Vanity Retouching

Vanity Retouching is about removing minor and sometimes major flaws, but is really about making people look their best in that important memorable image.  Usually that includes teeth, eyes, and skin; most of the time the changes are very minor such that even the subject of the photo couldn't tell the difference between what they remember, and what they look like in the finished product.

Additional skills not represented here include improvements like:

Muscle tone
Body fat
Eyes: (color, definition, alignment, veins etc.)
Facial features: (lips, brows, wrinkles, bags, etc.)
Hair: (volume, highlights, color, etc.)
Body shape: (height, hips, legs, feet, etc.)
... and willing to try whatever else.

This first example is for when drastic measures must be taken to produce a result where that original image falls short (in this case the subject on the right has her eyes closed).

Original Image

Opened eyes of subject on the right

Slimmed face of subject on the left, whitened teeth and retouched skin

Final color correcting

Before and After

Additional Examples of Vanity Retouching:

Zoomed in example: Removed Skin Blemishes and added some very basic Shadow/Highlight edits while being careful to leave freckles alone

Skin Retouching, Shadow/Highlight, Color Management

Zoomed in example: Removed Wrinkles, Skin Blemishes, Red Eye and Iris Definition (No color or shadow edits)

There is an interesting moral dilemma that arises when versed in Photoshop; how accurately is the photographed scene to be represented by the final product?

I personally feel that as close to representing reality is the first goal of photography, but that doesn't make for engaging photography most of the time.  The camera does a poor job of capturing light and color (think Red Eye) and so it is up to us to use creativity to not only bring the raw image back to reality, but to give it a magical allure that makes photography art.

As far as "Vanity Retouching" is concerned, not only do clients like it (therefore a necessary skill) but making people look their best falls into the realm of "magical allure" that makes a good shot a great picture.