How far would do you go in beauty retouching?

[edgesuarez]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forum and new to retouching. I know it's usually personal preference on how far you'd go when it comes to retouching. But are there any do and don'ts when it comes to retouching a beauty shot? Would for example, straightening out the ridge of the nose in a profile shot be something you absolutely must do for a beauty shot?

Thanks!

[skoobey]

Re: How far would do you go in beauty retouching?

It's about changing anything that looks odd or distracting. For example: hair line, asymetry of the nostrils, nail shape, lip symetry... pimples, loose hairs... cracked lips... but again all depending on the image, sometimes that is the whole point.

You don't want everyone to look the same, you only straighten bridge of the nose if it's a distraction, not if it's the point of the image.

In general there are two types of retouching for beauty: creative, where it's about fantasy, and realistic where it should be the same person. The former is never a celebrity.

[edgesuarez]

Re: How far would do you go in beauty retouching?

Thanks for the reply skoobey!

Sometimes it's just hard to draw the line on what to keep and what not to.

[skoobey]

Re: How far would do you go in beauty retouching?

What I do is flip the image every each way, it gets more apparent what grabs your attention when you look at things in reverse.

[Greg Curran]

Re: How far would do you go in beauty retouching?

I do a general clean up then remove anything that looks out of place. I will send a pdf over to the client for anything they want done too. Just to have a second eye on it.

[Benny Profane]

Re: How far would do you go in beauty retouching?

However far somebody pays me to go.

[captain_j_hook]

Re: How far would do you go in beauty retouching?

I think beauty retouch should go more towards a real skin feeling instead of an uniform pattern, keeping some flaws of the skin and avoiding "glows" or "silk-like" looks. but this is just my 2 cents.