Portrait out of camera, cropped only

Our portraits printed directly out of camera are great. However, in the mid-teens most youth will have some complexion problems, or hairs out of place, or a burn on their shirt from a past campout.  

Portrait after Polishing Image Quality

We can clean up those complexion problems to make sure they disappear a little faster than nature can work, remove stray hairs, and correct old shirt burns with a nicel polished image.  

Death by Photoshop

Can we retouch a portrait of your son to make him look like an Ambercrombie & Fitch model? Sure. But why would you want to? Then he would no longer be that son of which you are so proud who just earned his Eagle rank. He would be someone else.

Retouching has it place. Most new Eagle Scouts are going through puberty and, consequently, have more complexion problems than they will have at any other time in their lives. So, does one pimple on a cheek have to be immortalized? No, not at all. It probably wasn't there two days ago and it will be gone in another two days. There is no reason for you to have to look at it for the next several decades becasue the photo session landed on a bad complexion day. If you have ordered a premium portrait package, we can and will remove those temporary problems. If there is a stain on the Scout shirt, we'll clean it up. However, we are not in favor of removing freckles, moles, beauty marks, etc. Those permenant features are part of what makes your son your son.

Also, there is a lot you can do that costs nothing or close to it that can eliminate the need for some or all portrait retouching. Don't have an Eagle patch yet? Go buy one and sew it on. They cost about $2. Can I photoshop one in. Sure. Retouching charge on dropping in an Eagle patch is $20. Save your money. Your son has earned his Eagle rank. Buy and put the Eagle patch on his uniform. Same with shaving. Can I retouch out all of that unkempt facial hair? Sure ... but taking out facial hair properly is time consuming. Retouching charge for making an unshaved person look like they've shaved is $250. The cost of shaving cream for one shave is about 4¢. Your son doesn't want to shave? Tell him if he shaves, you'll pay for his next date. You'll still save a lot of money.

Photo-retouching is one of those times were the old adage "less is more" is true. The less retouching done, the more the portrait will look like your son. Often retouching is a good idea, but it should not be overdone. The image below is a reasonable example of judicious retouching.

Moderate retouching can improve your son's portrait without making him look like someone else.

While the video below is of young women instead of teenage boys, the important thing to observe is their reactions to seeing portraits of themselves that were retouched to give them "cover model" looks.

This is why we work hard to make each portrait look as much like the Eagle Scout as we can and to have his individual personality visible in the portrait.