Hi everyone, I hope you're all well keeping warm!
As many of you know I do wedding photography as well as beauty/fashion shoots with makeup artists and other creatives. I have seen lots of photography out there, good and bad, and have come across some horrendous pieces of fakery. I mean fakery in terms of.. its a photo of a person, whom makeup has been applied to but then somebody in between the photographer and the client redoes the face completely to what they think looks natural and good.
The Bad
Forgive me when I say that a lot of these people are not photographers or makeup artists and although they probably work hard, they are making the photographer and MUA's work look outstandingly poor. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good retouchers out there (although the vast majority of them are actually Photoshop artists in their own right! or actual photographers!) but when the bad ones do poor work it reflects extremely badly on the people behind the work. Most of the bad work is produced by people who think they can use photoshop - but they SO can't..
Personally I believe a professional MUA would want to stand proud of her work as would a photographer, and wouldn't let a poor retoucher retouch their work.. but it does happen - WAY too regularly to ignore!! It has become more apparent the past few weeks as I have been looking for a MUA for my fiancee for our wedding.
Another sad thing is that these images are shown to the MUA's clients via websites and portfolios, and many of the prospective clients think these images are 100% real. (I know!) It isn't their fault though, I mean.. we live in a world where 'fake' is all we see.. so why couldn't the makeup artist make me look like that? Well, they probably can. But the images you see are simply not real. The fact of the matter is that excessive post processing of images, coupled with excessive photo manipulation leads to a 'fake' photo. It just isnt real. And (as Stone Cold would say) thats the bottom line. So don't be afraid to ask these MUAs to show you some 'real' work, not the retouched, enhanced and photoshopped-to-shit images.
The Good
There are of course some excellent retouchers whose work is impeccable. Some of it is just clearly WOW. One, for example, is
Oleg Lgorin, a photographer based in New York. His photography is simply amazing and how he retouches his images is what I class as exceptional. They are not retouched in the sense of 'fakeup', they are retouched from a photographers viewpoint - the little things that make all the difference.
So what about the wedding day?
Having said all this, of course, most qualified MUAs can produce excellent results on brides. Just make sure you look through all their work, the good and the bad, and when it comes to your wedding day makeup dont be afraid to voice your opinion. At the same time, trust in your makeup artist - after all they are the artist, right?
A good photographer will be able to capture the bride's natural look too. Plus the photographer on your wedding day will most likely adjust, colour correct and enhance most of the images they provide you with, maybe even tidy up your closeups and portraits, but an excellent photographer will work on a good number of your wedding day pics to really enhance whats already there. Some photographers love photoshop filters and effects, others are more concerned with composing an excellent shot, at the end of the day you're going to be remembering your big day through their eyes (and their lens lol), so my advice is to choose carefully and know the style of you want to pay for.
Sunny :p
Fakeup/photoshopped-to-shit
Posted via email from SunnyPhotography
