20 Photographers are Given the Same Portrait to Edit, Check Out the Results

20 Photographers are Given the Same Portrait to Edit, Check Out the Results

As we all know, the human experience is unique. Your life and your opinions will never be the same as any other persons. This is why there is a subjectivity to art. When viewing and creating art, there will not be two artists who imagine the same piece. Since photography and retouching are both art forms, it would be plausible that the same applies. 

Curious to see whether or not this theory was true, I posted a RAW file for people to download and edit. I was astounded to see that this theory is in fact a very real, present concept. After going through hundreds of images, here are 20 who show how diverse and how differently we all view things.

There was a total of 2200 downloads of the RAW file and 465 submissions.  After spending hours carefully sifting through all the edits, I narrowed it to 20 final edits. Originally I was going to pick 10 but that was far too hard. There were so many great choices! I was totally mind-blown by how differently every person managed edited the same exact image.

Before I go ahead and post the images I'd like to share a great idea by Jermey Dexter. If all those who submitted an edit can post their edit in the comments on Facebook here, everyone will have a chance to see each others edits. If you'd like to participate in future articles or follow me, my personal Facebook page is your best bet. (You can scroll through the images quickly by just tapping on the photo. Photographers name are credited under each  photo starting with the SOOC image. 

SOOC D800 85 1.4g f1.8 1/3200 iso 320
Model: Giavanna Rudess

Dennis Qualls

Alessandro De Luca

Vera Conley

Martin Sznapka
Felix Naresh Tirkey

Zaq Ledbetter
Zalmy berkowitz
Stephanie Massaro​
Ronny Lorenz

Olga Radzikh
Nele Suurna Estonia

Michael Del Priore​
Max Jan Heinrich

Kazi Mizan

Jolene Fargo

Gabe Botten

David Guzman

Brian Ball

Emmanuel Marcel-Rene

Elisha Morrissey

 

 

Dani Diamond's picture

Dani Diamond is a fashion and commercial photographer based out of NYC. He is known for his naturally lit portraits and unique retouching techniques.

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67 Comments
Previous comments

Nice work.. however I'm also little disappointed someone didn't do something more than run a filter and / or crop the image. Anyone can click a few filters in PS or LR. What about adding elements to it.. not in a cheesy clip photo kind of way but with some subtle elegance... what about textures? Or was that not allowed?

Sorry, did not see this fun game in the early date... Hence, I am late to the game. However, I do not expect to win or lose anything here... just join the crowd for fun. A little odd thought, I care more about her eyes; therefore, I cropped out anything else... LOL

Note: The noise is mine, not that Nikon. I do like noise... kakakaakka....

Really interesting to see so many different styles! The last two were my personal favorites but great work by all :D

Oh man! I just saw this on instagram and decided to see if I was selected. :(. I guess we can't all be winners. lol. Thanks for the task it was fun. and seeing everyone's edits, it sure is quite the fun to think how we all approach the same content and try in making it our own.

I think it was hard to choose from hundreds of edits. It was fun and interesting to see what others did :)

Seeing as edits have been posted here. No filters, no actions. Just a straight edit and attention to detail without going overboard. The hands...were a real mess and also, just...awkwardly placed but...not much to do about that. Did some minor work on the railing in front of her as well as the vertical railing in foreground. Minor....but still....about details and overall look.

So basically, every single one of the editors ran these through VSCO, did a god-awful retouch tutorial on them and then sent them off. These are terrible.

Great idea Dani! So fun! I apologize I missed the party! I just came across your awesomeness. I had to edit one. I edited it old school in photoshop. High Pass Sharpening x2, Frequency Separation, Patch Tool, basic dodge and burn and Shadow/Highlights adjustment. Her face was striking to me so I focused on it. I hope you do this again. It was fun!

I didn't submit this, but here's my attempt. I hope he does this again.

This was fun to do and look at what others have done! You can see that people of all degree of expertise got into it and submitted... kudos to all who did! While I worked on it I have to agree that the hands are the part that was the most irritating... but I decided not to crop or modify them. Instead ... I decided to edit it with my style (no pun intended) and just had fun :-) So... Thanks for that!

zoomed for details

Hey Dany, this is my result :) u like it?

Awesome.

Thanks, I admire your work, my attempt.

I feel like a monitor calibration tool should be the first thing everyone should get. I don't think that some of the photographers intended to make it look so yellow.

I wonder why so many edits are totally green or yellow or super dark or bright. How can you edit a picture to the point where you can't even see the models face anymore because it's so dark? I keep seeing this on your FB all the time when people post their edits. I'm a noob in PS and photography but one of the first things I did was get my monitor calibrated to not have the same problem.

i m new here .. i love to retouch .. dani diamond is my one of the most favourite photographer .. i think i can't retouch well..i want to learn more ..but the problem is i don't have enough money ..and i m from poor family ..here is my photo i retouched