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Backgrounds > Enhance & Retouch |
© 2008 Lorraine Hawkins T/A Petgem Portraits, All Rights Reseved. |
ENHANCEMENT |
Enhance Your Snapshot Enhance it to its best by manual correction of light, tone, and colour. This often involves reducing shadow, removing colour cast, blurring the background to focus the eye on the sitter, and to make the image look as good and as natural as possible. |
Please note that ENHANCEMENT IS INCLUDED IN ALL THE PRICES, so ALL IMAGES ARE ENHANCED unless you specifically ask me not to do it |
Sitter Too Dark? Most shadows can be reduced on colour images successfully. Very dark shadows are limited because there does come a point when the colour begins to break up and the image is spoiled - this can be helped by making it a black & white image instead, allowing the shadow to become lighter still. |
Sitter A Funny Colour? The light of the environment the photo was taken in affects the colour of the sitter: sunlight, tungsten and fluorescent lights, even the colour of the wallpaper can reflect onto them. Colour cast can be removed successfully, and it helps to have other photos of the sitter in different lighting conditions so that I can see what their true colour is, and aim to match it. |
RETOUCHING |
Damage Repair Remove unwanted marks and blemishes that may have been caused by film processing, scanning, or physical damage caused by handling or age. |
Please note that because Retouching is not always necessary, it is added as an EXTRA CHARGE OF £6 FOR A 15 MINUTE BLOCK OF TIME |
Chemical Damage? Marks caused by chemical liquid spills or grease from fingerprints can usually be painted over successfully. It can be helpful to have more images of the sitter taken at the same time if at all possible for me to use as colour and texture reference. |
Physical Damage? Creases and tears can be repaired if they are not too large in size, and do not cover important areas of the sitter such as their unique facial features. The missing areas have to be replaced largely by guesswork, and this can only be done successfully if there are other photos of the sitter to use for visual reference. |
Red Eye Removal Redraw the pupils of eyes that have turned red from the use of flash photography. In extreme cases of eye burn-out, a complete replacement of the eyes from another photo may be necessary to keep their unique and original colour. |
Eyes Like A Zombie? Photos taken with a flash light cause unwanted colour reflections from the back of the eye. If the coloured iris (usually blue, green, or brown) is visibly intact, then the red-eye can be removed successfully. |
Iris Colour Gone? Sometimes the flash is so bright that all the colour is visibly gone from the eyes, so that filling in the pupil with black is not enough. Eyes from another photo of the sitter can be cut out and pasted in or the colours can be used to paint them in. If there are no more photos of the sitter, then the eyes from another family member can be used; in the case of a pet, eyes from another animal of the same breed or species can be used. (In the photo above the eyes of a chocolate labrador/collie crossbreed were replaced with the eyes from another chocolate labrador dog to keep the beauty of ther unique golden colour.) |
Object Removal Remove unwanted objects that distract the eye away from the sitter: reflections from windows, brightly coloured objects, or even passing strangers or family members. |
Objects In The Way? Unwanted objects can be painted over successfully if they are not too large. The hole or space left behind when they are removed has to be filled in by re-paintng using colours and textures from the remaining image. It can be helpful to have more photos of the sitter taken at the same time, to use for colour and texture reference and to provide me with a larger painting palette. |
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