Rant: Client feedback made me stop over-editing photos

Had a client in Bali last month. She looked at my edits and said 'this doesn't look like me anymore.' I was smoothing skin, boosting colors, the whole influencer look. She wanted raw natural shots. Real talk, her feedback stung but she was right. I was hiding real texture and shadows. Now I just fix lighting and crop tight. Let the person's real face show. Has any other nomad had a client call them out on over-processing?

3 comments

3 Comments

ross.felix16d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but the funny thing is I shot a wedding in Ubud where the couple literally asked me to make them look like anime characters, so sometimes you can't win either way.

danielw881mo ago

Noticed this same thing happening everywhere honestly. People are so used to seeing filtered versions of reality that the actual person gets lost. It's like we've been trained to want a cartoon version of ourselves instead of just looking human. The whole Instagram aesthetic made everyone forget that real skin has texture, real faces have shadows, and that's actually what makes them interesting. Social media pushed this idea that you gotta erase everything human about a face just to look "good". Good on that client for speaking up and good on you for actually listening instead of getting defensive.

pat_schmidt601mo ago

Stopped doing that heavy skin smoothing after a family shoot in Thailand last year... mom said her daughter's face looked like plastic and she hated it. Just stick to basic exposure fixes now and it's way more honest.