That Picture is Unreal!

All of my pictures are Photoshopped. However, the trick is to make them appear as if they haven't. Everyone has imperfections and, unfortunately, the more perfect I can make a person appear, the better the picture will do in the marketplace. It's just a necessary part of the business.


In the picture above (click the picture to view larger), my model is certainly a gorgeous beauty without retouching, but, when you examine the picture closely and at full size, imperfections start to show up. Here I have removed acne blemishes, lightened moles and removed a few small wrinkles from the forehead. The eyes have been brightened, as have the teeth and the lips have been reddened a bit. Stopping there would have been enough but I thought it might be interesting to do a general smoothing of the skin and narrow the entire face slightly. To do all this to an image takes me about 20 to 30 minutes.

Almost all of my pictures are posed in some fashion. Here again the idea is to make it look as if they are not posed. If a model is having a tough time relaxing I will often give them something to do like talk on a cell phone, hold an umbrella and even sometimes just twirl around. Unplanned candid shots are great but time usually dictates that I have to make the shot rather than wait for it. This doesn't mean that my models "cheese" for the camera. I look at modeling much like acting except models are acting to a still camera instead of a motion picture camera.

Most of my pictures are manipulated in some fashion. Whether my model has been posed or photoshopped, I am always going for a natural look. And it's not that people aren't beautiful on their own but it's about enhancing am image to help it meet the needs of my clients in the marketplace.

More to come...