Sisters of death!
Which then raises the question, how do the victims/subjects really think about their plasticised replicas? Models are different from real people, their image must not distract from the product being sold, or even paint a 'perfect' aspiration for a target audience.
Exactly!
Models are used to push information to us by attracting out attention. BTW, women especially don't wish to see what they can find in the mirror every day for free. Models are not meant to be real people. A woman in the dress is only a flashing neon light to bring the reader/buyer/passer by to get the message of the article header or the banner for the produce or whatever is being pushed to us.
However, when I see "retouched" portraits, skins not looking natural anymore, not a pore to be seen, as if the skin is treated with botox (=is lifeless/expressionless) and then covered in 'pancake' makeup or plaster and treated with fine grain sandpaper ready for a paintjob of the bodywork.
Women with plastic surgery all seem to have the same look of a showing in a casket in a mortuary, (a custom I abhor)! I call them "sisters of death!
There is no doubt some technical skill needed to remove all wrinkels, bags, blemishes, you name it, but the subject doesn't live anymore when all the characteristic features are totally obliterated.
Hence my plea to everyone to rest in between retouching. Everything in layers and go away and do something else and come back with the resolve to only use 3-7% or even 55-95% of that change. For some reason 15% to 50% are hardly ever needed by my work, either a tad of a change or a substantial change but allowing back some reality. Also changes should not be global to the entire face but just as little and localized as one can. It's really not fair for a woman at a party to be captured in bad light with huge shadows and accentuation of every wrinkle and skin blotch. Likewise, in a portrait, it's unneeded to have high contrast light to display a persons features in a way that concentrates on skin texture rather than expression when the latter is the charm of the person.
To me, a portrait tells a lot about the person inside. It allows to develop a feeling for the person, for his/her charm and personality and state of mind, despite the abstraction by the 2D medium. I don't develop feelings for a plastic doll, but then perhaps I'm different?
Perfect!
I'd advise large close light sources and reduce retouching to a minimum. The acne defect will be gone in a week. Get rid of it now! However, to widen and level the eyes, dilate the pupils, thicken the lips, I feel denigrates that person.
I do a lot of portraits every day and set up the lighting so no retouching is needed in most cases, except perhaps for the extra wisp of hair in the wrong place, a missing button or a tear in the white background paper due to stiletto/spiked heels!
in general, I'd hope retouching should be used mostly for commercial work where one has a job to flash signals to folk for some purpose. The other side of life, us, our persons should be real with wrinkles, chubbiness and as you point our charm and if one can add a setting that tells more, all the better.
We have no choice but to be immortal only to the extent that our good deeds that help the community in some small measure. Death is inevitable. We can look our best! That's pleasant. However we shouldn't mummify ourselves before we are laid to rest!
Asher