The Case for Imperfection: Why 2026 Clients Want Real

The perfection arms race that dominated digital photography for two decades is losing ground. Clients who once complained about visible skin texture are now actively requesting it. If you're still defaulting to maximum noise reduction and heavy retouching on every job, you're potentially delivering work that reads as sterile when the brief is calling for authentic. The practical shift: build a lighter-touch preset into your workflow as a genuine first option, not a fallback.