Have you ever had a photo shoot done but didn’t pay for the extra retouching and editing services because you though you could DIY? Then when it comes time to wave your magic DIY wand and do the retouching yourself, you just can’t make that palm frond coming out of your head disappear, or realistically make your waist smaller or even erase someone in the background doing something weird in your photo? We’ll keep reading as I may have a solution for you!
Today I would like to introduce Fix the Photo who contacted me recently regarding their professional image retouching services. I have quite a few photos from a DIY photoshoot a friend helped me with that have been sitting on my hard drive for the last few months untouched. I know I needed to get to them eventually I just hadn’t found the time… Fix the Photo to the rescue… I hope!
I emailed the photo retouching services 2 of the unedited, original photos from my photoshoot and their retouch wands got to work. One I planned to use as a headshot and the other possibly a hero shot on my website homepage.
The Headshot Photo
The headshot photo wasn’t taken in the best lighting so it came out dark with lots of shadowing that I didn’t like. I also asked them to smooth out the creases in my jacket as I found them quite distracting.
I sent the original photo over to Fix the Photo and in the first round of retouching the photo was lightened significantly. While they did a great job of smoothing out the creases in my jacket and improving on my body shape overall I think the editors went a little overboard with the skin smoothing, teeth whitening and lightening on my face. The photo looks a bit overdone here and I’m starting to look a bit too much like a doll rather than an actual person. I do like however that they have smoothed out my hair in places and removed fly-aways to make me look a little more ‘put together’.
The Hero Shot
The next photo I sent over was me sitting on a couch holding my iPad, a typical ‘hero’ type shot. There were a few things I didn’t like in this photo including the crazy foliage that looks like it is growing out of my head and a few minor tweaks to my face and body and general colour correction.
I quite like what the editors have done to this photo – the image retouching is more subtle compared to the first head shot photo. My skin has been smoothed and my tan has been evened out and lightened. My overall body shape as been perfected but subtly so it isn’t overly obvious this has been edited. They also did a great job of removing the foliage behind my head but I would’ve liked the wooden palings to continue rather than another concrete pylon in the fence (makes it a little more obvious that it has been edited but that may be because I know what the fence is supposed to look like). I also like that they cleaned up my hair, removing fly-aways similar to the first photo.
This image retouching service experience was always very prompt and professional from Fix the Photo throughout the photo editing process. I didn’t get to speak to the editors directly but I could tell my comments and notes were being forwarded directly to the people doing the editing. I did try to explain a few edits that were a little more complicated but on one occasions my comments were ignored and no explanation received from the editors in relation to my instructions and why they were ignored which was a little frustrating.
Overall, I would recommend Fix the Photo provided your requested edits aren’t too complicated or you need a specific look and feel achieved through the editing process. If you just need more general edits, such as colour correction and object removal, to make your photo look more professional I would recommend Fix the Photo.
Now it’s over to you!
Have you tried Fix the Photo or another photo retouching service? I’d love to hear your experience!
Alternatively, let me know what you think of Fix the Photo’s image retouching… do you think they did my photos justice?
