Bruce wrote:
There is a high end photographer in my area that does mostly portrait
work. He has his own 3 acre outdoor studio along with his inside
studio. I was talking to someone who had their family portrait done
by him. He is meticulous about posing and such and very good at it.
However, much like you just showed, he is quite heavy handed on skin
alterations. The guy was telling me that when they got the large
picture, his wife was very happy with it. He, however, was quite
disappointed because he felt that it wasn't really him in the picture.
It was some other guy with more than perfect skin, looking much
younger. This guy felt that the picture was a lie.
So, there is quite a number of people who are looking for portrait
work where the image somewhat resembles them, but makes them look
significantly better (and fake). I don't get much of their business
and they would probably be disappointed with my results.
This reminds me of a personal project, digital face lift. I finally gave up
on the project, except for personal pleasure, for exactly that reason. Most
people want to look good, but every one has a different threshold for their
amount of acceptable manipulation. Back when we were doing WOWs I did a
couple and got mixed reviews on them. Some were intrigued with what I could
do and some thought I went too far. I also found that over the years I am
getting much less heavy handed with the manipulations, trying more for a
looking good then looking perfect effect. I do agree that the pictures on
the site were very heavy handed, but given the age group and the intended
use I wonder how much of it was just youth and heavy professional make up?
Butch
