. . . that are not on Model Mayhem. I'm looking for some world wide inspiration of beauty retouchers (not editorial/product retouching etc.) that are for one reason or another -not on Model Mayhem.
Who do you regard as top notch in the industry ?
Providing a link to their website would be appreciated.
Pascal Dangin is the king of retouch. Other than that one I like is Sebastian Reuter in Frankfurt. For me he's the best I've seen has the feel know what is good and bad.
Daniel Ecoff
Posts: 400
SHERMAN OAKS, California, US
Neil Snape wrote: Pascal Dangin is the king of retouch. Other than that one I like is Sebastian Reuter in Frankfurt. For me he's the best I've seen has the feel know what is good and bad.
I have just learned of Pascal and its so surprising how secretive they are there. Their website dosn't even display the work performed. Saw the blog recently from an employee talking about how much he loves working there and brought up the "Demi" image from W. Where her Hip looked retouched in a Frankenstein way, and Demi posted the Original in reply where you can see it was all in the pose. So his defense was no defense at all.
Most retouchers who do fashion advertising, Vogue and Numeró on a regular basis are people who work at studios and don't even have a website (or interest in having one). They just go to work every day.
I was suprised when I started working with people like that.
You don't think that when they see how much their bosses are charging -they don't want to buy a $ 50.00 website and do freelance ? ...surely their must be some.
NYC fine art nudes wrote: You don't think that when they see how much their bosses are charging -they don't want to buy a $ 50.00 website and do freelance ? ...surely their must be some.
Yeah, like it's that easy. Not everyone ready to go freelance. It's much harder to get decent clients list than everyone thinks. Even with great work.
For many it's better to be in studio and work for someone and just have steady income.
Asiris Creative wrote: Yeah, like it's that easy. Not everyone ready to go freelance. It's much harder to get decent clients list than everyone thinks. Even with great work.
For many it's better to be in studio and work for someone and just have steady income.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant that don't you think they'd KEEP their current steady paying job and freelance on the side ?
Either way, it doesn't matter. I'd like this thread to be about current top beauty retouchers that are not on llama Mayhem. I know there must be quite a few.
Glen Berry
Posts: 2,735
Huntington, West Virginia, US
NYC fine art nudes wrote: And just as secretive as Pascal: http://www.boxstudios.com/ in NY. They supposedly do retouching for many top luxury brands.
That might be the simplest commercial website I've ever seen. It's just a single page, displaying two very simple monochrome images, and no links to any other pages.
EDIT: I just wanted to add something to that, to make sure no one misunderstands. I'm not complaining about the site at all. I'm just surprised it's so simple.
Glen Berry wrote: That might be the simplest commercial website I've ever seen. It's just a single page, displaying two very simple monochrome images, and no links to any other pages.
EDIT: I just wanted to add something to that, to make sure no one misunderstands. I'm not complaining about the site at all. I'm just surprised it's so simple.
Maybe my experience will help. I used to do 100% freelancing, always wanting to be part of a structure without knowing the real advantages of it (Ask Natalia, it would rant about this all day long many years ago). Eventually the moment arrived in which i had 2 main big clients that were not photographers but actual production companies that had 2 or 3 photographers in them. One is in Madrid and the other one is in Barcelona (I'm a frequent user of the high speed train now...). I only work for them now, inhouse and in productions doing digital tech. Best thing that happened to me professionally. I also get to work with amazing cameras and light, which I love cause I'm quite the gear head. We just bought two RED EPIC cameras, Arri Hmi's and an amazing Phase One IQ180 back. You don't get to work with those unless you work IN a place.
Moneywise:
Today I only make money from big productions. That is not a personal choice, it's just what happens when you have made the right decisions for where you wanted your career to go. These productions are a lot more rare than smaller productions like editorials, of course, but pay a lot more. To give some details, when freelancing, the normal per image rate was about 50€-100€ per image. Of course there were cases with higher post-production budgets, but those were not very frequent as it is easier to do advertising when you are part of a structure than when you are just some talented guy with a website. Now, the normal rate for each production is about 300€ per image. Sometimes less, sometimes a lot more. Yes, you will only do 2 or 3 of those a month, against the 10 smaller productions you'd do as a freelancer, but hey, you get to have a life and do another very important thing: Unpaid productions that feed your soul.
Unpaid productions:
When you work in a structured studio, sometimes you'll only go to the studio during production seasons. Sometimes you won't even go to the studio in a whole week. That leaves you time to do personal projects with the people you enjoy working with. Belonging to a structured company makes for you to have access other people who have reached the same level of success, and you get to work freely with them. Amazing things come out of those "for the fun of it" productions.
The life and the travels:
If you like this industry, well, It's nice to share your day with other people who work in it. I really enjoy travelling to other countries to do digital tech, and staying at a hotel with people who also eat Vogues for breakfast, going out after the productions with the photographer, the models and the rest of the team. It's just a wonderful atmosphere that I could never experience when I was freelancing, retouching at home.
Box Studios: The prod company I normally work for in Barcelona are, at this moment, going through an amazing stage of growth. They've even worked with Testino. During one production visit to NY, they went to BOX, and assigned them an editorial that had already been released. They just wanted to see how much better they were. The conclusion was that, yes, they are good. Especially the way they treat the images and the artistic input that they will give their clients. You can tell they are very experienced. On the other side, they also told me that, BOX are not unique, and that the team of retouchers (to which I belong) that they have here in Spain can deliver the same quality of retouching. Box studios is far more than just the quality they deliver. It's about trust. We once lost a Loreal international campaign, because the client wanted to sent the images to some NY studio. The result was the same, and they were 10 times more expensive. It's just that the client trusted them so much, that even our portfolio with many other Loreal jobs wasn't enough to convince them.
MM Profiles:
Lots of successful real world retouchers are here. They read but they might not post. Some don't use their real names. Some have become successful years after they created their MM profile, and still enjoy participating in the forums. My colleague in Barcelona has done over 10 Vogue editorials and campaigns that take my breath away. She's been working there long before I arrived. She had never heard of MM before and she has no website.
Sergy Manko
Posts: 112
Lisbon, Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, Portugal
FLEXmanta wrote:
Maybe my experience will help. I used to do 100% freelancing, always wanting to be part of a structure without knowing the real advantages of it (Ask Natalia, it would rant about this all day long many years ago). Eventually the moment arrived in which i had 2 main big clients that were not photographers but actual production companies that had 2 or 3 photographers in them. One is in Madrid and the other one is in Barcelona (I'm a frequent user of the high speed train now...). I only work for them now, inhouse and in productions doing digital tech. Best thing that happened to me professionally. I also get to work with amazing cameras and light, which I love cause I'm quite the gear head. We just bought two RED EPIC cameras, Arri Hmi's and an amazing Phase One IQ180 back. You don't get to work with those unless you work IN a place.
Moneywise:
Today I only make money from big productions. That is not a personal choice, it's just what happens when you have made the right decisions for where you wanted your career to go. These productions are a lot more rare than smaller productions like editorials, of course, but pay a lot more. To give some details, when freelancing, the normal per image rate was about 50€-100€ per image. Of course there were cases with higher post-production budgets, but those were not very frequent as it is easier to do advertising when you are part of a structure than when you are just some talented guy with a website. Now, the normal rate for each production is about 300€ per image. Sometimes less, sometimes a lot more. Yes, you will only do 2 or 3 of those a month, against the 10 smaller productions you'd do as a freelancer, but hey, you get to have a life and do another very important thing: Unpaid productions that feed your soul.
Unpaid productions:
When you work in a structured studio, sometimes you'll only go to the studio during production seasons. Sometimes you won't even go to the studio in a whole week. That leaves you time to do personal projects with the people you enjoy working with. Belonging to a structured company makes for you to have access other people who have reached the same level of success, and you get to work freely with them. Amazing things come out of those "for the fun of it" productions.
The life and the travels:
If you like this industry, well, It's nice to share your day with other people who work in it. I really enjoy travelling to other countries to do digital tech, and staying at a hotel with people who also eat Vogues for breakfast, going out after the productions with the photographer, the models and the rest of the team. It's just a wonderful atmosphere that I could never experience when I was freelancing, retouching at home.
Box Studios: The prod company I normally work for in Barcelona are, at this moment, going through an amazing stage of growth. They've even worked with Testino. During one production visit to NY, they went to BOX, and assigned them an editorial that had already been released. They just wanted to see how much better they were. The conclusion was that, yes, they are good. Especially the way they treat the images and the artistic input that they will give their clients. You can tell they are very experienced. On the other side, they also told me that, BOX are not unique, and that the team of retouchers (to which I belong) that they have here in Spain can deliver the same quality of retouching. Box studios is far more than just the quality they deliver. It's about trust. We once lost a Loreal international campaign, because the client wanted to sent the images to some NY studio. The result was the same, and they were 10 times more expensive. It's just that the client trusted them so much, that even our portfolio with many other Loreal jobs wasn't enough to convince them.
MM Profiles:
Lots of successful real world retouchers are here. They read but they might not post. Some don't use their real names. Some have become successful years after they created their MM profile, and still enjoy participating in the forums. My colleague in Barcelona has done over 10 Vogue editorials and campaigns that take my breath away. She's been working there long before I arrived. She had never heard of MM before and she has no website.
Well... this is my favorite post ever on MM.
I realy relate to this in a way that I always wanted to be part of a creative team and be a part of the hole creative process. I would even accept an internship, since being a freelance in your 20 is a real pain. Adding to that there's not a single retouching studio in Portugal worth to mention. Working in a team is a realy enriching experience skill and taste wise, so today I see it as a privilage.
Well... this is my favorite post ever on MM.
I realy relate to this in a way that I always wanted to be part of a creative team and be a part of the hole creative process. I would even accept an internship, since being a freelance in your 20 is a real pain. Adding to that there's not a single retouching studio in Portugal worth to mention. Working in a team is a realy enriching experience skill and taste wise, so today I see it as a privilage.
It isn't always fun to work in-house. As always, there are impossible clients and un-endless jobs that you just HAVE to finish and can't cancel. During days like that, you are misserable.
We're actually looking for a new intern at the studio in Barcelona. I'm not in charge of that subject, so I don't have much more information.
Sergy Manko
Posts: 112
Lisbon, Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, Portugal
FLEXmanta wrote: It isn't always fun to work in-house. As always, there are impossible clients and un-endless jobs that you just HAVE to finish and can't cancel. During days like that, you are misserable.
We're actually looking for a new intern at the studio in Barcelona. I'm not in charge of that subject, so I don't have much more information.
Well that happens with freelance jobs aswell, as you certainly now But my biggest issue with freelancing is you always must rely on yourself only, without mentoring or advise. There's little skill and taste divelopment when youre bound to your own perspective and knowledge. Of course there's many sources for inspiration, but thats just the final product. I currently do retouch for some magazines and great photgraphers, even if they're not top tier. But I naturaly want to evlove further since I do this primarly for passion.
OTTO poste1
Posts: 184
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Rich Arnold Photography wrote: WOW. Amy Dresser's skin work is amazing. Would love to see a screenshot of her photoshop layers. LOL
you can actually find some of Amy's psd's online. I found one for a man's retouch and another for a woman's retouch. If you google it you should find, it's low res but still quite clear. She says she works on man and women the same way.
....there was no link (as requested)
But my biggest issue with freelancing is you always must rely on yourself only, without mentoring or advise. There's little skill and taste divelopment when youre bound to your own perspective and knowledge. Of course there's many sources for inspiration, but thats just the final product. I currently do retouch for some magazines and great photgraphers, even if they're not top tier. But I naturaly want to evlove further since I do this primarly for passion.
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