At my seminar in Vegas last January, a lot of the attendees sort of gasped really loud at the before shots of some of the images I have worked.

Loud and very audible from at least 50 feet away.

Quite amusing really and at the same time quite a eye opener for me. You see, most of the class were already involved with what they called "Hi End Beauty Retouching" or were Photographers in the industry. Their response took me by as much surprise s the images did them I believe.

The reality is that the vast majority of models out there do NOT have good skin, never mid perfect or flawless. Usually no where near it.

Are there models out there that make it easy for retouchers? Sure. But far and few between and usually out of most photographers price range.

Are there every day people like you and me in the world that have better skin than some models? Oh yeah. The vast majority of us is my belief.

Just to inject at this point, having a 22 or 30 or higher mega-pixel camera is NO guarantee that you will automatically get flawless skin. You are better off with spot on lighting and a good makeup artist to minimize.

Most of the models out there are chosen more for their bone structure and aesthetics than their skin. Or their weight. Or their height.
Hair color, shape of the mouth, and such are more important than how beautiful your skin is unless of course you are shooting for a makeup line. ( and even then I have touched up some dreadful skin)

I have done Beauty retouching to models who are overweight, out of shape, had a hair makeover disaster (or nails), and the list goes on.

But the one thing they ALL had in common were beautiful and classic bone structure. Someone who no matter how they presented themselves would look like she spent a lot of time doing it. Even at the bare bones level. ( no pun intended... sorry)

When I lived in Ct I was asked several times to talk to women's groups or at schools about the
" apparent attempt to influence how we feel about ourselves visually" by the media.
At the majority of most of them when it ended there were more comments on the line of "we do it to ourselves" more than "The media was to blame". They understood that it wasn't a weight issue as much as many were lead to believe. or that you needed to be over 5'9" to be thought of as perfect.

Granted that that is not ALWAYS the case, but it is the larger reality of things.

But back to Retouching and Skin...

There isn't going to be a guarantee that you will get flawless skin ever. Most likely you will get what you have already been seeing, good all around skin with acne and scars (possibly), but mostly skin that you and I already have.

I really hope that none of you get the skins I have had to work on. But you will get a chance because they surely will be on my skin dvd coming soon.

Cheers!

Chris