Retouching by Ruben Tresserras

Ruben Tresserras is a talented freelance retoucher based in Barcelona offering creative retouching services for photographers and agencies worldwide.

Unsolicited Advice II

Unsolicited Advice II

For the Stater Retoucher (The biz side of things)


There are a lot of myths in this industry.

Such as:
You need a full portfolio before you can contact an agency/photographer/brand
You need a classy website with a Gallery
You need to have contacts, “know” people in the industry
You need to be good at everything: retouching/design/3D
You need to know how to use photoshop, illustrator, maya, indesign
You need to charge $20 to stay competitive

In my opinion there’s no “luck” in this biz, luck can only take you so far.



*Practice daily

*Practice some more (I STILL do images that I like just for doing them, those usually take me more than 5 hours)

*Create competitive samples respecting photographers and copyright

* Email photographers you love (directly addressing always to their name and complementing exactly what you like about their work and how you can benefit each other, no “general emails”)

*Be concise and direct

*Offer to TEST for them

don’t use any internet terminology or you’re out immediately

What you do need:

You need an ftp server with your name/company name - yousend /megaupload screams “amateur”

You need 2 or 3 striking samples displayed correctly (hosted html rollover) would do, just link them in your contact email

If you’re good and your prices are competitive, they will call you.

Very Important about Portfolio Material:

Just like the saying goes, “To get the job you want, you have to dress the part.” This applies for retouching as well, to get the type of clients you are looking to work with, you have to present a similar portfolio to the work they have in theirs.

Retouch the images that are going to land you that NEXT job. If you settle for cheap clients, you will always have cheap clients.

If you proudly display 20 minutes retouches in your portfolio you will only get 20 minutes $20 images to work on.

FAQ

How many Samples should I have?
It depends on the kind of retouching you do. Beauty, fashion, Glamour, Product/Still Life?
2 of each is enough to get you going. Always remember your folio or the material you display has to be the best f the best


How much should I charge?
Rates depend on many things to have an estimated. But I can tell you that if you’re charging $20 an image and that image is taking you more than 2 hours, you’re better off working for mc donnals.
But always take into account the amount of hours you need for the project.
Small images such as catalog work take less time than A3 printing for portfolio.


How much time should I spend retouching?

It always depends. Who is the client? How’s gonna be printed? What is it for? What’s the budget?

Catalog for a small company? Spend more than 2 hours on it and you’re wasting everyone’s time and money

Product Advertorials or editorials mixed brands? same as before, always ask for a layout pdf so you can see which images are gonna take on a full page and witch one won’t

Advertising in mags for a good brand - 4 hours, till 6

Bigger than magazines - 1 day + + (depending on budget)

Unsolicited Advice

Unsolicited Advice

For the Stater Retoucher

3 major Things to take into account in retouching

* Not because you can do it means you should

* Not because it looks better means that it looks good

* Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken

When retouching an image, specially when it’s a portfolio image (testing) you make all the aesthetic decisions (or most of them), then you need to make the right ones.

To name an example… When you change the lipstick tone, you need a reason other than “I think it’s going to look better”.

Everything you do to a model should be to enhance composition, you don’t slim her down to slim her down but to make her fit better in the frame, make the shape more interesting, the same with clothing, eyes, arms or nose. When you change the lipstick/eyeshadow tones, you do it to take attention from them or drawn attention to them.

It’s very important to stay in touch with the full image. Most of the times I see retouches that focus on small details but forget about the full frame, you have perfect skin when close up, but the full frame looks blotchy, my advice is, every once in a while, zoom out to print size (or further) and look at the image, really look at the image.

These are 4 aspects I concider when retouching:

* Composition
* Tone
* Light/shadow
* Texture

Composition: Nothing stands out. If something calls the eyes too much, you remove it or blend it better with the rest of the frame. If you have half a shoe/light/leave/watteva you remove it, it’s either in the frame or out. If you have something in the frame that you can’t tell at first glance exactly what it is (some fur, piece of skin somewhere, accessories in weird angles, you remove it, hide it, cover it up - why? Because the brain likes it better when it’s clear if can’t tell what something is right away your brain “gets it” as wrong and the image becomes less attractive to the human eye.
Hair is part of the image too… Don’t forget to retouch the hair, it’s like half an image!
Remove, flying hairs, make texture smooth, D&B shadows and highlights to shape it… What ever it takes to make it congruent with the skin retouch,

Tone: You decide your final tones before even opening the image, once you have them, make them even.
The skintones shouldn’t be monotone, there’s natural variations in skin, but there shouldn’t be differences between face, hands, body
When doing beauty, eye bags have less saturation, shadows usually have more and those things need to be taken into consideration.

Light/Shadow: Unless it was meant to be harsh (And sometimes even then)
Transitions between shadow and light need to be smooth. This includes transitions like from neck to chest, cheekbone to cheek, nose to mouth - and - texture wise.

Texture: Texture is nothing more or less than local contrast in small ranges of skin.
Edges of contrast. Texture needs to be even, but always respecting the original patterns of skin. You don’t have the same texture in the forehead than u do in cheeks, nose, under eyes, chin, over lips, neck or body.
When working with the split (Frequencies or Inverted Highpass) you can’t just use ONE radius for the whole image, because you are only retaining ONE range of edges, just one kind of texture, ergo: IT WILL LOOK FAKE

Within the same line of thought… stay away from plug ins that use general radius on the whole face or you’ll end up with blotchy skin with “selective shine” like you spread wax on the models face forgetting about bigger inconsistencies between shadow and light.

Learn to look at the image a lot before doing anything, make good calls, have a base for your aesthetic decisions.

Only fix what calls the eye.
Don’t remove every pore, make the texture even but keeping the original pattern
Don’t remove all the peach fur, make it consistent.
Don’t remove every flying hair - just the ones going against the flow.

So you want to be a retoucher

So you want to be a retoucher

     High end Fashion & Beauty

” If it doesn’t come bursting out of you

in spite of everything,

don’t do it.

unless it comes unasked out of your

heart and your mind and your mouth

and your gut,

don’t do it.”

                                     Charles Bukowski

Like many other creative trades, this is one you need to love in order to succeed.

Not a day goes by without me getting an email asking me how to achieve something in Photoshop. Furthermore, when I reply, the person is shocked that it would take so long. They are honestly amazed that it’s not some action or a one-click wonder trick.

Well… it’s not.

Learning is never fast or easy.

Being good at it doesn’t happen over night.

Building a retouching business takes time, and a completely different set of skills.

Nothing can be achieved though, if you are not passionate enough.

Lets define passion. A musician will listen to music all day and night, studying every style and author. They will know everything there is to know, about every facet of music, because that’s the way it should be!  It couldn’t be any other way!

The same goes for visual arts. You can’t be a retoucher if you don’t enjoy and consume art. One needs to develop an eye for color, aesthetics and composition.

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it”.  Ansel Adams

How do we “make” an image from the retoucher’s perspective? Taking into account the teachings of traditional art, such as composition, color theory and light behavior. Also, things involving drawing/illustration techniques are extremely helpful when it comes to retouching. Reason is, we are basically drawing over an existing gradient.

Anatomy, from an artist point of view, is also essential when working on human models, shape and bone structure etc.

There’s a retouching house in NY where they make all their retouchers study anatomy and test them on it. They need to know every bone in the face.

Understanding the market is also part of being passionate about retouching.

You can’t work in a market you don’t understand. Who are your inspirations? What are the industry standards? Why is copyright important? Who is your ideal target? What are the current trends? What has been done already? By Whom?

You should know the answers to these questions if you’re going to pursue a career in retouching. 

The first thing I ask my students is “How many of you have the latest Vogue or Número in their home/office?”

You create your own limitations. If you don’t spend your time consuming art and images (quality ones), then you can’t train your brain to differentiate the good from the bad, and the bad from the ugly.

When was the last time you went to an art show? exhibition? museum? Think about it.

If you look at crap all day long, you will train your brain to think that is how images should look. You need to be selective. Not just magazines either. Otherwise you’re always following someone else’s trends. Look at photography books, National Geographic, photo journalism books and movies. Again, not just the latest hits, but older movies too. There’s not a scene in the film “Amelie” that couldn’t be printed, framed, and hung on a wall. Nobody is born cultured, it’s like muscles, they have to GROW IN YOU with time, effort, and consistency.

Another issue one needs to rid themself of: the need to make up excuses.

If you sit around and criticize others work and talent (or lack there of) on social sites; then you’re only creating excuses for yourself. You are simply wasting time, and developing a false sense of superiority that doesn’t help you grow or better yourself.

“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people”

(And no small mind has ever accomplished anything).

I hear people complaining about new retouchers, or retouchers in other (cheaper) markets all the time. People believe that since these other retouchers are charging nothing for their work they are devaluing the whole market. They go on and on about how there’s not enough work, and how budgets continue to drop because of “these people”. “It’s not my fault that I’m not getting enough work, it’s their fault!”

If you’re worrying about this you should look at yourself in the mirror.  It’s not the market that is the problem. It’s your work and your attitude. If you offer quality you won’t have to worry about this. I know we don’t!

Quality is not just about the retouching itself. It’s also about you as a service provider, and the added value of service that you provide. Some examples of added value of service include: honesty/being “real” (a commodity in today’s industry), your people skills, meeting deadlines, offering feedback and advice to your clients and perhaps most importantly, doing slightly more than is expected of you.

“Those that say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those doing it” Chinese Proverb

If you are freelancer then you need to calibrate your brain to think like one. You are not only offering retouching, you are offering consultation. You must market and sell yourself as such. Potential clients need to know that you possess not only the technical abilities to complete the job, but also that you’re knowledgeable about the business as a whole. Both in terms of targets and in general context.

Building a business is not only about having a skillset either.

Think about where the real demand is, and what you’re willing to offer. As well as who else is offering the same as you at that particular time.

Also, skills DO NOT equate experience.  That alone is the money point! (Pun intended) Whatever your rate is, expect it to commensurate with your skill level or expertise. Don’t expect to be making as much money as someone who’s been in the industry for ten years producing solid work.

Clients in general don’t just flock to you because you started a business. Connections have very little to do with it in the beginning. Very few people START with connections. The rest of us mere mortals have to build a solid client base, this doesn’t happen in just minutes or hours or days. It takes time and dedication.

The reality is, in the first year you will be working on really bad files to pay your rent. But don’t only work on those photos! You must also TEST on your free time in order to build a portfolio that WILL get the attention of the people you want to work for.

Dress for the job that you want, not for the job that you have. Otherwise you’re trapped in a vicious cycle like this:

1. I only produce lower quality work because that’s all my clients can afford. Besides they can’t tell the difference anyway

2. My portfolio is now filled with only lower quality images

3. I can only attract clients that have limited budgets that don’t care about better quality.

4. Return to number 1.

In this cycle, the client who has enough criteria and good taste to get the higher budgets (or to pay for high quality work), will never contact you or reply to your emails. Reason being, your portfolio does not show any high quality work.

Ergo: You’re trapped.

The belief that testing is “working for free”, is only shared by those who have NO IDEA how the market actually works. Professionals test all the time! They test with agencies and for personal projects. Pros do this because they know the images they produce in a test will attract potential high end clients. Pros know full well that these clients only care about editorials and personal work when deciding on who to hire for their next job. Of course retouchers also get the pleasure of having contributed towards making the world a better place (well, maybe not better, but prettier.) when testing.

Working for free is an oxymoron. NOBODY works for free. You work for credit, you work for recognition, you work to be in the minds of those who can help you advance your career. Such as: agencies, art directors, photographers, advertisers, rep houses and designers.

If you think the market is ruined by those working “for free”, think again!

Every time you find yourself thinking:

I’m not successful because of…

…the economy.

…my area.

…people who do TFP.

…people who live in cheaper countries.

…client’s not knowing the difference.

…my situation.

…my market.

“Society” ?

It’s not. IT’S YOU! Every time!

Inpainting, Retouching and Over-painting

Inpainting, retouching and over-painting are terms commonly used in the painting restoration field. On occasion they are used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences that I would like to clarify for the general public.
Inpainting defines the work done by a conservator-restorer to reinstate obliterated or damaged areas in a pictorial layer, in a way that blends with the surrounding colors but without covering any of the original paint.
Retouching, originally referred to corrections or changes made by an artist in his or her own artwork as final adjustments, in order to conclude a painting. Currently, the term has, to some extent, changed its meaning, becoming in some instances, a synonym for inpainting.
Over-painting alludes to retouches that covered broad areas of the original painting without any reason other than either the ineptness or the lack of skills of the restorer.
The images below illustrate the difference between over-painting and inpainting. In the first image, the dark, yellow clouds in the sky of the painting did not relate well to the soft, semi-translucent clouds in the surrounding areas. A thorough examination of the painting using different illumination techniques (UV and IR), revealed that the noted clouds were concealing some damage present in the pictorial layer. Since the color of the clouds didn’t fit well with the original painting, our approach was to completely remove the over-paint during the cleaning process (as can be seen in the second image) revealing the damage as well as the original paint. The removal of the varnish also exposed a brighter pictorial layer, hence the difference in color between the first and the second picture. Once the damage was completely exposed, we proceeded with the filling and inpainting of the damaged area without covering any of the original painting, achieving the results shown in the third picture.

1. Over-painting, 2. Overpainting removal, 3. Inpainting.

As has been mentioned, Over-paints are associated with previous restoration treatments in which the retouching was inexpertly done and covered excessive areas of the original painting, sometimes altering the artist’s idea. Current conservation-restoration ethics dictate that the retouching or more accurately, inpainting, must be confined to the areas of loss, without covering any original painting and without adding any new elements to the artwork.
In conclusion, over-painting is not an acceptable approach in the paintings restoration field. Any attempt to reinstate the original image by the means of inpainting, should be done with the utmost respect to the artwork, limiting it, as much as possible to the damaged areas.

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Last updated July 07, 2011

The Model Mayhem interview: Veronica LaVery

The Model Mayhem interview: Veronica LaVery

                                                                           

Veronica LaVery is a European model, originally from the Czech Republic, currently living in California. She is versatile in her looks and posing ability, although she specializes in fashion, lingerie, bikini and commercial modeling. Veronica has a wide range of publications under her belt, including the cover of Playboy Czech Republic, features in FHM and MAXIM, and many others. She is stunning, knows how to work in front of the camera, and has the drive and ambition to make huge strides in the modeling world.
I am thrilled to have interviewed Veronica, and I hope that you enjoy this interview as much as I did.
– Aviva

Model: Veronica LaVery; Photographer: Philipe; Makeup Artist: KILLER KISS


Aviva: How long have you been modeling?
Veronica LaVery: This August will mark 3 years since I started working on my modeling portfolio.

Aviva: What is the most exciting part about your job?
Veronica: There is more than just one exciting part of my job: I love how I get to work on various projects all the time, and I never know what to really expect from my schedule and upcoming opportunities. For example, in an 8-hour everyday office job, you will hardly ever get any unexpected surprises; I’m glad modeling is not like that.

Model: Veronica LaVery; Photographer: Philipe


Aviva: Did you always want to be a model or did you have other career aspirations when you were growing up?
Veronica: Not at all! I never felt like I could ever be a model. I grew up as a little emo kid, with piercings, hating my life and I didn’t have any ambitions. The moment we moved to the States, though, changed me and my vision on things and the opportunities I’d been given. So I started using them, and look where I am today.

Aviva: What achievement(s) in your career are you most proud of?
Veronica: Besides all the big names I worked with… I think I’m mostly proud of the progress in what I do and in my own personal life in general. I think I keep shocking people with my abilities in modeling (which I like).

Model: Veronica LaVery; Photographer: W.B. Fontenot


Aviva: Apart from having a great look, what else do you think is an important factor in succeeding as a model?
Veronica: You have to be the whole package; there are millions of beautiful girls out there, but do their features and height give them the ultimate success? No, not at all. You have to work work hard, keep in shape, make smart decisions, be professional, stay focused and know your advantages and your personality. I think personality plays a major role (apart from your look), because that is what makes you stand out more.

Model: Veronica LaVery; Photographer: Martin Alonso


Aviva: Where do you see your modeling career going 5 years from now?
Veronica: I believe I can push myself into another level and that would be acting. There’s still a lot I can and will do in modeling, but I do want to stay in the entertainment industry and in front of the camera, so acting would be a good call. Let’s hope I can do it even with my little Czech accent.


Aviva: What would you do if you won the lottery?
Veronica: Get at least one house, new cars for me and my family and invest in big things. I don’t even want to dream like that…


Aviva: What piece of advice do you have for aspiring models?
Veronica: Once you set your goals, go towards them, don’t let people put you down, be around the right people and do what you love.


Aviva: Do you have any additional comments?
Veronica: Visit me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter (@VeronicaLavery) and my website, so you know what’s new in my modeling life and thank you for reading all this.