Headshot Retouching Costs $300/Image - And It Has Nothing To Do With Airbrushing

Hot take: if I make you genuinely laugh, it’s going to be hard to keep in mind your two eyes should remain the same amount of “open”.

If you've spent any time reading this blog, you've come across one of the core ideas behind my approach: having your headshot taken is an inherently unnatural experience. You're standing in front of a camera, under bright lights, trying to look comfortable—all while acutely aware that your photo is being taken which typically isn’t your comfort zone.

The reality is, the effective headshots look natural, but the process rarely is.

Rather than holding off on pressing the shutter every time a collar shifts, a hair falls out of place, or one eye opens slightly wider than the other, I focus on maintaining momentum and capturing authentic expressions.


Retouching, for that reason, is both an important part of the process in terms of the final style—but also to clean up the countless small distractions that add up and pull attention away from the desired impact of a shot.

The challenge is knowing what to Photoshop and what not to. High-resolution cameras capture incredible detail in skin, hair, clothing and light. Heavy filters, AI, and quick retouching can wipe away those nuances and make a real photograph start looking artificial. And as soon as your image looks like AI, it starts feeling cheap.

Yes, retouching is skin smoothening…

But it’s also:

Chapped-Lip smoothening

Red Ear Balancing

Glasses-Glare Zapping

Pimple Popping

Wardrobe adjustment (wrinkles)

More wardrobe adjustment (reshaping lopsided jackets)

That same adjustment for hair (reshaping lopsided hair)

Teeth whitening

Random-bit-of-saliva-in-between-teeth removing

Fixing a lazy eye moment

Straightening lazy collars

Removing flyaway hairs 

Adding gaps in hairs

Digital Tailoring (zapping wardrobe fraying)

Necklace straightening

Eye Size Matching

Fixing chips/scrapes in glasses

Healing cuts on your hands and fingers

Deleting random light reflections on your teeth

Flossing the sesame seed in your gums

You get the idea…



Retouching is funny. The more you do, the more things pop out that need attention. So the only way to truly feel “finished” is when you get pulled into the expression without anything pulling you away from it.

Like any art form, there is no shortcut to great retouching. In many ways, this step is as much a part of the final image as the lighting and photography itself. A great retoucher can’t make a stunning photo from poor lighting—but they can take a great photo and make it out of this world.