Frame number 2 of the Itty Bitty Bag Company photo shoot is now ready. After 4 hours of careful retouching, we have a close up look that is alive with color. I dare you to click on the small image below and take a look at the 40% proof.

Click to enlarge

And here’s a comparison of the before and after shots. Please note that commercial retouching is a very delicate process; one that usually comes at the expense of my eyes! Seriously, though, please note that Sarah is just as gorgeous in the left frame as she is in the right (or “After”) frame, the only difference — she has been um, commercialized in the latter. Nothing about Sarah’s stunning facial features has been altered, I have just used what’s already there to turn a human being into a commercial standard image.  Naturally I can’t take all the credit for the polished look on the right –without the correct foundation of Holly’s work on Sarah’s face, which includes airbrushing, cheek, forehead and nose  contouring, blush, eye shadow highlighting and lowlighting, etc, etc, my efforts would’ve been useless.

Click on the image to enlarge

By the way, what you are looking at is realistically about 35% of the real picture. The real difference between the raw shot and the finished product comes out in the print. A good quality print at a decent size is the medium that will truly show off a job well done.

As for the retouching method used, no rocket science here– just the industry standard “dodging and burning,” using the healing brush and some cloning here and there. All that and a large dose of patience and hour after hour of staring at the pictures that you care about. Hair is definitely one of the peskiest elements to deal with when retouching and one that requires a lot of attention in the typical headshot. See those iiitty biiiity strands of baby hair on the left side of Sarah’s forehead (camera right)? — those put up a fight for sure but I prevailed in the end!

More soon….  I have also been reminded that I need to catch up on a couple of  January-February photo shoots that never made it onto the blog. Will do!