I am editing some photos from a shoot I did a few days ago, and they’re for headshots for an actor, she has requested that I remove some blemishes, mainly the acne scars she has, I removed them but it’s quite a drastic edit, and it makes it look a lot less like her, I told her this and she still wants it removed.
Part of me just wants to get the job done, but also, I feel like it’ll be bad for her as a headshot as it doesn’t represent her fully, and personally I think she looked better with the scars left in, not because the edit was bad but because it gave a bit more character to her face and they weren’t even unattractive.
I’m deciding whether to send her versions with blemishes and without or if that’ll annoy her enough to not work with me again as she seemed quite offended that I even suggested leaving them in.
What does everyone think?
I do headshot photography and retouching, and I am always upfront with my clients that I will remove things that I missed (flyaway hairs, lint, etc) and things that won’t be there 2-3 weeks from now (scabs, pimples, dry skin spots, globs of eyeliner, missed hairs from shaving, and so forth). I do not remove scars or any other permanent features.
Especially for actor headshots as they need to represent themselves accurately.
See that’s the approach I would like to take, but I don’t have enough repeat business atm to take that risk
You need to do what you agreed to do beforehand. AnsibleMedia’s guidelines are something you can relate to future customers before shooting, but for now you should give the client what they expect.
But the fact is that your job with headshots is to help the client sell themselves. Making judgements on how they portray that self, especially if it’s about something as sensitive and personal as their face, is a crappy attitude.