Professional Development
The One-Click Problem: Why AI Retouching Is Quietly Eroding Portrait Photography Skills
I’ve been retouching portraits for fifteen years, and I’ve watched the profession shift in ways that genuinely concern me. Not because I’m afraid of technology—I use AI tools myself—but because I’m seeing something troubling: photographers who can produce a polished portrait in ninety seconds but couldn’t explain why that portrait looks polished, or how to fix it when something goes wrong. This isn’t about being a purist. It’s about craft. And right now, we’re watching a generation of photographers skip the apprenticeship entirely.
