I’ve been wanting to work on a project concentrating on photo retouching. While on a photo walk in October 2023 I met a young lady, Rosie V., walking her foster puppy, well not exactly a puppy but a full-grown husky — but I digress. In talking with Rosie I asked if she would be interested in collaborating as model on Trade For Prints (TFP) shoot.
After exchanging messages on Instagram (IG) with Rosie, we finally go together for the shoot in my garage. The wardrobe was business casual and asked Rosie to keep her hair and makeup simple and natural, respectively.
The shoot lasted about 2-3 hours with varying the lighting from Rembrandt to soft beauty lighting. At the end of the shoot I captured roughly over 300 images settling on these five to retouch.
I used Adobe Lightroom Classic to cull through the photos and did some light editing — white balance, brightness, contrast, sharpening, clarity and vibrance.
I did the heavy retouching in Adobe Photoshop. Aside from the blemish removal the majority of the retouching techniques I used was Frequency Separation I learned from Unmesh Dinda, whose excellent YouTube Channels is PiXimperft. I also used a skin sculpting and contouring using a dodging and burning technique I learned, again, from Unmesh.
I’m looking to do another TFP shoot soon that is vintage 1930s or ‘40s themed. Stay tuned.