Photographic Retouching
The photographic retouching can begin as soon as you have finished making your picture selection. Remember, while it is cheap to shoot lots of pictures digitally, retouching individual images on the computer is a time-consuming and expensive process. So choose only the pictures you need to have retouched. Many of my clients choose only one final image from each hair look. Photoshop has undoubtedly made it easier and more affordable for everyone to become a photographic retoucher, but few can call truly call themselves retouch artists. For many years there has been a trend for photographers to do their own retouching and while some of them are good at beauty retouching, we still see a lot of poor retouching where there has been an over-zealous use of the airbrush. Two years ago I predicted how judges of the BHA awards were beginning to tire of the over-retouched images. And this year (in 2007) there was noticeable move away from the heavy retouched look in all the winning collections.

The BHA rules state that retouching should not be used to manipulate the hair and Polaroids should be submitted to back up a shoot so that judges can cross-check with the original Polaroids to see if the hair has been radically altered or not. It is therefore best to use the retouching to clear up the stray hairs and smooth the skin tones to produce what I would consider a natural looking image that doesn't look like it has been heavily manipulated. I think when you see some photographs where the skin tones have been airbrushed to death; one is inclined to question everything else about the picture. My advice is to use retouching to perfect the image, but do so in moderation.

Supplying Pictures for the Awards and Magazines
The BHA rules require you to submit a 10" x 8" print with an entry form and a set of Polaroids taken on the day of the shoot to support each entered master image. Note that the Polaroids are not displayed alongside the master images at the judging stage, they are only required should one or more of the judges have doubts about the work presented and ask to see them. The 10 x 8 format is kind of annoying because every magazine in the world uses a more elongated format. Cropping a photo to the 10 x 8 format always means chopping off a large amount of the picture, which is why I recommend using uncropped versions when supplying photos to magazines. Shots for PR can be supplied on disc or electronically. My preferred approach is to give clients high resolution files that have been sharpened for print output in what is known as a CMYK print space and at the same time supply RGB JPEG high-res versions that any computer can open and are easier to distribute quickly by email. These two options seem to cover all bases and the print reproduction is usually spot on most of the time.