www.RetouchMasters.com

[RetouchMasters]

Hi,

We've just started a new website for our high end fashion photo editing service:

www.RetouchMasters.com

Any critical opinions / improvement ideas are welcomed.

Please feel free to speak out your mind.

[flexmanta]

I think the website is great. But it shows to many photos at once on the screen. Most high end websites show only one photo at a time in a way that makes you want to spend time analyzing it. You are not selling photos, you are selling retouch.

The main problem is the selection of photos you have made. Some are great beauty photos, some others look like you got them from a friend's facebook profile. That makes it hard for me to find a particular retouching style. There is nothing wrong about copying other retouchers as long as you can achieve the effect perfectly. Say, you want to exploit Amy Dresser's style, do it, sell that, and a lot of photogs will want a cheaper Amy for sure. But if a photographer who knows his stuff sees your website won't really know what his photos will look like after you retouch them. And chances are that he also knows how to blur skin.

Unlike in graphic design, most retouching is all about enhancing photos, and not changing them or creating things that were not there. Despite the fact that youtube is full of tutorials with the words high-end on their titles on how to change hair color or make eyes look like little plasma filled marbles, most photographers will not want you to do those things.

None of these opinions mean that your retouching is bad at all. It's just that my main teacher and mentor has strongly made me believe that anything that would not make it into vogue is not worth uploading.

[rsvrdogg86]

The site is pretty good and slick. I agree with the comment about the varying photo qualities. Also, I'm not sure myself but I believe the lack of photo credits may be an issue. I personally recognize several photos that were shared here on retouch pro..you may want to look into the rules of giving the proper people credit.

[Godmother]

Would be NICE to credit the photographer http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...back-raws.html that ASKED to be credited for the use of HIS pictures....

x

[Godmother]

Originally Posted by flexmanta

anything that would not make it into vogue is not worth uploading.

That's my line! I want credit for that now!



x

[Janko]

the website is nice, I would maybe eliminate choosing the resolution of your portfolio, is there a way to code flash so it finds the viewers resolution and then dynamically changes it to fit. ( i say this but of course my own website doesnt have that capability...) the 'why us?' video is a pretty nifty feature.

I concur with the other posts, take some of the weaker stuff down (see attachment) and try to get better photography to work on. Even though you're not advertising yourself as a photographer you should really try to limit your portfolio to professional level work. Especially since your advertising yourself as a high-end retoucher.

cheers and best of luck.

[RetouchMasters]

So many opinions.

First of all to clarify the credits issue - The photographers are credited in the portfolio gallery (Really big letters ).

Regarding the wide quantity of styles and quality of photos - This is actually what I've intended (I've actually wanted to go even further). Why, am I doing this? I'm doing this because I want to offer a very wide range of editing styles. I'm not sure if this is a good approach - I'm testing it right now to see If I'm going to attract more clients this way.

I agree, when it comes to the gallery - it definitely needs improvement (i.e. an automatic resolution detection)

Thanks for the feedback.


Cheers,

Vlad