What do you mean “fully retouched?”

I mention the phrase “fully retouched” a number of times here on this site, but what exactly is the difference between an edited photo and a fully retouched one? To explain that, I’m gonna walk you through my process a little bit (you can also scroll down to the TL;DR photo).

The first thing I do is cull the photos that I took at a session. This part is where I pick the best photos out of the bunch, and cut all the ones where someone is blinking or making a face that I know they’ll hate.

Then I edit them into your proof photos. During this part, I’ll make sure that the color is correct, and that the exposure is where I want it to be. Sometimes I’ll also do some cropping here. You’ll look over these proof photos to choose the ones that you want to purchase, and that I will then entirely retouch.

During retouching, I’m fixing all the little details that will turn a good portrait into a great one. Things like touching up skin blemishes, or removing rogue joggers from the background are certainly part of it. But I might also do some dodging and burning to give your skin a glow, and to make the lighting look just a little better. Sometimes I’ll lower the contrast in the background to make the subject pop, or bump up the saturation in a certain area, or even add a little sunshine. It’s all fairly subtle, but I wouldn’t spend the time if I didn’t think that ultimately, it leads to a better portrait. I want to give you the very best work that I can, every time.

Left: edited, Right: retouched