I’m in the middle of a really important project and deadline but I just had to take five minutes out and write this quick blog post about something that I have been seeing WAY too much lately and it is on a topic I know very well, retouching. Now, don’t get me wrong when I say this since I am no way the best retoucher or photographer but it bugs me like crazy when a lot of the images I am seeing lately are retouched to the point where the image no longer hold any identification of whom that model is, or better yet use to be. If the point of the editorial is to completely reconstruct the model then fine but then technically you don’t really need much of a team there since their talent and skills are lost in translation anyway. If there is something “not to your liking,” and you can fix it unnoticeable then more power to you. But if the model physically changes image to image within one single story or viewers can completely pick out what has been reconstructed, edited and retouched than you might need to go back and freshen up on your Photoshop skills.

With the beauty of the internet these days and the invention of the IPAD, I feel like Artists are now using these tools as a cop out for producing less then quality work. A lot of mistakes can easily be hidden by their computer screens that would never pass the test if printed. I absolutely love my images printed. I feel like they scream and breathe a whole new sense of life and nothing, and I mean nothing can beat a printed portfolio.

It’s amazing what working with with a good make up artist and knowing how to light your subject can do as far as how much less work you will then have to do in post. Recently, I could leave my images RAW and be completely happy with them.

Have you forgotten what skin looks like?

Make up: Iris of curlsnrouge
Photo: Jennifer Avello

XO, J