Naturalness and limits

Learning goal

You will be able to tell at what point retouching in a portrait stops correcting a frame and starts turning a face into someone else's. You will split the tools you learned in this module, cleanup, dodge and burn, frequency separation and masks, into uses that correct what is temporary and uses that change a person's face, body or skin. You will recognize the plastic face, oversmoothed, stripped of its texture and with its light flattened, and explain why liquify tools, which change the shape of the face and body, carry a separate responsibility. You will check your result with a recognizability test, get retouching consent from the person, and grasp why the same retouching meets different context limits in a portrait, an advertisement, an ID photo and a news photo. You will know that changing the color of the skin and a person's traces of identity falls outside retouching, on every skin, light or dark.

The question

The close-up portrait the drummer corrected with frequency separation ends up in the hands of the band's social media manager. A few hours later a new version is posted: the face completely smooth, the pores gone, the eyes slightly enlarged and brightened, the jawline slimmed, and the skin lightened by a tone. The like count rises fast. But when the drummer looks at the photo they see a stranger; their mother, too, says on the phone, "this isn't you."

The drummer puts their own version next to it. Theirs carries the roots of their stubble, the fine lines on their forehead and the birthmark on their cheek; the other has none of them. Both are "retouched." How much retouching is too much? Where is the line between improving and changing, and who draws that line?

Context

In the last four lessons of this module you got to know powerful tools for correcting a face: cleanup tools that erase flaws, dodge and burn that arranges light and shape, frequency separation that separates color from texture, and masks that apply these only where you want. In each of them we said you need to stop somewhere: not erasing permanent features, not changing skin color, keeping texture. This lesson gathers these scattered warnings into a single frame.

The limit of retouching is not an aesthetic preference; how smooth or how textured a photo will be is a matter of taste, but changing a person's face, body or skin is a matter of trust. This lesson tells how to separate which decision belongs to the photographer, which to the person in the photo, and which to the context in which the photo will be used.

Simple explanation

How do you tell improving from changing?

The most useful way to understand whether a retouch is improving or changing is to look at what it touches. Improving corrects the temporary conditions of the moment the photo was taken: a pimple, a trace of tiredness, uneven light, a color shift brought by the camera or the surroundings, a dust spot. These aren't the person themselves but accidents of that moment; when they are corrected, the person recognizes themselves in the photo even more.

Changing, on the other hand, touches the person themselves: the shape of their face and body, their permanent features, the color of their skin, the traces of their age. Erasing a mole, slimming the chin, enlarging the eyes, lightening or darkening the skin, eliminating wrinkles completely is trying to correct not the accident of the moment but the person themselves. Some of these, for example erasing a scar, can be done at the person's own wish; but this decision belongs not to the photographer but to the person.

A plastic face is a face that, through excessive retouching, has lost its pores, fine lines and natural color transitions, whose light has flattened and which looks like a mask. It comes not from a single tool but from the immoderate use of many: oversmoothed skin, erased texture at the roots of the eyebrows and hair, overbrightened eyes, completely evened-out skin. The simplest way to recognize a plastic face is to look at the photo up close and from a distance; if a face that looks impressive from a distance resembles no human skin up close, the limit has been crossed.

Why are liquify tools separate?

A liquify tool is a tool that changes the shape of a face or a body by pushing, pulling and squeezing the pixels in a photo; in many programs it is found under names such as Liquify. These tools can be used for technical jobs such as smoothing a crease in clothing or pulling back a face the lens has stretched at the edge. But with the same tool, slimming a waist, shrinking a nose, narrowing a chin or enlarging the eyes also takes a few seconds.

Liquify tools carry a responsibility separate from other retouching tools, because they change not the light or the color, but the body itself. Arranging the light of a face is showing that face in a better-lit moment; changing the shape of a face, on the other hand, is showing that face in a shape that never existed. That is why using liquify tools on a person's body can be considered only at the person's clear wish and to the extent the context allows. In some countries there are also regulations that require images with altered bodies in advertisements to be labeled; this shows that the problem has not only a personal but also a social dimension.

Who draws the limit?

A recognizability test is testing whether a retouched photo is still recognized as that person by the person themselves and by those who know them well. In its simplest form, it is showing the photo to the person and to someone close to them and asking "is this you?" The drummer's mother saying "this isn't you" is the most reliable measurement telling you the limit has been crossed. Letting the retouch sit for a day and looking with fresh eyes, and putting the retouched and unretouched states side by side, do the same job.

Retouching consent is the person in the photo clearly agreeing to which changes will be made, in advance or after seeing the result. Even for cleaning up temporary flaws, asking the person once is a good habit; when permanent features, shape and skin are involved, on the other hand, consent is required. A person wanting to erase a scar in their own portrait is their right; and so is wanting their mole, freckles or wrinkles to stay.

A context limit is the same retouching being acceptable or unacceptable depending on where the photo will be used. In a personal portrait, measured retouching done with the person's consent is ordinary. In a fashion or beauty image, retouching can be more pronounced, but it is increasingly questioned because of its effect on body image. In ID and passport photos, retouching that changes the face is generally not accepted, because the photo's job is to identify the person. In news and documentary photography, on the other hand, changing a face, a body or the scene is not accepted because it breaks the photo's truthfulness.

Changing the color of the skin, as we have said several times in this module, falls outside retouching. Showing a person as lighter- or darker-skinned than they are, "correcting" the racial or ethnic features of a face, completely erasing the traces of age, is changing that person's identity; whether the skin is light or dark, this can't count as improving. The task of retouching is to show a person at their own best moment; not to turn them into someone else.

Visual evidence

The drummer opens the two versions side by side and zooms in. In the social media version their forehead and cheeks have been evened out to a single, uniform skin color, there are no pores, the stubble roots are erased; looked at up close, the skin isn't skin but smooth paint. The eyes are too large and too bright for the face around them; along the jawline there is a slight ripple left by the liquify tool, which also bends the line of the door frame behind. Their dark skin has been lightened by a tone and has slipped a little toward gray.

In their own version, on the other hand, the redness at the base of the sides of their nose has been softened, the few dark dots on their chin lightened, but the birthmark, the stubble roots, the fine lines on their forehead and the warm brown of their skin are in place. They show both versions to their mother; she recognizes their own version at once. The drummer talks with the social media manager, and they agree that from now on the liquify tool and skin lightening won't be used in the band's photos, and that each member will approve their own retouching.

Common mistakes

Summary

Improving corrects the temporary accidents of the moment the photo was taken; changing, on the other hand, touches the person's shape, permanent features, skin and traces of age, and the decision belongs to the person. A plastic face is a face that has lost its texture and natural transitions through the immoderate use of many tools; liquify tools carry a separate responsibility because they change the body itself. The limit is checked with a recognizability test and the person's retouching consent, and the context limit is different for a portrait, an advertisement, an ID photo and a news photo; changing the color of the skin and traces of identity doesn't count as retouching on any skin.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will evaluate your own retouching like a judge; choose a portrait you retouched in this module.

1. Write every change you made to the portrait as a list, and next to each one put the note "corrected a temporary accident" or "touched the person themselves."
2. Deliberately prepare an excessive version: smooth the skin completely, brighten the eyes a little; then compare the two versions up close and from a distance, and determine where the plastic face begins.
3. Show the retouched and unretouched states to the person in the photo and to someone who knows them; note the result of the recognizability test and ask the person which changes they approve.
4. Imagine the same photo will be used in a personal portrait, an advertisement and a news story; write which changes would be acceptable in each context.

Check yourself

• Can you tell whether a retouch corrected a temporary accident or touched the person themselves?
• Can you recognize a plastic face by looking up close and from a distance?
• Are you sure that in your retouching you didn't change the color of the skin and the person's permanent features without the person's consent?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Which of the following counts as improving?

• A) Erasing a pimple that appeared during the shoot
• B) Slimming the jawline
• C) Lightening the skin by a tone
• D) Erasing a mole without asking the person

2. Why do liquify tools carry a responsibility separate from other retouching tools?

• A) Because they make the file larger
• B) Because they change the color
• C) Because they change not the light or the color but the body itself
• D) Because they are hard to use

3. What is the reason retouching that changes the face is generally not accepted in ID and news photos?

• A) The file format not allowing it
• B) Retouching being expensive
• C) Aesthetic reasons
• D) The photo's job being to identify the person or to show the event truthfully

4. A dark-skinned person's portrait has been lightened by a tone and the face smoothed so that it collects likes. Which is the most accurate judgment about this retouching?

• A) It is an aesthetic preference and up to the photographer
• B) Changing the color of the skin changes the person's identity; it doesn't count as retouching and shouldn't be done without the person's consent
• C) It is a problem only in advertisements
• D) It is acceptable if the opacity is lowered

Answers

1. A — A pimple is a temporary accident of the moment of the shoot; correcting it doesn't change the person.
2. C — Arranging light is showing a moment better; changing shape is showing a body that doesn't exist.
3. D — The reliability of these photos rests on their showing the person or the event as it is.
4. B — The color of the skin is part of the person's identity; changing it is changing, not improving.

Summary card

• Improving corrects the moment's accident; changing touches the person themselves.
• Look at a plastic face up close: if it doesn't resemble human skin, pull back.
• The liquify tool changes the body; only at the person's clear wish.
• Do a recognizability test, get retouching consent, know the context's limit.
• Changing the color of the skin and traces of identity is not retouching on any skin.

Bridge to the next lesson

After the drummer and the band's social media manager reached an agreement on retouching, they moved on to the cover photo of the new album. Here the problem wasn't the faces, but the whole mood of the photo: the band wanted a slight blue-green in the cover's shadows and a warm orange in its highlights; a mood often seen on posters and covers, one that paints shadow and light in two separate colors. They needed to know how these colors are built. How are the colors in feature films made? The next lesson tells about color grading, which builds a photo's mood by loading separate colors into the dark and bright tones.