In the pink: “Already
having used nice vibrant colours on the nails and eyes, I then decided in post to add a nice pink poppy tone to the background rather than keeping it white as originally shot.”
Take your time: “Never
give up! Beauty retouching is so time-consuming that it will always take longer than fashion or editorial. It’s easy to judge if an image has been rushed.”
Nice gnashers:
“Sometimes I leave flaws on images on purpose to help create a sense of reality. Flaws on this image that I left were the not-so-perfect teeth (but almost perfect).”
Tools of the trade: “It’s
a good idea to invest in a decent tablet. I use the Wacom Intuos5 Large on my Mac Pro, and an Intuos5 Small on my MacBook Pro. I also have a preference of using the spring-loaded nib on my Intuos pens.”
Laughter lines:
“Leave some wrinkles on the image rather than softening them down too much.”
Retro retouching: “I had the
opportunity of shooting this great image. MUA was going for an Audrey Hepburn-style pose.”
ASHLEE GRAY EXPLAINS HER WORKFLOW ON THIS IMAGE SHOT BY FRANKLIN THOMPSON
“Some of the most common fixes are eyelashes not being stuck on properly, hair coming across the eyes, and uneven lipstick,” says beauty retoucher Charn S. Bedi (www.thebeautyretoucher.com). “When retouching macro lip shots, spit on the gums can be annoying as the light reflects off it, causing a shine. I have a library of eyelashes taken and neatened up from previous work to aid me if I ever have to re-create them. The trickiest thing to retouch in beauty is hair as it is so fine. I zoom in very close for hair retouching to remove strands of hair that go against the natural flow of the hair style. This helps to refine the hair to make it look neater. This then enables me to fill in dark areas to make it look more full bodied and healthy. I use various amounts of layers and clone brushes with different blend modes to get to the final result, finishing off with a dodge and burn to create contouring and a nice shine.”
06. LIPSTICK AND SPIT
01
A MODEL JOBOnce I open an image, I start by creating a blank layer and begin drawing notes all over the image with a bright-coloured brush. This helps me visualise what I want to accomplish before I start working on the specific areas.
02
From there, I’d like to say I always start at the same place, but usually it’s with the things I find the most distracting. It’s often hard to look past big blemishes, hairs going through the eyes, or even areas that need colour correction. In this case, the skin has been cleaned, all flyaways and cross hairs have been removed, and additional hair has been added to the right side.03
This is now complete with dodging and burning to bring out bone structure and shine to the hair, with colour and toning added. Finally, a High Pass with a layer mask was used to sharpen the hair in some areas, and a small amount of grain added.© P hot og ra pher : M ax Oppenheim. M ak e up: Nik ki W olf f © S tefa n Bo ur so n © S er gey Moshk ov © P hot og ra pher : M ax Oppenheim. M ak e up: Nik ki W olf f
Every blocked pore
For Daniel Meadows, much of the retoucher’s job is bridging the gap between what the naked eye sees, and what the increasingly sophisticated camera does. “With modern lenses we can achieve very sharp images,” he says, “and unfortunately with that comes a detailed record of every hair and blocked pore, every irregular eyelash. The eye doesn’t tend to pick up on these tiny details in real life, but with close, sharp beauty shots we tend to even these out before print for the benefit of the shot.”
05. ACHIEVING SYMMETRY
Even eyes
“Another one of those things the naked eye doesn’t tend to pick up on but the lens notices is the symmetry of the eyes. My own left eye is slightly higher than my right. No-one would ever pick up on it but you can tell if I point it out on my driver’s license! At the other end of my workflow, I usually leave sharpening and colour treatments until the last steps. It’s important not to oversharpen your working file at the start or you’re giving yourself a lot more work.”
Dipping a fashion toe
“Quite often I’ll receive a sidecar XMP file with RAWs if the photographer knows the look they’re going for, but some of the most fun projects are those where I’m encouraged to experiment with colour treatments. I’ve frequently got my head in a fashion magazine, so there are always a few styles I’m looking to try something new with for the right shot.”
Glowing skin
“With beauty work, skin is probably the most time-consuming part of the process, as texture must be retained. In advertising and editorial at the high end, each part of the skin is carefully dodged and burned to even out texture and maintain realism. I usually start with compositional adjustments. Sometimes a hand, for example, will be better positioned in an outtake from the set, so occasionally there’s some compositing required.” © T im J oh ns on