Looking to build an amateur retouching portfolio

[Micol Brunelli]

Hello!

I hope this is the right group for this request.
I'd like to build up a portfolio as a retoucher, I've done some professional retouching in the past for my family's wedding photography business, and I would love to launch myself as a freelancer in the near future, so I though it would be a good idea to actually build up a retouching portfolio.
My only problem is the lack of material to work on. All I've done recently is some modelling work and at present I am editing my own photos as a model + a few others that I took non-professionally.
Is there any photographer (amateur or professional) interested in building up a TF photography-retouching collaboration?
What I'm looking for is to have the right to use the final edited pictures to start my portfolio, in exchange the other party would save time as they wouldn't have to do the post-production.
I am happy to work with any kind of picture, although I'd prefer fashion and models.
How does it sound? Please feel free to contact me via email if this sounds appealing to you:
[email protected]

I look forward to hear from you!

Micol

[shift studio]

Re: Looking to build an amateur retouching portfol

You can find a lot of people wanting to do trade for projects at modelmayhem.com
Good luck.

[klev]

Re: Looking to build an amateur retouching portfol

I agree with shift regarding modelmayhem, but depending on your skill level and what stage you're at, you may want to make your request more directed. There are a few other things to mention.

The work is totally different, and there's a lot of subject specific knowledge. Have you investigated your local market yet to determine your likely areas of future employment? I think it's advisable. I would also look at more than just people.

A second thing I want to point out is that this will be an enormous time investment. To help with that I would be a little less casual in your requests. It won't attract people that are really good at what they do. People who are really good are not likely to pay attention to your offer, but you want the attention of the best ones that might take an interest.

The last point is how much do you keep up with things like makeup and fashion? You're on your own without a lot of guidance, so sensibilities in terms of colors and contrast is going to much more critical than it would be for someone new working under closer supervision. The technical parts are also the easy parts. I mean photoshop and similar applications reached a point in stability some time ago where just smoothing out skin with a dodge tool became nearly trivial. You may have to build up a slightly steady hand, but it's unlikely to lead to a plateau in the quality of your work.

Anatomical features and their preservation are important as well, but I've talked about that in a ton of threads. I hope this helps.