Jim Bob wrote:
It's not just portrait photographers but their subjects who find the soft touch flattering. Removing skin blemishes is not synonymous with softness. Many are of the opinion that hard sharpness on the face for general portraits, especially of women, is simply less than flattering. Is this a sexist or stereotyped bias? I'll let you make that call.
Yes I do understand that softening a women's face a little is often more flattering. I shot my sons girlfriend also. Because I am not a proffesional and was not charging her I told her she might want to have a proffesional sitting done too icase she didn't like mine. She showed me those results and they were ghastly, they were so soft they looked painted and fake. I almost felt like I should pay the other photographer for making mine look great. This was a photographer that charged $250 for the sitting alone which included 8 poses to choose from for 1 submission to the yearbook. Prints and digital images were all extra. That may or may not be the going rate not sure. But the end result was not good pictures. However, surveying what else is out there the images are inline with what everyone else is doing to the female face. So am I missing something?