Retouching Standards
Before & After — What We Change (and What We Don't)
Professional headshot retouching is meant to remove distractions, not change who you are. This page is the honest version: what is included on every Photography Shark headshot, what we refuse to do, and why the goal is looking like yourself on your best day.
The Principle
The Goal: Look Like Yourself on Your Best Day
A professional headshot is an identity document. It lives on LinkedIn, firm bios, casting databases, conference pages, and occasionally press. The people who see it will meet you in person, and the photo should bridge those two moments without surprise.
That means retouching should remove temporary distractions — a zit that will be gone in three days, a lighting shadow that makes one side look different from the other, a stray hair against the backdrop — and preserve everything that is genuinely you, including age, features, and the specific character of your face.
This page documents exactly what that looks like in practice.
Included in Every Session
What We Change (and What We Stop At)
Skin
Included
- Temporary blemishes, zits, scratches
- Shiny T-zone from studio lights
- Uneven redness from a shave, makeup, or flushed skin
- Stray eyelashes and eyebrow hairs
Stops At
Erase natural skin texture. Skin should still look like skin, not plastic.
Eyes
Included
- Subtle brightening of whites (not over-brightened)
- Catch-light balance left vs right
- Removing red veins from a late night
- Sharpening iris detail for thumbnail visibility
Stops At
Recolor eyes. Enlarge eyes. Remove crow's feet or laugh lines completely.
Hair
Included
- Stray hairs that cross the face
- Flyaways against the backdrop
- Cleaning up the hairline against contrasting backgrounds
Stops At
Add hair where there is none. Restore lost hair density.
Teeth
Included
- Subtle brightening — a shade, not a billboard
- Removing a single food bit if missed before shooting
Stops At
Straighten crooked teeth. Whiten to unrealistic levels. Reshape bite.
Wardrobe
Included
- Stray threads, lint, or visible wrinkles on collars
- Subtle drape adjustments on blouses and blazers
- Removing a tag poking out from a collar
Stops At
Swap out the entire outfit. Change the color of a shirt from blue to gray.
Background
Included
- Dust specks on the seamless
- Backdrop wrinkles from shipping
- Color grading the backdrop for brand consistency
Stops At
Replace the background with something that was not there during the shoot.
Lighting
Included
- Balancing left and right exposure so both sides of the face match
- Adjusting color temperature for true-to-life skin tones
- Softening a harsh shadow under the chin
Stops At
Rebuild the lighting setup in post. Good lighting happens in-session.
What We Refuse
The Things We Don't Do (Even If You Ask)
These are editorial choices. Other photographers will do them. We won't — because they degrade the purpose of the headshot.
Facial restructuring
Narrowing the jaw, reshaping the nose, making the face thinner. This is digital cosmetic surgery, and headshots are identity documents. Not our work.
Body slimming
We do not do Liquify-based body reshaping. Clothing choices and posing handle this in-session where it matters.
Skin tone swapping
We color-correct for accuracy, not aesthetic. We do not lighten or darken skin beyond what reflects your actual tone under neutral light.
Removing scars, tattoos, or features that define someone
These are part of who you are, not imperfections to fix. If you want something removed, we ask about intent first — sometimes the answer is yes (e.g., a very recent injury), sometimes no.
Age reversal
Smoothing 20 years off a 55-year-old's face is a specific style, and it does not age well in the photo. Our retouching keeps someone looking age-appropriate.
Compositing you into a different scene
Taking a studio headshot and placing you in front of a cityscape or conference stage is possible but a separate product. Not included in standard retouching.
The Retouching Standard
Why Our Retouching Looks the Way It Does
The "subtle but noticeable" standard
Most retouching work is invisible unless you put the before and after side-by-side. If you have to squint to see what changed, that is the right amount. If it looks retouched, we did too much. The goal is a photo that holds up at 80 pixels on a LinkedIn thumbnail and 1,200 pixels on a conference banner.
Why "natural light, no retouching" is not actually better
Untouched studio photos have distracting imperfections that pull attention away from the face: a stray hair, an uneven catchlight, a shine spot. Retouching removes distraction so the viewer looks at you, not the hair on your collar. Good retouching is the absence of distraction, not the presence of visible work.
What happens in every delivered image
Every one of the 10 delivered images from a Photography Shark session receives the same retouching depth. There is no tier where some images are fully retouched and others are unedited. If a photo makes the delivery cut, it is finished. This is why 10 images come out of a session rather than 40 — each image is finished work, not a raw selection.
Real Example
Before & After — Side by Side
A typical retouching pass from a Photography Shark session. Left: straight out of camera. Right: final delivered image. The changes are specific and bounded — skin cleanup, lighting balance, color correction, stray hair — not facial restructuring or identity changes.
FAQ
Retouching Questions
Will I still look like myself after retouching?
Yes. The goal of professional headshot retouching is to produce a photo that looks like you on your best day, not a different person. We remove temporary imperfections such as stray hairs, shiny spots, and single-day blemishes, and balance lighting. We do not reshape your face, slim your body, or add features you do not have. If a colleague looks at your retouched headshot and then sees you in person, they should have no surprise moment.
What is included in the standard retouching?
Every delivered image includes: skin cleanup (temporary blemishes, shine, stray eyelashes), lighting balance (matching left and right exposure, fixing uneven catchlights), stray hair cleanup, subtle teeth and eye brightening where needed, color correction for true-to-life tones, and background cleanup (removing dust specks, smoothing backdrop wrinkles). No extra charge. The price on the session includes this work on all 10 final images.
Can you remove wrinkles and make me look younger?
We soften skin texture subtly. We do not erase. If you have natural laugh lines, forehead lines, or age lines, they stay but are slightly reduced so they photograph naturally at thumbnail scale without looking harsh. The goal is consistency across sizes: your headshot should look right at 80px on LinkedIn and 800px on a conference banner. It should not look like a different person on either.
Do you do slimming or body reshaping?
No. We do not do digital slimming, face narrowing, or body reshaping. This is a specific editorial choice. Headshots are identity documents — they should not misrepresent how someone looks in person. Posing and lighting choices during the session can be flattering, but we do not warp pixels post-session.
Can you remove my glasses in post?
Usually it is better to shoot with and without glasses in the session than remove them in post. Glare and lens reflection fixes are included. But removing glasses from a photo where you wore them is a compositing job that adds time and rarely looks natural because we have to reconstruct the eye area underneath. Shoot with the actual decision you plan to use.
Is retouching a rush job or done with care?
Retouching is done by a human (the photographer), not outsourced or AI-batched. Each image takes 15 to 30 minutes depending on what the specific image needs. The 3-5 day standard turnaround accounts for this. There is no automated pipeline. For rush turnaround, the retouching depth is identical; only the queue priority changes.
How is this different from AI headshot tools?
AI headshot tools generate a face that looks like you but is not actually you. They are synthetic images built from training data. For casual uses this is sometimes fine; for casting submissions, firm bios, press, and LinkedIn where you will meet the person, AI headshots create a representation gap. A professional headshot is a photo of you with your permission, retouched to a professional standard, not an AI interpretation.
Can I request specific retouching (e.g., fix this one spot)?
Yes. When you review the gallery, flag anything specific you want adjusted. One round of revisions is included. Additional requested changes beyond the standard scope (background replacement, compositing) are quoted case-by-case.
Book a Real Session
Retouching That Looks Like You
10 fully retouched images included on every session. Studio from $395. Rush delivery available. Studio in Rockland MA, 25 minutes south of Boston.
Book a Session