Selfie Editing Apps Are Rendering Retouch Artists Unemployed. Not! (yet)

High end retoucher Pratik Naik showed me this application yesterday. It is a selfie retouching  app that does wonders to your face. That led to us joking about how retouchers like him will soon be replaced with apps.

While, this may be a bit far-fetched, I am not entirely sure that it is impossible. At least for the minor things that used to need a pro.

Here are two examples that may get you thinking before you watch the video below:

• Red eyes were a real issue a while back. In fact if you go and look for red eye removal photoshop tutorial you will find quite a lot of them using some advanced photoshop. This process is completely automated today.
• Acne removal – same thing, this used to be a tedious job, and now it is almost automated as well. At least to the degree that you rarely have to close and you can heal those out in lightroom (or in an app).

And of course there is MeituPic (iOS, android) which was used to create the video below. Oh…. MeituPic….

Here is a side by side, just so you get the idea:

So where do you stand on this matter?