Reflections on Retouching
Photoshop and Instagram didn’t invent it. They made it easier.
Buzz Kill: Hollywood royalty relied on expert photographers and retouchers to perpetuate the myth of infallibility to awe-struck moviegoers. Joan Crawford, seen here photographed by George Hurrell before and after the 8x10 negative received the standard glam treatment. Hurrell insisted that female stars arrive on set free of makeup, preferring to handle it entirely in post-production for consistency. Read more about Hurrell’s extraordinary era-defining career here.
Photo retouching is a tricky topic. It is justifiably scorned for its over-zealous application, rendering human faces unnaturally perfect and illusory. Though it’s a fine line since people—even and especially the beautiful ones—are often disappointed by what the camera captures. Digital intervention, combined with lighting technique, is necessary to meet client expectations.
For me, it’s a question of degree. I have no issue minimizing creases, zapping impermanent blemishes, or correcting blotchy skin and broken capillaries. Or traditional dodging and burning to adjust tonal values. After all, the camera can be an imperfect machine, and photography is an artful and expressive medium, when it is not purely documenting. Artificial light is a deception since no one ever appears that way in ordinary life. Like cosmetics, lighting is transformative and used to conceal, highlight or create mood and drama. Unless it’s journalism on the line, it would be absurd to expect that image manipulation is off-limits, that the camera’s capture is the final word. It’s OK to strive for beauty—as artists have always done—or simply to express personality.
However, I’m strictly opposed to obliterating skin topography to the extent that results in the highly stylized, sickly-smooth, unattainable perfection celebrated on Instagram, in magazines, and elsewhere. It contributes to a negative self-image for those of us—read most humans—that don’t measure up; a dangerous detachment from reality. Even children have under-eye creases, but you’d never know it by scrolling one’s mobile device. That’s why I prefer to handle retouching myself. In my experience, most professional retouchers subscribe to the more-is-better philosophy and lay it on thick. It results in skin devoid of texture and faces robbed of their history, among other excesses.
My experience in this area extends to my previous career as a magazine creative director, commissioning and directing celebrity photo shoots. Before the advent of digital cameras, the topic was slightly less fraught since film resolution was more forgiving. The exceptional capabilities of digital sensors coupled with newly optimized lenses reveal an astonishing level of unflattering detail. Clogged pores, errant hair, flaky skin, and assorted detritus should be corrected or reduced. And since we perceive photos with greater scrutiny than actual encounters where our focus is on the eyes, photographers increasingly rely on digital trickery to mitigate flaws that typically go unnoticed, but which are glaringly exposed by the unforgiving probing of modern cameras.
The ease of blurring skin, deleting blemishes, and general age-erasing moves inevitably lead to taking liberties with body-shaping and trimming weight. The temptation is too great. We’re well aware of the abuses caused by the depiction of idealized human perfection. In France and other nations, the exploitation of manipulated images was considered so harmful to young people’s mental health that it required legislation mandating disclaimers on editorial and advertising images. (Read Forbes’ article here.)
The jury is out on whether legislation can deliver the desired impact. And it’s improbable that such an idea will gain traction here in America. Indeed, it’s so far gone that pushing back on over-manipulation seems inconceivable as long as Kardashian-types embrace it. It’s analogous to the self-deception of those disfigured by out-of-control cosmetic procedures, who cling to the notion that they’ve defied aging. What matters is in the mind of the beholder. And those who profit from perpetuating the myth.
When Too Much Is Never Enough. A case study where the ‘fix’ results in a ghoulish fantasy.
I advocate for restraint when it comes to image processing. Contemporary unretouched photographs demonstrate tremendous power and a sense of high art by asserting unassailable forthrightness. Let’s see more of that, please.
Beauty In Truth. A capture from my ongoing series of non-binary, gender fluid, and transgender individuals, completely unsullied by retouching.
