This year marks my 20th year as a professional photographer and, by default, my 20th year as a photo editor. From the very beginning, I’ve wielded Photoshop to enhance, remove, brighten, soften, and sometimes shrink features of the humans in my images. You’d cackle if you dug into my archives to find the images from when I first started editing. No doubt there was enough Gaussian blur to make it look like a screenshot from a vintage telenovella.

***My retouching skills have come a long way. Here’s vintage Britta (circa 2008) looking very… um, soft and glowy (?). Photo by me and a trusty self-timer.***

I’ve learned a lot since then. My values as a photographer have strengthened, and I’ve gained a bunch more skills in Photoshop, lighting, posing, and life.

Now, friends, pull up a chair and let’s talk about the history of retouching. Even before photography was a thing, classical portrait painters used heavy discretion when painting their subjects. Have you ever seen a blemish on a 1770s portrait of a stuffy aristocrat? And you cannot tell me everyone looked so refreshed and wrinkle-free in those days. They didn’t even have Botox!

In photography, the first known instance of retouching was in the mid-1800s, when Calvert Jones used India ink to remove a stray figure from a photo. Retouching faces, bodies, and even clothing soon followed, and humans have been finding creative ways to make themselves look snatched in images ever since.

Today, with AI, even someone on the street can create a catfish-worthy portrait of themselves in 30 seconds. Has retouching gone too far? Likely. But to pretend this is a new phenomenon, and to accuse ourselves of being more vain than our ancestors, would not be the truth.

For me personally and professionally, I’ve wrestled with how little or how much I should be retouching my subjects. On the one hand, I value authentic, real-life images. Photography is magic in that way. We can see things as they are without rose-colored glasses.

On the other hand, I’ve processed enough images to know that I kind of do see my subjects with rose-colored glasses. How I, Britta, see you isn’t always what the camera captured. I don’t focus on under-eye circles or fine lines. Soft chins and bumpy bits are just not my concern. When you come in front of my lens, I see you. And, honey, you are gorgeous.

A camera lens can play a role, too, in how an image turns out. Different focal lengths can make you seem wider, rounder, stretched out, or out of proportion. Same with lighting. Some light can make you look like an ethereal angel, but rotate 30 degrees to your left and you might look like Steve Buscemi on a bad day.

***Do I wear rose colored glasses when photographing my clients? Very likely. Photo by Morgan Allora, Studio Freshly.***

I’ve had my ups and downs with retouching in my career, and many times my value of authenticity has been challenged. Just a few months ago, I had a client come in for a fun, light-hearted UnStuffy Headshot session. It was fun. We had a blast, and she looked and felt awesome.

Everything was great.

I edited my client's photos the way I had been editing for the last year or so. I had heard so many positive reviews from other headshot clients saying they loved their images and were so happy they looked so good.

My dirty secret? I had been editing them more than I should have because I wanted my subjects to feel extra good. Not just a blemish or two, but further tweaks ranging from nearly vanquishing wrinkles to slimming midsections and jawlines.

For this particular client, I went too far. They noticed a set of images that were not edited and compared them to the edited ones, and they were devastated. This was not why they hired me. I had crossed a line that could not be forgiven.

I, too, was devastated. Because I knew I had done something wrong. This wasn’t the kind of photographer I wanted to be. I felt a little bit like Frodo holding the Ring, overwhelmed by the knowledge that even something as small as retouching could do real harm.

Since then, I’ve done my best to hold back the urge to tweak farther than I should. Do I still do a little refinement here and there? Yes, I do. But I think through it every single time.

Image of my mug so you can see the before (left) and after retouching. Sure, I technically look like the left, but when I look in the mirror, I feel like I look more like the right. To me, this is the right amount of retouching. To some, it’s not enough, and to others, it’s way too much. Knowing your boundaries with retouching is invaluable for me as I process images that feel like you. Photo by Morgan Allora, Studio Freshly.

Starting this fall, I will be handing over some of this decision-making to my clients. For anyone booking a personal headshot session, you’ll now be asked what your comfort level with retouching is. This allows me to know your boundaries so I can give you the best service possible and so you can look as best as you feel.

For business headshots and UnStuffy Content geared toward smaller businesses, I’ll always give a clean and polished look without too many cosmetic tweaks. For the usual UnStuffy Content and Events, images will remain mostly free of additional touch-ups unless requested.

At the end of the day, I’ll continue to do my best for each human in front of my lens, capturing your amazing face, your stories, and those little quirks that make you, you. My hope is always to photograph everyone with honesty, care, and a little bit of joy so that when you look at your images, you see yourself clearly and in a way that feels right.

Where the heck have I been and why it doesn’t matter

Last year, I made it 12 for 12, posting this monthly recap every single month. The start of 2025 looked promising, but as summer ramped up, I suddenly found myself both too busy and too lazy to keep up with a monthly recap.

Does this matter? Did you even notice? The answer is probably nah and probably not.

I’m trying my hardest not to feel guilty about abandoning this, and my newsletter, over the last few months. Owning a business is constantly a practice of grace on oneself. And hey, I’ve come back, after all, so that’s a win.

What does this mean for the blog going forward? I’ll still write it. It may even be every month. Or it might not. I’m not saving the world here, just sharing my insight, bad jokes, and a photo or two.

So, legit, what have I been up to? For business: lots of headshots, a bit of travel, lots of smiling faces, and a touch of mud. The summer was a fabulous mix of work, including events, brand storytelling, grads, and lots of headshots, and I’m so pleased with the diversity in projects. Every day was truly different.

On the home front, we tried to keep it low-key, with the kids having their perfect ‘90s kid summer and our family getting out of town just enough. My garden exploded with green and marigolds, and we had many wonderful evenings hanging out in the backyard (well, until the late August plague of mosquitoes).

Fall looks both busy and promising, and I can’t wait to see what adventures are next.

Stuff I can’t Stop Thinking About

KPOP Demon Hunters

You have ‘Golden’ stuck in your head 24/7 too? As some of you know, this has been my year of K-pop, first getting into Blackpink after watching White Lotus (Lisa, one of the members, is in that show). Well, along comes KPOP Demon Hunters on Netflix. My daughter wanted to watch it together, and I was like, “Sure, why not?” Did I love the movie? I wouldn’t say that. Has every single song been on constant rotation in my head, even waking me up at 4:30 am because it won’t exit? Yes, it has. And I’m here for it.

Pamela Anderson

After all this hoopla with Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson dating (not dating) in the last month, I finally watched the documentary her son produced: ‘Pamela, a love story.’ I knew very little about Pamela Anderson before this (except for the 90s things the rest of us xennials know because we were alive), but I have to say, I fell in love with her. What a goodamn delight she is. I’ve since watched ‘The Last Showgirls,’ and while the plot and direction could have used an overhaul, she (and the entire cast) was fabulous in that movie.

nasturtium

Nasturtium is an annual flower that many people plant in the garden to keep pests away, but did you know you can also eat it? This was my first year planting this happy plant, and I’m so delighted. It grows huge, the flowers and leaves come in a bunch of colors, and the entire plant is edible and tastes like a variation of arugula. More flowers in my rice bowls, please!

A bunch of snaps from July & August

1: Unstuffy Content for The Pasture (family farm) 2: Headshots of Jessica, Meredith and Jamie. 3: Unstuffy Content for Morgan Allora of Studio Freshly. 4: Family friends enjoying some mid-summer lake fun. 5. Resident of The Linden Eventide putting together a bouquet of the Flower Empower event through Hope Blooms. 7. Lily with her pup Lola during her grad session. 8. Long time clients, the Thomsen Family. 8. Snap! Session with Lily. 9. Getting ready for the Hansel & Gretel opera at the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainderd. 10. Outtake from extended family session. 11. New headshots of Vivian. 12. Grad Portraits of Jonah at the North Fargo Spartons Football field. 13. Nick and Alyssa Adams, owners of Center for Plastic Surgery. 14. New headshots of my pals Abby Anderson and Morgan Allora (Studio Freshly). 15. Golden light grad portrait of Charlotte.