Public Forums > Photography > Retouching for models!

I have seen some really bad touch up jobs that models have done by themselves whilst editing their images!  However, I've seen some really bad jobs.  It's much better just to leave images simple and if you really must, just use a tool to get rid of blemishes like spots and lines and use a light hand.  A lot of cloning can be quite complicated and its better to make sure you look good before the image is taken or take a few free online lessons before you play about with it.

Yes, very good advice. Many times no retouching is necessary. Unless you're a photoshop pro, messing around with an image excessively can make it look worse than the original image. Most times the most I'll do with a raw image is lighten it up and crop...and of course get rid of a pimple here and there that my foundation couldn't hide. =)

Some photographers also have a bad tendency to over-photoshop model's images. I mean, it's one thing to make a model look flawless but not if she ends up not looking real at all! I did one shoot with a photographer who loved to airbrush his models. The images I did get from him were really gorgeous but they weren't images I could use to submit to jobs for because I looked like plastic. Those type of photographers should shoot for publications like Playboy where it's public knowledge to make the models look a bit fantasy-like.

I agree! I know some photographers that love photoshop they add bizarre details on the back (like a moon!? oh yes) and distort the models face so it's unrecognisable! Which isn't good from the models fault.  A lot of airbrushing now aims for perfection which is also bad for the model as they may not be like that in the flesh and as you said, it looks fake and plastic. I know a guy who enlarged the models breasts - a lot! Poor girl couldn't use them!

Oh, my gosh, he enlarged her breasts?! That's terrible! I don't even know how to do that in Photoshop and I'm glad I don't haha. I think that's so bad because it definitely doesn't help the model out at all. Sometimes overly retouched pictures just look downright "scary" because it looks so fake. I used to get frustrated with certain photographers who refused to let me have raw images and insisted on retouching them so I would plead with them to just lightly retouch any blemishes or obvious stuff like my stretch marks. I would always hold my breath when I finally got the images because I wasn't sure what I was going to get.

Ah, the beauty of technology...haha.

Oh yes - a bit of retouching is a godsend!  We all have wrinkles, blemishes etc. sometimes it so glossy and funny - changing someones skin colour, making features bigger and smaller etc. its so odd!