Being a professional photographer is all about problem-solving. At it’s most basic level, the problem is simply figuring out how to get the right amount of light to hit your camera’s sensor, capturing a proper exposure. What iso do I need? What aperture should I use? How fast should the shutter speed be? We are expected to deal with inclimate weather, difficult clients, poor lighting situations, impossible angles…and STILL come away with “the shot”. And we often have to deal with requests like “can you touch up the wringkles and make me look 20 lbs lighter”? Technically, such a request is not part of “photography” per se. A professional photographer’s job is to capture a person’s portraits using the best lighting technique, the best posing option, the best lens selection, and the best camera angles to capture the “best” version of that person.
Requests like removing wrinkles is a separate process I call “altering reality”. Such work falls under the guise of retouching. Retouching takes the best image a photographer is able to capture of that individual, and alters reality to make them look even better than they do in person. Although some photographers have the skills necessary to perform retouching in-house. We prefer to leave this process to the professionals who specialize in it, also known as graphic artists or retouching artists. In addition to retouching the individual, retouching artists can perform special requests like replacing backgrounds.
Several years ago, I was hired as the new headshot and marketing photographer for LightGuage Company. This firm is a commercial interior and exterior specialties subcontractor based in the Charleston, South Carolina. They focus on cold-formed light-gauge metal framing, drywall, insulation, acoustical ceilings, architectural wall panels, and Division 10/11/12 specialties. They also have regional locations in Charlotte, NC and Savannah, GA.
I photograph most of their employee headshots at the Charleston office, using the logo on a brick wall in their conference room as the backdrop. But occasionally, headshots must be photographed at their other offices. The problem is, those offices don’t have the same conference room with the logo on the wall. But the client wants ALL their employee’s headshots to match! The solution for me was to photograph JUST the background while I was at the Charleston office. Then we photograph the headshots at the regional offices on a neutral gray background. And finally I send the headshots, along with the background photo, to our retouching artists. Once they are done with their magic, the client ends up with a nicely retouched headshot of each regional employee that perfectly matches the ones from the Charleston office. Problem solved!!!
If you’re looking for photographers in Charleston that will find solutions and solf problems for your company, give us a call. Whether you need a headshot photographer, marketing photographer, or event photographer…we’re here to help!
