079: Larissa Joice – Photoshop Hot Tips For Beginners & Retouching Etiquette

And we know as photographers that that’s not always possible. That there are people that hide for the whole day and avoid you, and sometimes I think it’s important to say to your clients, “Well, okay, so if there are people that are really, really important on your wedding day, you kind of need to make sure that I get a photograph of them, because I might not. And if they’re really, really important, then they need to be on that formals list.” And I know that there are photographers who don’t do that, and that’s fine, but that will stop, because the number of people I get who are like, I’ve missed a shot with the bride and mom, or the dad and their parents or granny. And if you just take the time to talk to your clients and say, “Are these really, really important?”

Then if they come back to you after that and you’ve done all those things, then you can say to them, “Well, okay, so we did talk through this and I can’t Photoshop that for you, but it will cost you this much.” Or “I can Photoshop for you, I can do you an hour for free, but it will cost you this much.” And I think also, if you’ve got a client on a day that goes through the list or says, “Oh, don’t worry about it.” Then say, “Are you really sure? Are you sure if we don’t get this, how you will feel?” So I think that’s really important is just taking the time and just double checking with your clients and double checking with yourself.

So that’s important. When it comes to wrinkles, you have to bear in mind that, with different light sources, wrinkles will stand out more or less. So if you’ve got a really harsh light, then gently taking some of that shadow away is not taking away the wrinkles, it’s just taking away the shadow. Taking away the wrinkles altogether is something else entirely. Something I wouldn’t do unless somebody actually asked me. But taking away a little bit of the shadow, I don’t see it so bad because you’re not taking away the wrinkles. You’re just minimizing the shadow. But you have to do it in such a way that your client looks at those photographs and, rather than seeing the thing that they don’t like about themselves, they don’t see it. But what they definitely don’t see is any retouching work you’ve done.

But that applies more for things like headshots, rather than weddings. Because weddings, you’ve got a thousand pictures or whatever and you can’t be doing every single one. But it is about, with things like wrinkles, minimizing it, but in such a way that your client’s not just seeing it. That they love their picture, but they’re not seeing anything that you’ve done to it.

So, I don’t know. I think it just, yeah. It helps that I see patterns in things, that I can look at an image and see if it’s good enough. That yes, there are lots of different kind of photographers and some are really, really picky, and that being picky is not a bad thing. It’s just the way we are. And some people and some clients are a lot more relaxed. They just won’t see it. They just want a nice photograph. It’s a bit like when you’re photographing someone where a loved one is no longer there – I get a request for somebody to add somebody who’s passed away into a photograph. They don’t care about picky. They just want their loved one in that photograph. But, it’s being able to look at photograph and seeing if it’s enough. If you can look at it and if it’s believable.