Prince William and Kate Middleton's Official Engagement Portraits With "Minimal" Retouching

According to Associated Press, the official engagement photos of Prince William and Kate Middleton got retouched.

"William's office says the couple's two official portraits underwent "minimal" retouching before they were released. The palace said Tuesday that the couple's appearance was not altered, but adjustments made were to light balance and contrast because "the final portraits are works of art," like the painted portraits made of previous royal generations."

Still it looks like some flash glare should have been removed.

link to the AP report

Photo Retouching: Feel Beautiful Because You Are

Looking good is not important, it’s everything! At least it must be to two thirds of women, as the Hewlett Packard survey showed, who are “deeply embarrassed” by many of their photos. The same research shows that if you are a man under 35, you are probably happy with every photo of yourself, including the ones that should appear embarrassing.

Why women hate their photos? Because we want our photos to present us the way we'd like to be and they usually don’t. We want our true self to be captured in a flattering light, from a favorable angle and preferably by a genius from Photography. This doesn't happen often and this is why we delete our photos before anyone had a chance to see them and plead with our friends to remove our photos from their Facebook galleries. Even those women who are majorly satisfied with their reflection in the mirror can and do develop photophobia.

Professional models are never happy with their photos till they have been edited. PhotoHand artists know this because we work with models.

Your photo might be far from perfect, but with the help of the photoshop retouching service, you can make any picture perfect and outstanding.

Suppose someone snapped a decent photo of you that you decided to use a your professional photo (a.k.a. "executive portrait") on your marketing materials. With a little help from Photoshop, your casual amateur photo will be turned into a "studio portrait".



Another lucky shot doctored with the glamorizing effects will give your image a touch of Hollywood turning it into a photo gift to your loved ones.



Boudoir photography is a growing trend. Brides are looking for something unique and sexy to give their husbands as a wedding gift. But ladies in their 30’s, 40’s and even 50’s are wanting boudoir photo shoots even more. When asked about their motivations, the general response is that they are still feeling young at heart and want to capture themselves in some beautiful sensual images.
Needless to say, boudoir photography always needs a hand from photo retouchers. We also recommend applying various art effect like soft focus, Rembrandt-like light and shade contrast, Hollywood affects, etc. Then your photo will be poetry. Plus, that the experience of having a make-over and photo session can give women a feeling of liberation and empowerment. Now beauty salons started hosting boudoir photo sessions for groups of women.


From 1991, when pregnant Demi Moore appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair, pregnancy stopped being something to be hidden, but something to be celebrated in all its glory. Maternity photos are always a challenge but with skillful retouching they become a celebrated memento in moving forward. We at PhotoHand are noticing a growing trend of sending our pregnancy announcement photo cards just like it is with baby arrival cards.



Wedding photos have been family treasures since the beginning of photography. They must be perfect, especially the bride's gala portrait shot before the wedding. All the tiny photo flaws must be fixed. But what if you don't even have that portrait. Well, it can be created in all its splendor.



A less than perfect photos shouldn't bring you down. First, not everybody is a model - it's natural to get uncomfortable in front of the camera. And that hair gets out of control because there is no stylist around to assist you. And the makeup artist is not on hand to fix the smudges. Remember, all these annoying flaws can be easily fixed after the image capture.

Photo Retouching: Going Mainstream

Photo retouching, a.k.a. photo editing or airbrushing, is as old as photography itself. But only with the advent of the digital revolution that overturned a lot of concepts in the Photography industry since the beginning of this century, photo retouching became commonplace, extending to family photography - professionally taken as well as amateur shots.

Photo retouching services became affordable to any budget ($3.50/photo at PhotoHand.com) and easily accessible over the web. You can order it 24/7 just like you order books or clothes.

Just decide what you don't like about the photo, check the pricing schedule and go to the order form to upload your shots and type in your instructions. You will get your images back in the same resolution without any marks claiming the copyright over your photos.

Photo retouching ("photoshopping") does not mean altering the photos completely, rather it simply modifies the images and removes the flaws originating from technical and non-technical faults.

Besides the lighting that you normally don't have control of outside the studio, there are a lot of mishaps that can ruin the view: exit signs spoil the mood in the wedding pictures and so do slight wardrobe malfunctions like skin overflowing the edge of a sleeveless wedding dress (happens even to the skinniest brides), twisted tense smiles resulting from prolonged posing, electrified hairs crossing faces... There is no reason now to put up with these imperfections that spoil otherwise a perfect memento.

Of course, it takes skill, experience and artistic perspective to improve and sometimes rescue the photo without affecting the originality of the image. Luckily, now the magazine-quality photo editing services are available to every mom, newlywed, serial dater, actor, musician, aspiring model, pageant contestant, starting out fashion designer, beauty professional, life coach... everyone.

Bringing Glamour to the Masses - This Holiday Season & Always

PhotoHand.com Puts a New Twist on the Holiday Greetings Tradition

Tired of the same cookie-cutter greeting cards? Looking for new gift ideas? This holiday season check out the new generation of highly personalized greeting card design launched by PhotoHand! There are no two cards alike - PhotoHand takes your favorite photo and integrates it with a unique graphic design to create a montage. As an option, have your child's photo combined with the photo of her drawing as the background.

Orders can be placed online and this will cost you only $11.95 while you get a very special keepsake unlike the mundane prefabricated options offered by other companies. PhotoHand can also facilitate printing at a reasonable cost for you if you don't have a favorite printer.

PhotoHand photo card offering extends to personal events, like birthdays, bachelorette parties, bar mitzvahs, baby showers... You can order a creative collage of several photos at $5.95 per image. Such gifts are fun, original and as personable as they get.







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Modelocity Magazine Gives PhotoHand Thumbs Up

Modelocity magazine that features upcoming modeling talent and provides practical advice to those who are making first steps in their modeling careers, gives thumbs up to PhotoHand.com as an invaluable resource for Madison-Avenue quality yet most affordable photo retouching and comp card design that will get you noticed.

In the modeling business where competition is brutal, Modelocity Magazine lets you get your feet wet by giving you your first exposure and providing you with how-to advice on your way to becoming the next America's top model.

When receiving portfolio submission for tearsheets, Modelocity editors started worrying that many images were in dire need of improvement - smudged makeup, flyaway hairs crossing your eyes, flash glare, dark undereye circles... any imperfections could be easily be removed. Of course, this should be done by professionals who will not make your face look flat and ensure that the traces of corrections do not pop up in printing.

Now, the common perception is that such retouching services are costly and out of reach for starting-out models. This is how Modelocity discovered PhotoHand.com that charges only $3.50 per photo for complete cosmetic retouching or $19.95 for comp card design plus retouching of all photos included in the card. A tastefully designed comp card makes the photos look more glamorous adding to the professional image of the model; and comp cards designed by PhotoHand do make you stand out.

Says Modelocity: "Thank goodness no more confusing per work hour estimates. Some places confuse you with terminology that does not make sense to the normal human ear... We like that PhotoHand has worked with models at the beginning of their careers and knows exactly what they need and have no problem wiping the question marks off the faces of those just starting out in the industry."

Related Posts: Comp Cards – How To and What Works





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Digital Photography for Moms and Aunties: How To Avoid Blurry Pictures

Modern digital cameras equipped with automatic settings make it easy to take beautiful pictures of your family. Still there are some tips to remember to avoid pretty common photo defects that can not be fixed with photo retouching. We'll cover them one by one and give you very simple practical tips to avoid these mishaps.

Our first topic is picture blurriness. We, at PhotoHand, quite often get request to sharpen blurry photos. This can be done only to some extent before the image turns pixelated. So how to avoid blurriness?

First of all, use a real camera, not a phone camera. Even if your phone camera takes multi-megapixel shots, there are a lot of other technical parameters that are missing from it to deliver a quality image.
The second common problem is "shaky shots". A digital camera is very light and there is a big probability that it could be easily shaken or swayed when you take a shot.

We suggest you always hold the camera with both hands.

When taking a shot, assume a steady and stable position to avoid any shaking or wobbling of your camera that will result in blurring in your pictures. If you are standing, make sure that you are on level ground and that your feet are shoulder width apart. If possible, lean against a wall or a tree.
If possible, do not hold your camera at arm’s length as this could cause swaying of your camera. Keep your elbows close to your sides.

When kneeling, rest your elbow(s) on your knee for support.

If you have a DSLR camera, your left hand must be placed around the lens and the bottom edge to support the edge of the camera.

If you are still getting shaky pictures, it is normally recommended to use a tripod or a monopod (a one-legged tripod). We don't see these as a practical solution for a moms. But there is an easy-to-carry lightweight (4.8 oz) alternative to tripods and monopods - SteadePod. It resembles a stainless-steel tape measure - you attach one end to your camera, pull the retractable 6' steel cable down to the ground, hold it with your foot, and the slight tension on the cable gives you a steady camera position. This device costs $24.99 at B&H and can be ordered online.









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As of this week, the British royal family have established their online presence on Flickr – www.flickr.com/photos/britishmonarchy. This is after opening YouTube and Twitter accounts. Can’t wait to befriend some royals on Facebook.

The album will allow Flickr users to use the photographs in blogs and other media, the Daily Mail reported. 

Comp Cards – How To and What Works

As PhotoHand gets more and more orders for comp card design we also receive more requests to help in picking the photos for our model clients. We hope this post will be useful in this task.

General
A model comp card has a front side with a full size portrait and a back side with a selection of representative shots from the portfolio — and the model's basic stats (see below) and contact information — printed on both sides of an 8.5" x 5.5" piece of card stock (12 pt stock) (US) or 15×21 cm (Europe, Asia).

Think of your comp card as your marketing tool. This will determine how you want to pose for it and which photos to choose. The casting manager will hardly look for Miss Congeniality with a big teethy smile. Neither is important how pretty you are. What is important is HOW GOOD YOU ARE AT MODELING.

Number of Photos
You need one good headshot for the front side and 4-5 photos for the back of the comp card.

Photo Size
Photo should be at least one Megabyte (=one Megapixel) in size for quality printing, especially the headshot for the front of the comp card.

Posing
Before the photoshoot, pick a dozen of poses you think you can imitate from fashion magazines and practice them in front of a mirror until they feel natural. Strike poses that show elegance and power.

Facial Expression
Some very good photos of you are only good for the family photo book. Nice smiley pictures won’t get you very far. You will not get booked because you are a nice person. Look at the glossies, the models there are all pouting or spot a faint smile. No big teeth smiles.

Make sure your face is not tense. During the photoshoot, close your eyes, think of something and then open your eyes. This usually does the trick.

Front Photo
For the front of the comp card, select your best ¾ portrait shot.

Back Photos
You’ll need 4-5 photos for the back of the comp card. Make sure that at least one photo shows you in full height.

Versatility
The photos at the back should show the different sides of you: glamorous, bohemian, sporty, sexy, grungy, country, business… whatever style you can master. This was you will present your true potential to get you bookings.

Model Stats

For Men	For Women
Height	Height
Shirt	Bust
Waist	Waist
Shoes	Hips
Hair Color	Shoes
Eye Color	Hair Color
	Eye Color

Comp Card Design
Your comp card needs to have a pleasing, not to mention professional, look to attract the attention of the casting manager. This is like packaging for a product. Even if you are not so happy with the results of your photoshoot, your photos will shine when cropped for the maximum effect, or tilted, and nicely arranged in an elegant format.

Take it from the professionals. This comp card that we retouched and designed some time ago, was used in a television program in Canada as a sample of how to design comp cards that get you jobs.



We hope you find these tips helpful. Good luck!





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