complished on computers is amazing—so hire some talented young people and
pay them to create it for you. You have three jobs in your business and in your
life: take pictures, train your staff, and spend time with your family and friends.
Standardize Your Procedures.
As we all know, there are many ways to accomplish the same job in Photoshop,
however each technique for accomplishing a particular job will create a certain
look. If you have two different people retouch the same image, giving them no
instructions, you will typically end up with images that look like they were pho-
tographed by two different photographers. To ensure consistency, you need to
define a step-by-step method of enhancement that each and every person work-
ing on your images will follow. What strategy you use to enhance your images
is a personal decision.
Our Approach to Enhancement.
The Skin.As photographers move toward automated types of retouching that
use diffusion to soften the skin, I feel like we are seeing more and more “plas-
tic” people. They don’t have any texture on their skin, so they look a littletoo
perfect. I prefer retouching each ordered image by hand, using the Clone Stamp
tool on a low opacity setting to retouch acne, reduce wrinkles and dark areas,
and slightly soften the overall texture of the skin. While there are other tools and
Enhancing the eyes is a quick but impor-
tant procedure that makes a big difference
in the look of a portrait.