I’ve never shown off my before and after edits. It looks like today you get to see my high end retouching for the first time!
What’s the difference from “photo editing” and “high end retouching”?
The answer? It’s the amount of time invested into digital artistry, down to a pixel level.
High end retouching is the art of deep pixel manipulation while maintaining the natural look and feel of the image. It often enhances the subject and removes all other visual distractions.
Photo Editing Includes
-
- Color toning and correction
- Exposure correction
- Hue, saturation and luminance alterations
- Tone curve alterations
- Alignment and cropping
- Slight localized adjustments such as lightening the entire sky
High End Retouching Includes
As a high end retoucher and an experienced digital artist, this is exactly what happens behind the scenes when you get down to the pixel level. It obviously includes all of the above, plus all the intricate list below.
- Removal of blemishes such as scars, zits, acnes, pimples, bruises and skin discoloration
- Removal of stray hairs on the face, shoulders, back etc…
- Skin smoothing and softening
- Cleaning up the whites of the eyes, as well as evening out the irises
- Removal of hot spots on the skin, hair and within the pupils
- Teeth whitening
- Makeup creation or enhancements
- Body liquifying or “shaping” as some call it
- Dodging and burning to enhance how the light falls on the subject, also known as darkening or brightening specific areas
- Background removals or replacements
- Photo blending
- Complex photo compilations
A digital artist can spend 15 minutes to 10 hours on ONE image to achieve their goal, whatever that might be. Digital artistry and high end retouching entails great attention to detail, while knowing how to paint light and color on their subject. As well as blending multiple images through intense pixel manipulation techniques.
Today, I present to you my first post on my High End Retouching and Before-and-Afters!
PLEASE feel free to leave a comment with your feedback! I’d love to hear what you have to say. I’m putting myself out there today 🙂
