Do You Photoshop Me?
Do You Use Photoshop to Make Me Look My Best?
The first thing most people ask is if I can take off 15kg or make you look 15 years younger. The short answer is basically ‘yes, but’.
When it comes to photoshop I prefer to take a very gentle, light-handed approach. But I’m always happy to accommodate any specific requests. Afterall, the point of this is for you to have a set of images that are both super authentic AND that you’re delighted to send out into the world.
Make Me Thinner
Normally it’s very easy to do a little ‘tuck’ and ‘push’ here and there to help shrink some unflattering spots that we don’t really want to see in our images.
But more importantly, we spend quite a bit of time during our session '“taking those extra kilos off” by finding the most natural looking, flattering postures and positions for you to sit & stand. That’s the real trick.
Just remember that I know what is (and what isn’t) possible in photoshop. So while we are shooting, just ask if you see something you’d like fixed.
Make Me Younger
Absolutely everyone’s images get their skin cleaned to some degree.
In a real life, fluid scenario where a human is interacting with you, people don’t notice all the spots and lines and other evidence that age leaves behind. But on camera things are frozen in time and so a lot of that stuff stands out more than normal. So I definitely clean up a lot of that mess that no one needs to see.
The whole point of this portrait exercise is to show your audience the “real you” but that does not mean it needs to a pixel by pixel literal image of you. I clean your skin so it’s just like the real life experience of you. So instead of cleaning out everything (and making you look like a mannequin) I just turn the volume down on a lot of that stuff. It’s still there to some degree. It’s just a lot less obvious.
Again, a lot of ‘making you look younger’ happens during the session in how I light you and the expressions we find. So I try to do the majority of that work up front which makes for a way better result.
Making Images That Work
These images are not static works of art. The portraits have a very important job to do.
Finishing your hero images isn’t just about photoshopping your face or tidying up your clothes and hair - which all gets tweaked in post production.
A lot of it is really making these images as flexible and usable as possible so they work well across all your collateral as you can see from the videos on this page.
As I create these images I’m constantly considering how these images will be used. So a huge part of the choices and decisions we make during the session revolve around making you look your best AND creating shots that will work the way they’re supposed to.
Hopefully this page gives you a good idea of what’s possible. Most importantly, if you have any questions or concerns about what you’re seeing pop up on the screen during our session, just ask. I’m very likely to address any ‘elephant in the room’ because I don’t believe in hiding. I’m the guy that’ll tell you “you’ve got spinach in your teeth” on any given day… photoshoot or not.
