It didn’t mean a lot of money but it was really fun to have people besides family wanting your work. Anyways, when I picked photography up I was very tempted to fall back on Photoshop. Now I lean towards no editing if I can (family or friends.) It’s just where I am. Neither right nor wrong. If a friend/family member were to ask that I remove something, I’d do it in a heartbeat, but for me, I could airbrush a perfect picture of someone if I wanted ‘perfect beauty.’ Photography really seems to be the art of finding beauty in ultimate reality.

I don’t do portraits (except family) so I don’t have to worry about it. If I did do portraiture, I would like to say to my supporter “here are the pictures, here they are with a slight bit of tweaking (I often up the saturation a little bit) but is there anything else you’d like me to emphasize or de-emphasize?” It’d give them a chance to tell me what they want as a finale image; since that’s what portraiture seems to be about – family, friends or self having an image of the person(s) that makes them feel good.

I believe, I will find a polite way to ask… here is a before and after on a very gorgeous blonde where the plain skin rize near nose was removed… and she is loving it : http://glamourphotography.co/?p=779

Others… well, we can’t show what folks aren’t loving as easily…

I continued working, but haunted by that ”freckle” so I went back to the picture and magnified it several times.
It was a misquito!! Arched and ready to strike! I did remove it again, after I saved the close up shot.
Did a small insert on the larger corrected photo and put in the back of the album; The last five pages of the book contained ” take out-photos ” …..to be sure-EVERYONE favored that fun capture!! And she never moved. **Photo is not up to grade-due to resizing for sending.

For friends that I photograph I simply ask if they’d like me to process anything, without sounding biased. But I do understand the issue, some people just feel it’s important to embrace themselves.

So instead of healing something completely, you might try fading it instead. This is especially good for eye bags or Lawrence-Fishburn like skin uniformity (Which I think makes him look tougher and dynamic. Why would you remove something like that?)

1) Heal-tool the imperfection
2) Edit > Fade (Learn the shortcut to speed this up)
3) Bring the effect BACK as desired. I typically settle on 20-30% depending on the lighting.

You always want people (and especially clients) to think of you and recommend you as a great PHOTOGRAPHER, not a great touch-up artist. They know it needs to be done, you know it’s part of the develop process – but if the picture you hand back isn’t them, and could never be them under the best lighting conditions, then you’ve succeeded in creating a new beautiful person, but failed at recording a memory.

That said, you could also pose them doing something that reflects their personality, instead of a bare-bones, this-is-your-face-today portrait.

But for basic retouching on MY photography, I am always careful to leave people looking like themselves. I hate seeing photos of older people not quite looking like themselves with a lot less wrinkles and botox tight skin.

Another fun thing to remember is tattoos!

I’ve had people ask for two sets of photographs, one with tattoos and one without (for those certain family members). I think the best thing to do is ask a client what they want in the picture and what they don’t want, such as photography “studios” asking if they want the skin “softened” or not, but we’re better than that.