Professional Beauty Retouch

admin July 22,2017

                                                                         Before /After Retouch by Amy Dresser

If your initial impression of beauty retouch was simply using Photoshop to smooth skin like doll’s one, I am very happy that I have decided to write an article about the retouching career. That prejudice is just one of the most basic misunderstandings of outsiders about this arduous profession.

In the world, if you pursue the photo retouching, firstly, you have to determine that you will seat on a hot position. On the positive side, you will have abundant things to do and can get fabulous income. By 2014, a beauty retoucher can easily earn $300 to $400 from middle-class customers. This number would be even more if your customers are large newspapers. Moreover, you can even work anywhere and anytime (if you’re a freelancer, not an in-house retoucher) with your pajama, a messy head, and sleepy face. It sounds appealing, but do not let its deadly sweet charm fool your sense.

Nowadays, with the massive development of dirt- cheap digital cameras, the competition in photography is extremely fierce, in which the Beauty Retouching segment is at the forefront. Although it provides a lot of works, in comparison with the number of people pursuing it, it will be too little. Many contracts (mostly in the middle and lower decentralization) are slowly falling into the hands of retouch companies in India and China as general outsourcing trend of the globalization era. To get regular contracts, the only way is to approach the high-end customer such as large newspapers, fashion brands or cosmetic brands (high-end beauty retouch) where there are so many talented retouchers, and sometimes, brands are more important than talents. I do know that a studio specializing in beauty retouching in Barcelona lost a good advertising contract with L’OÉAL Paris to a more well-known studio in New York, although they can give the same results and lower prices to 10 times. The customer is always right, even when they are wrong.

To get regular contracts, the only way is to approach the high-end customer such as large newspapers, fashion brands or cosmetic brands (high-end beauty retouch) where there are so many talented retouchers, and sometimes, brands are more important than talents. I do know that a studio specializing in beauty retouching in Barcelona lost a good advertising contract with L’OÉAL Paris to a more well-known studio in New York, although they can give the same results and lower prices to 10 times. The customer is always right, even when they are wrong.

                                                                   Retouched by Natalia Taffarel ( Argentina)

30 years ago, people usually talked about doing exercise, makeup and hair styling, now the main keywords have turned into cosmetic surgery and Photoshop. The difficulty of retouching is not only competition but in fact, they will be criticized by the public especially, feminist organizations. There were a number of scandals related to beauty retouch L’RÉAL Paris, for example. It was evaluating agency advertising standards authority of the US banned many ads because they transplanted model’s face to other thinner model’s face, or H&M implanted the model’s face into a single-pose body created by the computer for their catalog and exaggerate the size of the body parts to the unallowable limit.

When it comes to beauty touching, people think that cheekbones are cut as mannequins standing outside the glass door of shops, skin is smooth as plastic, teeth are super white, and the body measurements are ideal. We all know that it has been edited, and we ourselves accept it obviously, except for the ridiculous scandals. Of course, the root of those scandals are from the less-skilled retoucher, otherwise, stars like Natalia Taffarel, Pascal Dangin, CristianGirotto, Amy Dresser, Sebastian Reuter or Lulie will never suffer from such mistakes.

                                                                   Retouched by Sebastian Reuter ( Germany )

What are retouch and beauty retouch?

The phrase Retouching here means all the post-production editing done on the computer after the photography (mainly by the software of Adobe like Photoshop, Lightroom to fix errors in shooting process shooting, or to achieve a final perfect picture like customer’s demands such as light, contrast, color pressure, garbage removal, background manipulation.

In which, Beauty Retouching is widely used in beauty photography and fashion photography (the ultimate goal is just the advertising campaign for clothing companies, cosmetics) to make hair longer, thicker, sleeker; to remove tiny hair, tangled hair; to enhance breast, compress hip, remove fatness , stretch legs; to remove acne, remove bruising, pigmentation, and smooth skin but still keep the texture of the skin; And billions of other unnamed demands.

                                                        Photo Martin Bern | Retouched by Lulie Talmos

I have no objection to retouching in photography at all because I am portrait and fashion photographer, not a report or documentary one; these two types that I think the honesty and reality are really important. Portrait and fashion give me more breathing space to create and fly in my way. I photographed and retouched my own photos, so I know how different the photos are in comparison with the raw ones; It is a part of my experience. The important thing here is that we should retouch photos in acceptable level and use them for appropriate purposes. Clearly, it is impossible to use fake eyelashes which are retouched to market for mascara or use fake hair to market for hair growth products.

I myself did not take many cosmetic photos because of many factors. Although I am crazy about the beauty and the body of women, I really want to see those beauties in my own silent movies, not simply to hide the bad looks. I do not mean to decry the beauty retoucher, by contrast, I admire them because a beauty retoucher must know about photography, drawing, human body structure and many other things. Only thing is that I feel I do not fit in this industry.

However, sometimes we have to accept the compromise, spend time doing what you do not like to have money, then we can pursue what we really love to do.

There were many arguments about ethical issues in beauty retouching. It is clear that there is no human, including supermodels, who can be as perfect as themselves on the covers of major magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Harper. The Editor of the newspapers say that: the public does not want to see celebrities or supermodels in the imperfect state, and once they do, they will not be able to sell newspapers. On the public side, many women’s organizations and associations are opposed to excessive retouching of photos or the use of underweight models on the catwalk. Everyone has their own opinion and insists they are right.

I understand that communication has a social orientation power. Through such photographs, they set a new standard for the beauty of women; It makes people feel that they are not allowed to stand outside that boundary. In fact, many supermodels admit that images on the cover of the newspaper are unreal even in their dreams. so how do the ordinary women feel? Hurt, self-deprecation, outrage?

                                                       Photo: Julia Gorbachenko | Retouch: Cristian Girotto

Who benefits here? Cosmetic companies meet the gaps between the perfection and the reality and meet the demand for the beauty of women which exists from the origin of mankind. Our greed is limitless, so everyone wants to be more beautiful even if they are ugly or beautiful.

The human body in general and the body of women, in particular, are not perfect, but the images of millions of women who regularly appear on the internet, movies, television, daily newspapers, are silently and unconsciously shaping a scary illusion about the standards of a beautiful woman, a normal woman, and a healthy woman in modern society.

In the end, these controversial issues are still not solved because it is an endless cycle without the beginning and the end. If there are demands, it would lead to the appearance of supplies. Communication influences the mindset of women and men, the need for beauty increases, greedy firms want to increase profits by advertising, so can newspapers and retouchers refuse customers? And then the ad will make the thinking of the crowd more deviant.

                                                           Photo: Yuliagor Bachenko | Retoucher: Gabriel Lemonte

You can think that I am very pessimistic about the beauty retouch at the moment – but not. I think the industry is changing and it’s getting better compared to a few years ago. The pressure of public has made the higher standard of beauty but still remain the nature. Like a cosmetic surgeon, a good beauty retoucher can make others people think there is no change in the final photos. In fact, easier said than done, because not everyone reaches such a level, the horrible retouched images that I often see, also contribute to people’s grudge and slightly biased view on the retoucher.

I still remember that Dove of Unilever adverted for their beauty products by criticizing the ads of other companies, retouching the model and distorting the truth, but ridiculously many of its own products did the same. Therefore, changing overnight is very difficult. It’s not the fault of the retoucher or the art director as simply, this is the culture of an entire industry. No individual has the strength to change the heavy rotation.

As Dove’s vice president of advertising has bitterly said that. If there is a wise method to change the industry, I will be willing to do.

                                                        Photo: Matthew Jordan Smith | Retouch: Julie Lens

Retouched by Konstantin Krukowski