Whether it is a personal project or work work. What are you into at the moment?

Feel free to keep it general if you are working on a campaign or something hushy. We don't want anyone to get in trouble.

for work, right now, I'm in hair-hell. One for a major shampoo which went pretty well, but another for a major (but budget) hair color that is just hell.

To keep sane, I'm helping on an editorial story for a European edition of a very high end fashion magazine (easy one to figure out, but still gotta be hush-hush) of a 90s European supermodel.

Personal projects, none at the moment. I like to spend my free time hiking and off the computer, when I can.

What about you, Ant? What are you working on now?

A brochure for a local resort. This guy is so cheap!!! He's paying me to re-set his current brochure and give him the PDF so he can print copies out on his all in one printer 3 or 4 at a time!!

AND, get this, this is a lake front mom and pop "cottages" resort and he doesn't want pictures??? He says folks can go to the web to see the pictures. Now let me ask you. Are you going to READ a brochure or look at pictures first? Honestly, it looks like an IRS brochure telling you how to deal with line 34, sub paragraph B on From K! Ugh!

uh, yeah, no photos on a travel brochure? I'd be surprised if even one person took the time to look through it.

Sorry Swampy. It's too bad that we can't give our clients taste or make them smarter.

I'm into a 3.5' lifestyle for a major makeup company. Worse part is that it will be 6 feet tall in the end. Tons of skin and a composition of 12 different elements. Splitting time between this and a magazine spread with another 10 different elements in addition to the beauty. They just changed direction on me Friday. I swear that some ad agencies put together campaigns from their wet dreams..

Finished a beauty story for a well known women's mag Thursday.

Veed, I know hair hell. We/I do a ton and the subjects here are always thrown into a new background.

I don't know if I could deal with hair day after day, Ant. I think it would drive me nuts!

I don't know if I could deal with hair day after day, Ant. I think it would drive me nuts!

I almost think you have to be before you start (nuts). helps anyway..

i just had my first celeb shot published in elle. felt really good.

*one thing i hate about hair jobs, like ant said always stripped into a new background, is when you get this great looking mask that works well with the background, and out of nowehre they change the layout and the background color at the last minute, and now your mask doesn't work so great...and you have to finesse it again.

Way to go, KR!

Nice KR, was it Kelley Clarkson by chance?

Hi there,

i'm working on a book about a National Park of Hungray called Fertöd-Hanság it is near Austria. It is about 200 picts 150 pcs 36mm slides and raws the rest. The photographer slubberd some jpgs, about how he would like the colors of the raws, why didn't he saved tifs i guess?

saby

slide picts just to see

This thread is what I need. I'm currently compositing a globe, from various elements of adidas tracksuits and shoes.

This means creating the outline of a map of all countries in stitching. The tiny little stitching that is on your shoes..... I've been at this for 2 days now and it's absolutely doing my head in.

To make things worse we went from a round globe to a lozenge shaped one, so I reshot the texture and make a new shape, only to be told that we're now switching back to a round globe, except it has to be a different texture again....

Getting sick of running up and down the stairs to the photography studio....

Other than that, I'm making a flyer for one of the PA's daughter's birthday.

Busy doing a beauty shot for Spring Trend make up at work

Freelance - busy doing a 6 image fashion editorial story. Skin, changing colours of clothing, comping multiple hair shots together to create a big mane of blowing hair

very close ant, but not her.

KR, I just hope it wasn't Avril Lavigne. That little girl annoys me.

Agreed, Ant, about being nuts to work on hair day in and day out. I know what u guys mean about changing hair masks. I seem to get all the big hair clients, cuz of my past experience retouching in-house for an advertising agency. And of course, yesterday, the client wanted the loose wavy, flowy locks 'changed' to short, springy tight curly locks, and raised up from her breasts to her shoulders.

WHY can't they be better creative directors and get it PHOTOGRAPHED this way? i'm sure everyone else can relate.

I really want to work on editorials with supermodels like the guys sitting next to me, but the hair/beauty stuff are bigger clients, so they give them to me, unfortunately... haha.

very close ant, but not her.

Katherine McPhee? I just did her for someone...

Lets hope you are reaping the benifits Veed!

I have just handed in my resignation and will be going to work at a really high end retouching botique in London. Can't wait.

congrats shelby......must feel good.

i love handing in my resignation! especially when it gets me a few weeks paid vacation!

note to self - Need to update my website

Awesome, Shelby. I'm not familiar with any specific companies in London, just that London is another really good retouching hub.

Got a quick question for TheVeed, and Ant (since they're in the same arena as I am),

-Do you get more work directly through photographers, or agencies?
and also, what work do you prefer, or go after?

KR

Primarily agencies vis a vis Art and Creative Directors. I have a couple of photographer clients myself, but it's primarily with agencies or the end client directly. Photographers are often control freaks with no money and don't even get me started on their reps say in the whole matter.. If there is a budget and the story is good, I'll do it, but no freebies or reduced rate unless it's a friend.

Ideally, I'd like to work on high end fashion all day, but it doesn't work that way. A friend of mine who does quite well works primarily with photographers and their reps. She gets the odd ad gig when they shoot it and she gets a lot of headaches.. ;)

There are a lot of photographers wanting editorial fashion stories done for little or no budget. This seems to be an issue in the industry. I cannot help thinking that if people stopped submitting images to the mags for nothing then they would have to pay. I guess it is a supply and demand thing and if there are so many photographers out there dying to get work published then we will all be stuck with this. The photographer, model, make-up artist and so on work on the day. Perhaps a little bit more to prepare. BUT the retoucher has to spend hours per image and at times there are 5 to 8 images in a story. If it leads to Advertising work and rates then good, however it is not always the case. I still feel that most of the photographers would have had to do their own retouching and so the retoucher is still providing a service to them.

this seems to be the case with our workflow. 5 or 6 crappy editorial stories that pay only enough to cover the material cost and not the labor, and then an advertising or catalogue job that pays the bills, then another set of editorials

god, i hate working on hair. once working on a hair advertising gig i had the idea of having combs and brushes made, with our company name on them, and just hand them out like business cards. or just to include them in the package with their final images and proofs, as a present. and a note saying "this would save me days of mind numbing work, and you hundreds of dollars"

haha, that;s funny, and so true bodega!

-hair just sucks all around. cleanup, masking, etc. but i find when you have to chope major areas of hair and place them somewhere else for reconstruction, it's a little easier than having to clone tons of little cross-over hairs...it's easy to lose the texture if you're not cloning properly. i find myself going in and out of darken & lighten mode to help that.

another thing i hate is really blotchy skin, usually found in close-up shots of legs.
not bumpy skin, but that underlying red tone that looks like camouflage underneath the skin! that's a time consuming pain in the ass to smooth that tone out.

Wedding photo retouch.
Hardest part was adding an eye where it was originally covered by hair.
Time consuming.

I've got the same set up as Ant: more agencies than photographers. BUT, we do get a few very high-end photographers that are an absolute joy to work with, especially because their work is just amazing. I'd rather do that than agency work any day, but like everyone else says, it doesn't pay as much for the company.

KR: i know what u mean with the legs! I worked on one well-known model (she's one of the Victoria's Secret girls too, actually) and wow.... blotchy legs is one thing, but please shave next time....

In regards to little or no budget when it comes to editorial. I just have to say, that a lot of magazines DO have a budget, just not all. Harpers Bazaar, InStyle, Latina Magazine, Allure, Vogue, Elle, V for some random examples. There are some like Italian Glamour of all things (small format and everything) that pay up to $700 an image for retouching ((even though the photog will only get like 100-150 a spread!). Also, I'm inclined to think that often the photographer is trying to pocket what little money there might be for retouching at times. You have to pick and choose. I just don't do any freebies anymore except for a select few friends and even they mostly just do it themselves (Oyster, A4, etc.) For someone starting out, it's a great way to go however as they just don't have the imagery to work with and nobody wants to see pics of your sister and friends all touched up as they aren't models. the photographer isn't a pro and there isn't any hair and makeup.

Worst part about blotchy skin is the photographers crappy lighting. "See those legs that aren't getting any light? We need to brighten them and clean them up" (ugly noise and blotch city, let alone color issues with digital especially). I could kill them.

yea the underlit body parts are the worst, when you open them up, tons of new crap shows up that you didn't see before, like banded, noisy blotches all over the place. tone is all over the place, color as well.

-my friend was showing me the false profiling method to open things up a BIT, then working with selective curves from there. seems to help.

I got a job in yesterday to make 5 X 7s out of an old wedding picture; had fun doing it and the client was happy...it was a delightful project. Hope you're all doing well, terrific work and people here. I get busy with stuff and I don't have as much time to check out what's going on. Anyway, here's the latest. Cheers, John
Before:
http://img4.glowfoto.com/images/2007/06/13-1643119883T.jpg (http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?img=13-164311L&y=2007&m=06&t=jpg&rand=9883&srv=img4)
After:
http://img4.glowfoto.com/images/2007/06/13-1643137004T.jpg (http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?img=13-164313L&y=2007&m=06&t=jpg&rand=7004&srv=img4)

Currently working on a beauty story for Instyle and one for Woman's Health.
Today finished one for Shape and starting another for someone else.
I tech for Photographers, retouch for Photographers, agencies and publications.
I do a lot of Editorial, and since I work for myself I deal directly with the publications and am doing Ok. Enough to support a family of 5 in Ct.
Although, like Shelby, I am taking a change of life and moving out to Texas in a couple of weeks. Working for a great company with a lot of potential.
I have had my share of retouching in NYC, and while I will miss it, they know where to find me!

Chris

I'm working on probably the biggest supermodel in the world right now, for the 2nd time.

No, not Kate Moss though. Oddly enough, I have never worked on any of the major British models. Anyone else have?

very cool theveed, seems like ny's treating you well!!

is it for an ad, or story?

another hair ad, of course. Because I love working on hair oh-so-much.

well you're screwed now, sounds like you do a great job with hair, so i'm sure you'll always be a first choice for those projects!!

lucky me, i'm the same way with our food shots, they love having me work on them so i'm just hungry all day long!

Giselle TheVeed?

I've worked on probably everyone at this point..

Killed 3 makeup single page ads (finally) within the last 2 weeks and 3 lifestyle POP 6'-ers. Working on a fashion story for Surface now. First day back from 6 days off.

Just received 15 rolls of film I shot last week - two beauty stories. I've plenty of my own retouching waiting at home for me...

just got done working on a liz claiborne job

WORST CLOTHES EVER

working on that stuff made me want to punch babies. not even kidding

haha, that sucks Bodega.

Ant, are you going to show your stuff? I'd love to see what you've shot.

I have worked on pretty much all the 'big names' except for the top British models: Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Jacquetta Wheeler (I'm sure I'm forgetting some.) I'm not particularly a fan of them, but it'd still be nice to have worked on them.

Right now , whole bunch of stuff for "Koloseum Nutritional Sciences"
Here is one simple add

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g84/MR-BIG/Koloseum-spot-light.jpg

Veed, I'll send you a message via that 'space' and point you towards some of it when it's in showable form. I'm working on building my Beauty book out right now (my photography).

In other news, it's back to hair work for R. 3 up on a ridiculous background. Typical blonde, asian latina lineup.

does anyone have any success stories beyond retouching they could share? i mean, say you've been retouching for awhile and you feel you're getting burnt out but the pay is too good so you can't quit... i guess what i'm asking is in terms of work begetting more work, what does retouching lead to? when you don't want to retouch anymore?

if i hear another photographer tell me "keep it natural looking" i'm totally going to freak out on him/her. "retouching isn't natural looking, you twat. what you really mean to say is 'this job is making me really nervous, so please please please don't screw up.'"

i should probably post this elsewhere, but it just seems like all the pros are already on this thread

Sorry you are burning out Bodega. I find that doing personal work where I'm not at all art directed keeps the rewards going. You might look to finding work elsewhere if the work that you are doing is getting to you. I did a tiny stint at an ad agency once and thought I would never retouch again. Working for myself and doing part time at a boutique agency with much better clients and interesting work has saved me.

You might also look into making your own photographs.

I totally disagree about "retouching isn't natural looking, you twat. what you really mean to say is 'this job is making me really nervous, so please please please don't screw up.'". Good retouching is natural looking. What those people are saying is "Don't make it look obviously retouched". There is a 'suspended belief' thing going on. We obviously know that no ones skin looks that perfect no matter what, but are belief is suspended if we aren't made to focus on what has been done to the image. Just like any photograph, retouched or not.

Sounds like you need to take a vacation too maybe.

nah, just ranting

but i stop and stare at magazine rack's, and it's like looking like a bunch of cartoons. i know, it's cause i'm a retoucher and i know what to look for, and it's easy picking apart other people's work, but still... i dunno. blah

there are definitely parts of the job that remain interesting, i still enjoy the problem solving, creative color stories...

i guess i'm just wondering what someone does, when they have high-end retouching skills, but don't want to retouch anymore

i definitely need a vacation, this could all just be a result of the heat

Know what you are saying!


Just finishing another Ghost job.... Can't show you as it is not out till May.

http://www.ghost.co.uk/ will take you to my previous retouching for Ghost, just click on fragrancies tab. I am lucky enough to do a lot of fragrance work for P&G.

Jeff

I am presently researching and working on a book about digitized 19th century

photography

zganie

i guess i'm just wondering what someone does, when they have high-end retouching skills, but don't want to retouch anymore

i definitely need a vacation, this could all just be a result of the heat

i'm not a high-end retoucher but ran into the same scenario about 4 years ago, it turned out to be i was working at the same place for too long on some very mundane and tedious accounts...try taking a vacation where you do nothing but sit by the pool, eat good food, watch the clouds roll by and don't think about work, CNN, the day of the week, or very little for that matter....if that doesn't help try working with new people with work that challenges you in a different manner than what you're accustomed to in the past...

An editorial with 10 images and lot of elements to add.

Something personal, I'm texturing a CG car and rendering it with HDRI based lighting and comp it with a pic I took to see how it looks.