9 Mistakes Portrait Photographers Make in Post-Processing

Wednesday 2 August 2017, 16:32 by Elja Trum | 12,136 views | 3 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Portrait photographer and retoucher Nino Batista made this video about 9 common mistakes portrait photographers make in post-processing. I have certainly been guilty of making some of these mistakes myself.

In the video, he talks about ten mistakes himself, but I really cannot get beyond nine when counting them.

Here is a list of the mistakes Nino mentions in his video:

1. Too much colour saturation
Adding more saturation to your photo can make it stand out more. However, this effect is quickly overdone, especially if you apply it directly to the entire image.

2. Too much sharpening
You cannot save a blurry photo by sharpening it. So do not try, and always be careful not to over-sharpen an image.

3. A halo around your subject
When you heavily edit your photo, there is a chance of a halo appearing around your subject, a border where the editing becomes too visible. This is especially likely with filters or plug-ins that are intended to do a lot of the work for you.

4. Red fingers, hands, feet and ears
This depends somewhat on your model's skin, but extremities such as fingers, toes and ears are usually slightly redder than the rest of the skin. You can correct these areas in post-processing so that they match the rest of the skin more closely. That looks more natural.

5. Bright eyes
In a portrait photo, the eyes should be clearly visible and preferably have a catchlight too. If you get this right while taking the photo, you do not need to do anything else in post-processing. If it is necessary, there is a good chance it will look very unnatural.

6. Fake blur (Bokeh)
Is the background too sharp in your photo? You can try adding blur afterwards, but the result is usually not very good, or it takes a lot of time and effort. So do your best to get the desired background blur while taking the photo.

7. Vignetting that is too dark or too light
Vignetting can draw the viewer's attention to the subject. Adding a very subtle dark edge to your photo usually works well. However, be careful not to go too far.

What is almost never attractive is white or light vignetting. So do not do it.

8. Not zooming in to check details
Always view your final photos at 100 per cent. This is the only way to check whether the photo really looks the way you want it to. If you edit a zoomed-out image, you cannot properly see whether the result is actually good in the details.

9. Blurring the skin
As a portrait photographer, you often want to remove imperfections from the skin. Do not use Photoshop blur for this, such as Gaussian blur. This is not the right technique for getting smoother skin in your photo. It looks incredibly fake and plastic.

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