How to Mitigate Scars Using a Mask and the Spot Healing Brush

As many of you know, I teach a series of classes focusing on the photography of women. In the Photoshop class, I’ve begun to augment my live-only presentation with a series of screencast videos explaining the core concepts. Why? So I know for sure that none of those core concepts were missed! Moreover, I can give the students access to these videos for some period of time after the class, thereby enhancing their learning experience. The accompanying video is an example. It begins…

If you’ve read some of the early posts on my blog then you know that most of our clients are women who’ve been married several years, have had one or more children, and in many cases have elected to have cosmetic surgery. As a result, they’re often left with scars. And in almost every case, they want me to either eliminate, or at the very least, mitigate those scars in the final photograph. So over time, I’ve had to develop simple yet effective ways for doing this. I’d like to share one with you today.

Do You Photoshop?

This is the first and most frequently asked question when discussing boudoir photography with potential clients. When I hear it, I know we’re about to discuss my image retouching abilities and sensibilities — you know, what and how well I fix things.

Note to purists: Creating truthful and painfully accurate representations of the subject matter may work for photojournalists, but it would mean a career change for boudoir photographers.

Boudoir photographers seek a different kind of truth, the kind of truth Pablo Picasso speaks of: “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth, at least the truth that is given to us to understand.” That’s what boudoir photography is all about: the truth she gives to her lover to understand. It’s what he sees through a lustful haze, it’s what she expects me to deliver, and it requires tools.

She’s knows the problem: That’s why she asked the question. The camera sees everything. So, I have a lot of tools. As might be expected, there’s makeup, clothing, location, and lighting; and there’s also the relationship and partnering skills I wrote about earlier. But what blends them all together is post processing—the “can you Photoshop?” thing. Without it, the sexual nuances and the power to arouse are diminished. The same is true, however, if it’s overdone. And the space between these extremes is narrow, very narrow.

I’ll write more about this narrow space in the future, but for now, remember that it is the partnership that guides post processing by revealing how she views herself, and just as important, how she’s viewed by her lover.

PS: Today’s image: Cristie No. 0208.