Faces

Sometimes it’s all that matters

TLDR I was paying for access to high level opinions, and all they could say was sometimes businesses need to put words on photos. Oh. I know.

I recently paid to join a group that I thought was meant to mentor photographers who shoot for businesses. It was the end of the year and I was desperate for anything that might make me better at business in 2026.

Because my membership was kicking in right before all the coaches took two weeks off for the holidays, I had to find other ways to figure out how this was going to go.

I had told the person who sold me the membership that I was looking forward to critiques that were more than just “I like it.” So after retouching a particular picture for what felt like too long, I posted a before and after in the critique chat.

Would other photographers think I went too far? Would they point out more things that needed to go? The photo was a group of people running on a row of treadmills. The strobe lights weren’t set properly yet, but this is the picture the client wanted. I also posted other takes I liked better.

Crickets.

The woman in charge of everything is the first to comment. When she shoots for businesses, they like room for text.

Nope.

That feedback doesn’t help me feel better about restructuring someone’s face in the picture. So I say the objective was to capture the name brand on the treadmills, but thoughtful opinions are not really a thing here.

There was no discussion of how business clients are going to re-crop your photos and run text on every part except someone’s face. The face might be all that matters. Hence, I’m going to fight to make someone subtly prettier.

On a scale of “1 not really” to “10 yes!!!” how interested are you in seeing my retouching?