Airbrushing has long been used to amend photographs in the pre-digital era. In skilled hands the airbrush can be used to help hide signs that an image has been extensively retouched or doctored. 

The term “airbrushed” or “airbrushed photo” has also been used to describe glamour photos in which a model’s imperfections have been removed, or in which their attributes have been enhanced. The term has often been applied to describe images of unrealistic female perfection and has been particularly common in reference to pictures in Playboy, and later Maxim.

Using today’s digital imaging technology, this kind of picture editing is now usually done with a raster image editor, which is capable of even more subtle work in the hands of a skilled touch-up artist. This technique is still called airbrushing or photoshopping.

With all this relatively inexpensive technology to hand is their really any point in booking a professional photographer for your boudoir portraits when you could get your best girlfriend to take a few shots of you at home and run the image through the PC software to give it that extra punch? Way cheaper.

Of course if you’ve ever tried this at home you’ll already know that it’s not so easy achieving that cover girl look, no matter how many photo effect pre-sets you throw at it. The bottom line is that although airbrushing software is relatively easy to use, producing great results takes years of trial and error to create a professional style – that’s why the skills of the best airbrush artists are highly sought after in the fashion photography business.

The best airbrushing is invisible – a retouched image should look as if that’s just the way it was shot. Of course the reality is that there’s probably been considerable work done to create this natural look especially as body sculpting is only one part in the process of airbrushing a photo – all images need to be color balanced with contrast to enhance the overall look. Ultimately – the viewer should be impressed by the portrait, not the airbrushing technique.

An experienced airbrush artist can do everything you could ever want done to your portrait – the problematic part is deciding what not to do – crucially important when it comes to working on boudoir portraits, considering that the majority of real women clients do not have model figures or looks but fittingly want to be shot looking glamorous, sensual, provocative and sexy.

A good boudoir photographer will spend time suggesting appropriate poses, outfits and background combinations to ensure the end result meets the client’s expectations.

The majorities of our clients expect their images to be fully retouched and will often list specific bits that they want altered. Body size and age seems to make no difference to airbrushing requests – young women who have perfect bodies fret about their tummy being too big or their bottoms too saggy just as much as older clients with more lived in bodies. In fact our older clients are generally more relaxed about how their bodies look and feel much happier posing nude.

There‘s an argument that if a client has been posed and lit sympathetically then digitally enhancing the image shouldn’t be necessary. This is true up to a point and therefore its no surprise that when shooting real women who don’t have size 10 figures many boudoir photographers shoot with significant parts of the subject in darkness, perhaps with a few key features highlighted and then printing the final image in monochrome, which helps hide variations in skin color.

However we find most of our clients regardless of size or age, when offered a choice of photography styles rarely go for the subtle dark approach. They don’t want to hide their bodies in the shadows; they want to be photographed in sexy FHM style poses with full on glamour lighting to celebrate their sexuality. And yes of course they want the shots fully airbrushed so they can look like a Cover girl.

The big question when retouching boudoir photos is how far we go. I’m reluctant to alter a clients body shape too much, although its technically possible to shrink a customer from size 20 to size 2 I prefer more subtle alterations like smoothing out bumps, slimming tummies, upper arms and thighs and generally cleaning up skin. Faces of course are always a particular challenge – the trick is to remove the blemishes, spots and wrinkles while keeping the original texture of the skin intact, otherwise the end result will look unnatural and waxy. The reaction to the finished airbrushed portrait should be WOW! But it still has to look like the customer – that’s after all is what she’s paying for

There are many photographers who can produce superb boudoir portraits who do not provide airbrushing, so if you’re sure you don’t want your images enhanced in any way then go for it. However if you consider that fashion models, movie stars and FHM babes wouldn’t ever allow their images published in print without their perfect features getting the airbrush treatment, then it might be worthwhile considering a photographer that offers expert airbrushing to guarantee that Cover Girl look.