As with film and TV, a lot of the magic in photography happens behind the scenes. Every package comes with image retouch included, which is digital post processing that will enhance the original picture captured by the camera.

‘Standard Retouch’ is included for all headshot and portrait packages. The majority of headshot and portrait images shown on the website are with Standard Retouch. A few beauty images within model portfolios have undergone slightly more advanced retouching. Edited images are provided with a personal non-commercial licence. You can read about the licence in section 5 of my terms & conditions.

Headshots should be a true representation of you, so there is no excessive skin smoothing, including where large areas have small pimples, removal of permanent marks such as scars, hair colouring, body/face sculpting and removal of pits or wrinkles. This would fall into the category of ‘Extended Retouch’, which is an additional cost.

STANDARD RETOUCH

This involves removing any impermanent spots or blemishes, a light reduction of darkness under the eyes (if required) and colour grading. The process taking approximately 30 minutes per image.

Anything beyond ‘Standard Retouch’ falls under ‘Extended Retouch’, which is not included with any package.

EXTENDED RETOUCH

This is a detail orientated process which can take upwards of two hours per image.

Images can receive a range of different retouch techniques including any number of the following, to enhance every aspect and make them more dynamic:

Skin tone and texture made to look as good as possible whilst maintaining a natural look.
Hair enhanced for more contrast and body.
Extra emphasis is given to darks and highlights in areas such as the eyes to give them more depth.
Clothing enhanced to give it an extra POP.
Background removal/replacement or expansion.

If you would like extended retouch of your images from any package, please request this either when booking, or on the day of your shoot. This service can be provided starting at an additional £50 per image. The exact amount will be determined depending on the amount of work required and whether or not the editing requires outsourcing.

COLOUR GRADING

Wondering what colour grading is?

It’s not simply piling on Instagram filters—though technically, that does count. Colour grading is a detailed process that enhances colours and adjusts contrasts between lights and darks.

For my workflow, step one begins during the image capture and is further refined after the shoot. Step two is demonstrated in the example below, with steps three and four visible within the tabs of that window.

Beyond this, I typically add three to four customised layers to achieve the final look, excluding the steps dedicated to skin work.