The Power of Retouching

Select an image to view from the thumbnails below, then move the green slider handle back and forward to compare the before & after versions.

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This page is designed to give you a look at some of my retouching before-and-after shots. As you will see from the after images my policy on retouching, "Photoshopping" or "airbrushing" is very much one of realism and fidelity.

As a tool, Photoshop has received a lot of criticism over the years, but this view is misplaced as Photoshop itself is not a bad thing, it is simply misused too often. Used to the extreme it can make images look artificial, and can of course be used for "manipulation" of a person's physical appearance to make them look younger, thinner, or healthier. I will never use photoshop to achieve an undesirable or unrealistic result in my photography. I will use it to finish an image to a high-standard, correcting unflattering empahses that have been introduced by lighting, lens choice, or weather conditions. I will also happily remove blemishes, marks & scars that my client find undesirable.

Finally, Photoshop's main power is it's ability to produce better looking, selectively-edited images, just as would be found in the darkrooms of decades past, using time-tested techniques to enhance certain areas and draw the viewer's eye to the main subject.