Should Your Office Headshots Be Retouched?

Reputable Sydney businesses use professionally taken headshots. It’s a given nowadays, if you don’t have a proper headshot, people question your professionalism. Sydney headshot photographers work in many ways and retouching often comes up as a question. Should you have it?

What is Retouching?

Retouching refers to the process of adjusting and improving the appearance of a photograph. It involves a wide range of techniques, such as removing blemishes or imperfections, smoothing skin, removing red patches, enhancing colors, and altering the light and shadow of the image.

Retouching is used to make an image look more polished and professional. However the level of retouching is very dependent on each photographer. Our style is very natural and realistic. Our goal is to make you look your best, but not seem retouched.

Should I Use Retouching?

Our stance is clear. The way you perceive a 3 dimensional person in real life is different to how you see a 2D photo on a screen. A camera will capture you in a way that doesn’t reflect someone’s impression of you in real life. That’s why you often see your own photo, and it somehow doesn’t feel quite right. Retouching is essential, to make you look like how you appear in real life.

We don’t take things away from you. We can help you with reducing the appearance of scars and wrinkles without taking them away. Many people have one larger eye, and we help you balance this out. There are a whole range of things we do on every photograph you see on this website. Do any of them look fake? You probably didn’t realise they are all retouched until now.

Retouching Example 1

We also add a little something to give you more “presence.” Here’s a quick example of one that didn’t need a lot of retouching. The left is the original photo, the right is the retouched. Use the slider to compare the before and after.

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All our headshots come with our Fine Touch editing. It cleans up any skin blemishes, brightens eye bags, whitens teeth (in a realistic way), and lots of other small things you wouldn’t even think about. Over the years, our services have been refined, and now we take care of things that years ago we wouldn’t have even noticed. Because it’s so natural looking, you don’t even realise that every photograph you see on this site is retouched. And that’s the point, isn’t it?

Retouching Example 2

Here is another typical headshot. On the left is the original photo, the right is the retouched. Use the slider to compare the before and after. Notice we don’t turn you into a plastic doll – that’s so 80s.

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We’ve seen many Sydney corporate and commercial photographers will put retouching as an extra addon, in order to reduce the initial fee quoted to you. This is a false economy. Why work to lift your brand, only to cut out in the most important final steps? Imagine hiring a chef for a dinner party – they only quote the cooking, and your guests need to go to the kitchen and plate their own food – pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?

Our years of experience lets us bring out the best in you, in a way that even your friends and family won’t realise your headshot is retouched. It’s one of the reasons you come to us, instead of generalist photographers.

Retouching Example 3

Sometimes you might think someone is young, we don’t need retouching for them. Again, retouching is not about beautifying someone. Look at this example. The left original photo is good already. Our retouching takes care of some blemishes, the slightest hint of redness, and enhances their gaze, so that you can really feel that connection.

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Conclusion

We believe all headshots should be retouched. It lifts a headshot from good, to great. To skip retouching is like baking a cake and skipping the icing.

When your clients visit your website, a retouched vs non-retouched business headshot will subliminally affect the client’s perception of your brand. Nobody is going to be able to put words to it, only that somehow they felt a connection with this over another headshot.

Executive Images provides Corporate Headshot Photography at your business location or in our Coogee studio. Contact us now and let us help you make your best first impression.