BEFORE
AFTER
The technical tasks here were to remove the canned light from behind the model's head, remove the reflection of the light fixture in the wall art, remove the stickers on the pole underneath the table, and remove the "Red Bull" sign on the wall. The creative objective was to make the image shine, and emphasize all the vibrant reds in the scene. In order to remove the light behind the model's head, a different head was used (from a different shot, provided by the photographer) that both had a more pleasant expression and simultaneously concealed the light on the ceiling. Two birds with one stone! It's up to the client to decide what stays and what goes. In this case, the gum underneath the bar was not removed, as the client decided it benefited the environmental context of the scene.
BEFORE
AFTER
For this black and white photo, the outlets on the wall (and their reflections) were removed, the iPhone in the back pocket of the pants was removed, and all the architectural lines were straightened. A common misconception is that retouchers need the highest possible resolution images in order to do good retouching. While it is true that more resolution is generally better, a good job can still be achieved with lower-resolution imagery. The black and white photo above was shot on film, and the file is a relatively low-resolution scan.
BEFORE
AFTER
Two cutting boards were pushed together in the above image. The objective was to remove the crack in between the two boards, to make it appear as if all the food is on one large, continuous cutting board.