Initially, this kept me busy as I came in at a great price to quality ratio that secured me plenty of jobs. When I jumped into the retouching industry, I found that there were more photographers who were looking for retouchers that couldn't find competent help at the price range they were comfortable with paying. The amount of competition in that industry was so high that it felt like it was not worth it. Oh, yes! I remember taking a stab at graphic design and realizing that it wasn't for me. Do you remember a single event that helped you to become a retoucher, as opposed to an illustrator, painter, or photographer? What pushed you over the edge and in to retouching? Do you have any advice for artists that are at a similar crossroads in their life? QYou mentioned that you have always been interested in art, that you also enjoyed drawing, painting, and photography. It's optional but some photographers like to add a certain look to their photos, and I help them get there based on what they have in mind. I also get requests to add color tone to the images. So that part of that process occurs right after removing blemishes as well.
This could be the same for a whole arrangement of objects like limbs, garments, jewelry, hair, etc.Įven with skin work, we have to even out textures and colors that are found through the range of skin tones to make them look appealing without it looking overly retouched. So for instance, if you have a shot that looks great but her arm position is a bit off, we could use a better arm placement from another photo and composite that in. Also, it's not uncommon to take better hand positions or expressions from one image and use it in another. That could typically be left to my eye or they may give me a set of notes. Aside from skin work, I have to clean up environments where I have to remove anything that is deemed distracting. When it strictly comes down to the tasks that I have to do on jobs, the list can be quite long. While that is certainly a task that retouchers perform often, what other tasks do you perform on a daily basis? QWhen most people think about retouching, they probably think about removing skin blemishes and making people look thinner.