Rick Allen Photography Blog

“In the same way that an editor pares away excessive wording or extraneous thought in order to focus the literary message; or a classical pianist contours a melodic phrase by indicating through touch and volume and rhythm, the musical stream; so a retoucher simplifies a photographic statement by diminishing or paring away nonessential visual elements, showing you where to look.”

Hello, I took the opening quote from Robb Carr, a master artist, who retouches publicity and commercial photographs for the movie industry as well as the world’s most illustrious photographers.  His work is as recognizable to fellow professionals as it is invisible to the general public.

So as we embrace what I hope will be an informative journey into Advanced Retouching, I thought we could start with a few personal thoughts.  The ultimate objective of Advanced Retouching is to have one’s work be invisible. If one’s work is obvious, the viewer’s experience is no longer with the photograph’s statement, but rather on the skill of the retoucher.  This isn’t to say that one couldn’t see differences between the original and the retouched images.  But if presented only with the final image, one’s work could not be seen.

Not all photos warrant the same degree of effort.  At 2 hours or more of post per image for Advanced Retouching, one has to be selective as to which images are truly deserving of such attention.  

There are exceptions to this rule.  If one is doing commercial work, every photo (or a large percentage of them) might be important.  In those cases, one has to plan - and budget - for the time it is going to take to master the photographer’s vision and ultimately the viewer’s experience.  Which brings me to my next thought….

I have had the great privilege of watching master photographers at work.  They instinctively know when a shoot is working, and can distinguish between good and exceptional work.  I have seen many wonderful photos left on the cutting room floor (to mix a metaphor), simply because the “eyes weren’t alive.”  The point of all of this is that the very best photographers religiously use professional retouchers: they know better than most how the camera constrains their vision, and the objective of the retoucher is to help complete that vision statement.  What distinguishes Greg Gorman and Annie Libowitz from the rest is their ability to conceptualize in 2-dimensional space that which literally reveals the individuality of the person being photographed.

One final thought.  A caveat of sorts.  As a retoucher, I am not working in the realm of photo-journalism where the rules of post are carefully scripted.  I consider my efforts more in the realm of commercial or fine art photography, where a vision is being communicated.  In portraiture, that vision frequently comprises beauty of the human condition, and as such I personally have a couple of rules of my own.  Unless the job is for commercial purposes where the intent of the retouching is to complete the vision of the art director, I do not believe that one should ever modify a portrait subject such that the result reinforces negative stereotypes about one’s self.  What do I mean by that?  How many times as retouchers are we asked to shed a few pounds or eliminate those wrinkles?  Said differently, how many magazine covers are so over-the-top retouched that no human could ever achieve such levels of “beauty?”  My personal rules may include, for example, minimizing the contrast of those pesky wrinkles, but never to remove them.  It gets back to having one’s work be invisible.  I like to show my retouched images to people who know the portrait subject, telling them that the image has been retouched, and asking them to describe the nature of my modifications.  If they cannot, then I have accomplished my task.  Ultimately, I want the portrait client to go home with the photographer’s image saying, “Boy, I took a good picture.”  I prefer the client goes home feeling good about themselves, rather than thinking, “yeh, I look so bad, they had to take a meat cleaver to my picture.”  I see myself more as an artist and psychologist than as a literalist.

One final comment.  At times, you may agree or disagree with some of my techniques or philosophical comments.  I say, GREAT.  I know that my 5-year-old friend, Aidan, sees the world differently than I do.  The art - and photographs - that he produces are his own vision.  And I am frequently amazed by his capabilities.  And I love the fact the he could use the sliders in iPhoto before he could read.  I look forward to seeing how Callum, his 3-year old brother, will see the world through his camera.  Isn’t photography awesome?

Thanks everyone.  That’s all for today’s Advanced Retouching series on RickAlllenPhoto.com.  See you soon!