“Impolite Viewer”

Something you might not have ever thought of:

When you meet a person face-to-face and have a conversation, both people will generally attempt to maintain eye contact. While their gaze may drift some, people will usually move back towards the eyes of whomever they are speaking with. 

This is so true that when viewing a photograph of a person, the eyes are often where the viewer looks first, out of habit. When the living, breathing subject of that image is nowhere to be found, manners, politeness, and social conventions suddenly become less important. That individual who was doing their best to maintain eye contact before suddenly morphs into a person we might call Impolite Viewer. 

The defining characteristic of Impolite Viewer? Their gaze wanders, and feels no need to get back to looking at the eyes any time soon. It can settle on the mustard on your shirt or that tiny piece of spinach in your teeth and really take them in. The bad night of sleep (sometimes unavoidable, if we’re being truthful), suddenly becomes much more obvious as our Impolite Viewer rudely stares at the dark circles under your eyes. That dryness or uneven skin tone (you are drinking your recommended amount of water and using a moisturizer with SPF? Impolite Viewer silently inquires), stands out worse than anything you can imagine. And don’t get me started on that one thing about yourself that you’re a little touchy about (your friends and loved ones say you shouldn’t worry about it, but what do they know?)

Take it from an experienced retoucher: there wasn’t an entire spinach plant in your teeth through the whole date, you didn’t look as tired as you thought (or felt), and that one thing really wasn’t as bad as you were afraid it was (in fact, it might have gone unnoticed). 

In person, when Impolite Viewer is held to pesky social conventions, most of these things would probably go mostly unnoticed. When looking at a photograph, Impolite Viewer has time to notice things that would go largely unnoticed in person. 

That’s where retouching can really shine. Attention can be directed away from these minor issues and kept on what really matters: the subject of a photo, whether a headshot, a branding shot, or a family photo.