Podcast – Boutique Retouching

Natalia's Path of becoming a Retoucher

Daniel Hager

So, when was the time that you pushed through being a student and becoming a working Retoucher; was that during university or was it after university for you?

 Natalia Fadejeva

Yeah, I think it was during university. As I said, I graduated 2015 and I remember registering myself as a self-employed.

In 2014 I also remember. I mean it's great to have amazing friends and me and Shannon were sitting in.

And we're writing an essay for work and then from one of the photographers that I've been kind of trying. And you know.

You know?

Building my experience with he had a.

Potentially endorse editorial thing for Cosmopolitan, and I was like, oh crap, I have this essay to Ryans like I don't know if I'm going to make it like deadline is and there's this amazing opportunity and I will have to say no.

So the Sienna supporting me. She's like, don't worry and she's like you tell me I'll see you next to you, right?

And I will help you like finish writing you. You just need to talk to me and you can like we talked. You don't choose. So don't miss this opportunity to take it. And so I did and then.

And since then, yeah, I've been. I've been trying to take as many opportunities as I can. I still to this day take free work and I know a lot of people told.

Daniel Hager

Oh, don't say that you're gonna get a lot of rich.

Natalia Fadejeva

Oh well, it's fine. Like you too you I still like doing it especially I have so much commercial work coming in. I sometimes get so tired of it so.

Just for the sake of doing something different and fun, I still take free work and I still think there's so much for me to learn.

So I do. I mean it's not hindering me.

Daniel Hager

Which is incredible to notice for someone who has worked on covers for ELLE, think VOGUE as well.

Natalia Fadejeva

I think.

Yeah, I just haven't put it out. Yeah so so bad, sorry.

Daniel Hager

So yeah, I mean you have worked on covers for vogue, cosmopolitan as you said, obviously a Russian magazine.

You've done beauty campaigns and stuff. There's still something to be said about someone who has done that saying.

Oh, there's still so much for me to learn.

Natalia Fadejeva

There is and I can't stress this enough and you know, we know the main approach. Retouching skin, cleaning the gebran, color correction, blah blah blah.

But there are certain things, these little tweaks not in technique, but approach how people may use the same curves to do something else.

Unlike all, it's actually so good. For example, before when I used to masks, I only knew how to do with pencil.

But then I discovered channels and then in channels you would draw another guy. So you have to be so meticulous.

But then I saw someone.

You say you know the torch and burn the tool itself.

To use that in masking to perfect the mosque that's speed up. It's those little things that people don't sometimes mentioned.

 Forget to mention that they're using or. It's somewhere in another tutorial you don't think a...

Overview Acheivements of Natalia Fadejeva of NATLYF RETOUCHING

Daniel Hager 

But Speaking of retouching, it's nice to have a friend on the podcast who's actually working in the industry, doing her thing, and being kind of a rock star even though you're not posting much on social media these days. 

Natalia Fadejeva 

I really want to though. 

Daniel Hager 

But then again, you're doing great work and let's just go over some of the work that you're doing because I know you've been doing a lot of stuff in the commercial field and in fashion. 

And you have work published in Glamour, Cosmopolitan? What else? One magazine, Schön Magazine, L’Officiel. I don't know how this list goes on and on and on; and doing work for Anastasia Beverly Hills and other makeup companies. 

You have such an extensive long list of clients; how does someone get there? 

How did it all start? Let's go to the beginning. What people don't know about you is that you have a formal education in photography. So how was that? How did Retouching become of interest to you? 

How Natalia's retouching career began

Early interest in technology

Natalia Fadejeva 

So, I'm gonna go slightly earlier. 

My interest in photography and retouching started around when I was actually 12, so I was really young. My parents had a friend that we used to sometimes visit. You know, adults would just be in a kitchen or living room chatting and the dude was really into the computers and he had a point-and-shoot camera that he let us borrow sometimes. 

So, I would take pictures by myself at home or with my friends. 

You know, just taking pictures like pulling a bed sheet over your head or dressing up with music and creating like little photo shoots. The images were cringey as hell, but you know, they are still fun to look at. 

So, he gave us the camera to borrow, so I used to play with it, and I remember once my parents took me to his place. While the adults were cooking and just socializing, I was sitting on his computer and he had an editing software open, which was Corel Draw. 

You know when you start up the program and they have similar stuff in games they show you how to navigate through the program and show the tools. And there was one for like skin tone to make someone more tanned and one was like a neon brush and it was so mesmerized. 

But it was like Oh my God. 

I can paint this new stuff and end up importing some of my images while I was there and because it was near the end, drawing myself  like Little devil horns and trying to make myself look cool. 

And I thought that was so amazing. 

First flush of using Photoshop

But we didn't have a computer at home, so I couldn't do anything. But then we could say my dad's parents made the biggest mistake. They bought him a computer on his birthday. It was told it was a Windows XP and I tried to find a software again.

get the Lumenzia Photoshop Add-on Panel

*Episode Transcript

Introducing Greg Benz

Daniel: 

So for people who do not know you cause, they might know the panel they might know, maybe some tutorials from you, but they maybe don't know you by name, so let's have you introduce yourself for how you would give your elevator pitch. 

Greg:  

Yeah, so. My name is Greg Benz. I'm a landscape photographer based out of Minneapolis, MN in the States and my. My focus is a photographer is a combination of my own photography as well as being a software developer, an instructor. So I spend a lot of time learning about and teaching about using luminosity masks. I think that a lot of people. 

Kind of know me for that, but my own my own work is kind of focused on landscape cityscape type work, though I've kind of done a little bit of everything over the years, so that's kind of my. My home base is luminosity masks. 

Daniel Hager 

Yeah, and people can go to your website gregbenzphotography.com where I can learn about luminosity masks, what you're doing, but you just said You are a software developer so. 

This episode potentially could get a little bit geeky just for listeners to be aware of, so I have no problem going deep into some topics here, so just to be aware of. 

Now let's go back. So, for how long do you think you are in this using Photoshop and what was your first time discovering this program, and how did it come to be? 

From Shooting Film To Creating a Software Product

Greg Benz 

Well, for me Photoshop something I've been using for almost 20 years. I really got kind of hooked on photography when I was living in London back in 2000 and we're shooting film back then, but using Photoshop after I scanned. 

The negatives and such and it just kind of snowballed since then. So really almost 20 years for me of using Photoshop, the luminosity masking. That's something I dove into something like 5 six years ago and gotten really seriously in the last few years, but it wasn't something I kind of picked up or figured out until a little bit later. I mean, it's definitely the more advanced end of photo shop. 

Technology to help you create and to be an artist

Daniel Hager 

There is obviously techniques in Photoshop that come to people more naturally without having to spend a lot of time or not investing a lot of time and others. They require more knowledge overall to make them work for you. 

Greg Benz 

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think as an educator and as a photographer, both my goal has been to try and understand things that are complicated and boiling down to things that are more simple. I mean Lumenzia, my software actually started as something I did for myself because I thought that luminosity masking was old too. Cerebral, too academic. 

And I wanted to work as an artist and I could sort of, you know, think with the left side of my brain or the right side of my brain. But I couldn't do both at the same time. And so you know, I'm always trying to think about techniques or tools that I can create so that when I do my photography work,

Joseph Parry's Retouching Hardware

* Big Desk Mousepad

* Wacom Tablet Size Medium

* mechanical keyboard

* shiit stack - Audio DAC and tube amplifyer

* Mac or Custom PC

* wide gamut display

* calibration device

MAC vs PC

We briefly discuss the two philosophies behind the two operating systems. Joseph mentions not having a preference for working on images but there are reasons why he might pick one or the other system depending on what the more general purpose of the device is that he is using.

Matching Different Displays and color management

Bcoming A Professional Retoucher

Josep Parry shares his story of being a touring a musician. One day, while on tour in the US, he bought a camera, and from there on his journey in the world of photography and retouching began.

FreeTube and Retouching Education

We discuss the current state of retouching education and that nowadays there are lots of free resources from which you can learn retouching. Not all of these resources are of the same quality, and it is up to you making the decision what is right and what is not.

But how can you make such a decision?

We both agree on it is the best choice to go with people who are actually work in the industry and can help you learn real-life techniques and to solve real-life issues that you will be confronted with once you are working in this industry.

What Is Good Retouching After All?

Joseph and I both discuss what can be considered retouching, and sometimes it does not even to be much. On the one hand, a client may dictate what needs to be done, but then you are also hired for your experience.

It is incredible how much effect very few tweaks, but the right tweaks can have on an image!

Marketing Your Retouching Business

We briefly touch on the marketing side of running a freelance business. Joseph was confronted with loving photography and retouching at the same time but made the conscious decision to separate the two and to market one service to a specific clientele. He did not want to be a photographer who also does retouching but being perceived as a professional, specialized retoucher.

A great retoucher is a visual surgeon, someone who understands the depth and complexities of an image and can make it as simple and enjoyable for your client as possible. It's my job as a retoucher to remove any distractions tastefully, and invisibly, to avoid damaging the integrity of your beautiful work.

Professional retoucher Daniel Meadows talks about all things retouching tools and workflow. Get industry insights from working professionals.

Who is Daniel Meadows?

Daniel has been retouching now for quite some years. In this podcast, we even joke about the good old times, when internet forums were still a thing.

Daniel mentioned, how he spent time browsing forums to find information on how professional retouching was done.

Retouching education in the early days of the internet

Beleive it or not, back then, information was not as widely available as it is in today's internet world. People used not to share a lot of information. Today everyone seems to be spoonfed with information. That said, information was available to those who were eager to dedicate themselves to the craft and who were willing to dig through forum posts.

Daniel mentions, how connections were made in such forums, the way people shared information, and how he ultimately acquired a lot of knowledge on retouching. Said knowledge he could later use to build his retouching career

Retouching was not a primary business choice

For Daniel, retouching was not a career he intended to pursue initially. He had followed a business endeavor with a partner, running a coffee shop. Ultimately, this business failed for a bunch of reasons, and Daniel found himself in a situation where he had to figure out a way to make a living.

Daniel explains the difficult situation and how frustrating it was. He even dealt with the desition to stock shelves in a supermarket just to get by. Luckily, some friends advised him otherwise, telling him they were convinced he could do much better than that.

And so, he ultimately ended up with the retouching thing that he did for fun up until this time of his life.

Starting A Retouching Career

In this episode, Daniel Meadows talks about how he ended up with his first client. He mentions how he was entrusted with a job that actually was way over his head, but somehow, this client saw the quality of work that he could deliver and therefore trusted in him and for him to deliver on his promises. And so Daniel had to pull through and work his way through the first job. All of this gave him the confidence that he could pursue retouching as a job and make a living with it.

Fake it 'til you make it

Advertising Is Where The Retouching Money is

Daniel and I talk about which jobs in retouching actually can earn you an income. While editorials are great to work on in terms of creative input and fulfillment, more often than not, they don't pay enough to sustain a regular income stream. Daniel used to be living in Manchester (UK) where he established himself as a freelance retoucher working for local advertising agencies.

Truth be told, when you want to make a good income, advertising is where it is at. To be successful, you will have to go into agencies, talk to people and get your foot in the door to eventually get a chance.

Bastet The Retouching Compagnion

As you can imagine, two cat-owners sitting down for a talk does not come without interruptions. So, we had quite some interruptions to endure. But we are taking it like real cat-owners, with a laugh!

Daniel was gracious enough to send over an image of his cat Bastet, chilling beneath the heat-lamp Daniel regularly puts up for her.

Joel Grimes - Start of A Photography Career

We start this podcast by talking about how Joel came to Photography. In his early years, Joel started his career as a photography student in college and went through the ara of shooting film.

In that time, he became aware of photography not being solely a way of documenting but also a way to be creative with the story you might want to tell and the processes involved when "making" an image.

For Joel being color blind, he could not print color in the darkroom himself. Nevertheless, he made the process of black and white images and the whole process his own.

Eventually, Joel came out of college with a degree in fine arts photography.

Being An Artist, Not A Photographer

When digital came along, Joel had to re-invented his role as a photographer. He saw his work not as that of a photographer but that of an artist, and thus, began marketing it as such.

That concept of being an artist with a set of tools first wholly changes the way one can approach photography. Nobody is bound by a fixed set of rules and steps to follow when one's primary goal is to create and use tools on the way to translate one's vision into reality.

Tools and Limitations

Back in the day, you could somewhat manipulate images in the darkroom; however, for the most part, a photographer had to get the final image in-camera.

Today this has changed, and an image can be taken predominantly to be put through digital processes. This may completely change one's approach to photography and what the right capture may look like.

The process is the same, the tools have changed

Ultimately, every process and every tool has its limitations, but in the creative process, there are no limits. You have a vision, and you work with the tools you have available to make your vision come to life.

Photoshop and the Transition from, film to digital

Early versions of Photoshop were already part of Joels Workflows when he was still shooting film. That said, making the switch to digital was not a smooth transition at first. With the introduction of digital, color images were merely just the difference of pushing a button and demand increasing steadily. Color-blind Joel first was not convinced he could keep up with the expectations that came with the new medium. 

Despite all the hurdles and nervousness about the new process, Joel found his way to making the process work for him. Thinking of himself as an artist, Joel manipulated images in a way he liked as art pieces. Within that world of what he likes as art, he could (and still can) work comfortably.

The Joel Grimes Look

The images Joel creates are far from what one would call neutrally color balanced but being an artist, Joel never tried to achieve this to begin with.  One, therefore, can look at "being color blind" as being an advantage and what set Joel free from adopting what was "the norm".

It seems like the edgy look almost came naturally to Joel's photography. Always pushing his boundaries in the process of creating art, he broke many rules in the process of creating. And while he was pushing himself to keep creating, new and exciting looks came to be.

On the verge of fantasy, the grungy, desaturated, and dramatic look came to be. With that look, photography processes have changed to accentuate all these traits in Joel's images.

The Joel Grimes Branding

With certain limitations in place and the will to push his vision, Joel stuck with the type of photography and art he preferred, ultimately branding this look as being intertwined with himself. He is the artist that creates and thus sells this unique look, eventually becoming known for it.

Joel mentions that this brand and his look plays in his hands when it comes to getting jobs. As he cannot "produce a perfectly red Ferrari" and instea...

Sometimes we all need time to make plans. A business can only strive and maintain stable flow if we are headed in the right direction. I am asking some existential questions in this episode.

Scott Kelby is one of the heavyweights in the photo industry, and for good reasons!

We talk about his start in the industry, how he grew his business and the ethics of retouching.