The Story Behind the Retouching Process

Emmaus: The Nature of the Way is back with another installment of Behind the Lens! The retouching aspect of photography is extremely important, as Chris Yates explains below. 

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These photographs would not be complete without a professional retoucher to edit them.  Meg Hensley was the perfect fit for the project.  She retouches almost all of LMU's work and a number of high end photographers use her for her incredible skill.

First off, usually when I say retouching, people immediately think “removing pounds and wrinkles.”  Although I did get a few requests from some of the guys to do that, we utilized a retoucher in a completely different way.  None of the images were formed or shaped by the retoucher but what Meg was able to do is make sure that the upper left corner of Fr. Fulco’s headshot matches exactly with the upper left corner of Martin’s headshot.

In other words, Meg allows a seamless viewing from one photograph to the next.  This is extremely important because this entire book focuses on the identity of a combined 22 Jesuits, not the individual.  But of course she was also able to remove that one strand of hair hanging in front of his face or the glare off his pin.  And when you look at the before and after – I’d say we wouldn’t be where we are now without her.