Collaboration with Kristin Cofer

I finally got around to retouching one of the selects from a shoot back in February, a collaboration between Kristin Cofer and me. Make-up by Sandor Alex Turner. Dress made by Virgil Sparks. Model Bobbi Wall.

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A Study on Texture

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I pulled the previous two screen shots from a recent beauty retouch to illustrate the importance of maintaining skin texture in a final image. The first two images were taken at 66.7%, before and after retouching.

The following two shots show the image in its entirety--and hopefully demonstrate the fact that over-retouched, "plastic"-looking images are silly:

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Recent Retouch

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This was an interesting image to retouch--I spent some time analyzing the image and decided that she looked a bit scrunched, which distracted me. I focused on things that the viewer would immediately notice and worked from there: the distracting wisps of the model's hair due to the fan that was used, her posture, the amount of skin visible below the neck (which I thought detracted from her face).

I had the idea to extend her neck a bit and fix her posture, so I used the model's hair from another shot help complete the transformation.

Click each image to see larger, and enjoy!

Another one from the archive

After

Before

The greatest challenge with this shot was making sure the texture of the model's skin wasn't lost in retouching, because it is beautiful. With the smudge of makeup I had to spend a lot of time dodging and burning to smooth the area while maintaining the texture. I hate that plastic look that some beauty images are retouched to have.

Shot for the site

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Before

This is image was one of my favorites to retouch because of the challenge it presents. Macro beauty shots are always tricky because they are not forgiving in the slightest. It's all about fixing what the camera exposes when you throw a beauty dish on set and use an incredibly revealing camera lens.

Dance Retouch

After

Before

This was actually shot on film and scanned in, so the detail that I'm used to working with wasn't 100% there. The main issues with this image were extending the model's legs and pointing her toes. Also the light fell off in certain places that made her skin look lumpy, so had to correct for that.

Fashion Before/After

After

Before

This was shot with a Nikon D70 back in the day when you could get away with 8 mega pixels on a digital camera. The light is natural, no fill or anything. Had to fix the model's posture first and foremost, then enhanced her skin by cleaning it up and dodging and burning to add dimension to the image. Also fixed the angle of the wall corner behind her, it was crooked.