Air brushing refers to the photographic editing technique in which an image is retouched and smoothed over to improve picture quality. While air brushing has been done long before the advent of digital photography, digital imaging and editing programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, have made the use of air brushing much easier and more accessible to amateur photographers.
Although air brushing may be used in a various types of photography, it is most commonly employed in glamour photography, wedding photography and portraiture. For example, when a photographer wants to brush out the imperfections of a model’s face (e.g. acne or scars), he will air brush the image to make it appear smoother.
In particular circumstances, entire people or other details of a scene can be wiped out, altering the original image entirely. For this reason, documentary photographers and photojournalists alike heavily discourage and frown upon the implementation of air brushing in their respective fields. Similarly, any area of photography in which the integrity of the image is crucial to the resulting photograph will avoid air brushing or any other digital editing technique.
