Digital Retouching for Bridal Glamour/Photography

They say some kids are born with a silver spoon in their mouths. For me, I'm convinced it was a lollipop. For as long as I can remember, I have craved sugar.

When you are a coltish teenager and burn through calories like a formula one driver does high-octane fuel, a sweet tooth isn't really a problem. But then along come our twenties and our dormant metabolism awakes with a bang and stretches and spreads its creeping mass all over the places we'd least like. It is a fairly significant design flaw that just as our metabolism is making itself known, many of us are thinking about tying the knot.

Getting the perfect wedding body can happen in several ways...we can do without all those delicious sweets (unlikely), we can get up at 5am five days a week (unimaginable), OR we can do it in Photoshop.

Images left: Bridal Glamour shoots are all about the bride but with the groom in mind >>

Bridal glamour shoots had their origin in America but often draw their inspiration from the boudoir styling of 1800s Paris - opulent, moody and oozing with passion and drama.

Glamour shoots are all about the bride but with the groom in mind - on the day of the hair and makeup trial my girls come into the studio along with their wedding shoes, veil and after-party underwear to create a series of images they can present to their fiancée the night before the wedding.

There's no better way of warming up those cold feet than a sexy set of pictures showing a brand new side to a brand new wife.

And lets face it, your body is never going to be looking as good as it will be right before your wedding day. But that doesn't mean you can't improve on perfection.

These days thanks to the magic of digital post production, all professional photographers are skilled in the sort of retouching that when done properly, can make even us real-life, garden variety hotties look like we've just stepped off the cover of Vanity Fair.

Above: Digital retouching should make you look spectacular but still believably natural

While some people consider this 'cheating', I don't see much difference between putting on makeup in front of the mirror or inside a computer programme. It's still you, it's just the best you that you're able to be.

The secret to successful bridal retouching, whether it is for a glamour shoot or even with images shot on the wedding day, is to do just enough that the subject looks incredible without anyone being able to say exactly why.

If you can see that an image has been retouched, chances are it's been a touch too much.

And because beauty - and the enhancement of it - is always in the eye of the beholder, play it safe and ask your photographer give you a copy of the untouched originals. Just don't look at them too closely!

That way everyone wins - you get wedding images with or without your dress on that make you look incredible but you also don't fall victim to a heavy hand that goes a step too far with your precious wedding photographs with no going back.

Best of all you don't have to sacrifice too many of those lollipops, since Photoshop is always there like a Knight on a white charger, to save the day should a few sneaky kilos or an uninvited pimple make their way onto the guest list.

Eva Bradley is an award-winning columnist for APN and is one of Hawke's Bay's leading wedding photographers. www.evabradley.co.nz