BEFORE and AFTER HEADSHOTS
The Difference Conversational Retouching Can Make
Orange County Headshots offers our gallery of Before and After Headshots to help you experience the extraordinary benefit that expertly applied retouching can make to your headshot portrait.
At its essence, Retouching is simply the digital touchups that Mark Jordan personally applies to your headshot portrait.
Because every client’s face and needs are unique, so are our retouching options. To that end, Orange County Headshots offers three levels of retouching: Express, Prime, and Pro.
Each of our three levels of retouching differs in the approach and extent of pre and/or post-production refinements. Express level includes pre/post-production adjustments of the raw digital file (color, contrast, clarity, etc.) along with removal of blemishes and lint/spots on clothing. Prime and Pro retouching employ more extensive Subtractive (softening and removing) and Additive (enhancing) digital manipulations, rendering the face naturally and at its best. It’s YOU, on your best day.
Our goal is to portray YOU, on your best day.
BEFORE AND AFTER HEADSHOTS FLIP-CARDS
Each retouching comparison in our interactive Headshot Flip-Cards begins with an unretouched image, followed by either our Prime or Pro. We also show a few samples of our background design services, PLUS and PREMIER.
LIGHT OR HEAVY TOUCH?
Lastly, please keep in mind that any level of retouching can be applied with either a LIGHTER TOUCH or a HEAVIER TOUCH. While Mark Jordan prefers to render faces with a more natural, light touch, our samples below included BOTH Light and Heavy touches. This way you can determine which retouching approach is best for you.
CONVERSATIONAL RETOUCHING
Conversational Retouching is an exclusive approach of Mark Jordan Photography. Mark coined the phrase in 2005 to illustrate why retouching is essential to one’s professional headshot.
The goal of expertly applied retouching is to NOT render the face perfectly but Conversational – that is as if viewing their face while in a “conversation.”
Have you noticed that when we interact with others we do not notice every detail of their face? Sure you have, but do you know why? The answer is as simple as our peripheral vision.
When we converse with others our peripheral vision is fully activated. Instead of hyper-focusing on every facial feature and imperfection, our attention is distracted and divided among a myriad of visual inputs.
However, when we view the same face in a photograph, suddenly our peripheral vision is deactivated. Rather than seeing the face in its “natural” state, (i.e. in an admiring, diffuse recollection), we quickly notice every detail as if scrutinizing the face in a vanity mirror. Subsequently, features and blemishes are exaggerated, blunt, and unflattering.
Therefore, since the unretouched, “natural” face is anything but “natural,” judicious retouching is an absolute necessity. Accordingly, a greater degree of retouching is not intended to alter one’s character, but rather to restore one’s facial features to how others remember them –conversationally.
EXPRESSIONS ARE FLEETING
Yet another reason retouching is so vital to one’s professional headshot is that expressions are fleeting – this is especially relevant to the smile.
The quintessential difference between the painter and the photographer is that the latter seizes the moment. While the painter’s brush reflects an idealized interpretation of one’s expression, the camera freezes facial features in piercing detail – permanently.
Though the painter can opt to omit from his canvas the dark circles under the eyes caused by a passing smile, the photographer has no choice but to capture every eye-bag, line, wrinkle, creased brow, squinty eye, blemish, and imperfection. It’s the nature of photography and cannot be avoided. It’s also never more observable than in a portrait where its design and purpose are called a “head” shot!
In other words, the only way to reduce and soften the negative consequences of the captured moment is by sensible and skillful alterations of the photographed face.
The objective of retouching is to render the face as others think or recall one’s face, conversationally – not how it is frozen in time, with every distorted, harsh, and uncomplimentary imperfection that our faces express.
ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
We do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to retouching (as has become the norm these days).
Therefore, the level of retouching you need is entirely at your discretion. Though we have yet to photograph a face that did not require touching-up beyond our Express level, we allow our clients the option of choosing what degree of retouching is most relevant to them.
Keeping with our tradition of personalized service, we offer three finish styles. You can view examples of our looks/retouching options in our gallery of Before and After headshots above.
- Express – Standard: $0
- Prime – Radiance: $75
- Pro – Expansive: $150
Please note that our three options in our Before and After Headshots gallery are not seen as Good, Better, or Best. They are rather a practical approach to meeting the individual requirements of every face. There is no good, better, or best – only options that are most beneficial to your specific needs. One size does not fit all…
Determining the degree of retouching best suited for your face is largely a function of listening to your concerns and then attending to your specific requests. Many clients simply ask Mark to proceed according to his aesthetic appraisal. Regardless of which approach is best for you, we guarantee our retouching for the life of your image. We are also happy to tweak your headshot until you are thoroughly delighted.
Subtle & Dramatic Retouching
When viewing our Before and After Headshots, you will notice that some examples reveal a dramatic change while other alterations may be subtle. This is as it should be. After all, Mark creates headshots to meet his client’s specific needs, not the studio’s.
You may feel that some changes are too much for your taste. If so, please keep in mind that retouching is all about personalization. Pro retouching, therefore, can range from exaggerated to the understated. Though you may have to study closely to see the differences in some Pro images, please note that nuanced changes are frequently the most striking and effective.
With all this in mind, it’s understandable why citing the degree of retouching your headshot requires is not possible until we see your previews and evaluate your photographed face. This is also the reason we offer different strengths of retouching – since every face is unique, a headshot photographer must accommodate such distinct differences.
As always, should you have questions regarding any aspect of Before and After Headshots, no concern is too small.
Lorin Backe
Owner• Photographer