bookings.
I haven’t had a client complain about the quality of their images yet and to think all of this is self taught. I am pretty happy with it.

But as with all things, it could end at any time. I have been pretty lucky to be able to pursue this. To be honest, if I had to make my living off of what I have generated with photography alone I could not eat.

Trust me, I know the meaning of starving artist now.

Luckily, my husband completely supports our family on his own, bless him. The man works like a dog and brings home some serious cash flow.

The most important thing I have learned is just to be patient, stick with it, and when paying gigs are few and far between hook family and friends in to give you a photography fix and build up that portfolio.