Robert Randall wrote:
I can't think of anyone in the world that is more successful than Mark Laita, when it comes to product photography.

http://www.marklaita.com/

Thanks for that link

Robert Randall wrote:
To me the question is more telling about the perception many of you have about retouch, in that so many of you seem to categorize the work as if there's a difference between retouching a beauty image, and retouching a bottle of Scotch.

With product retouching you can illustrate a lot more since textures are not as complex.

But I agree completely with this:

Robert Randall wrote:
There is basically no difference. You need art skills and creative vision, and you need software knowledge. I can't categorically tell anyone that a highlight on a bottle needs to look a specific way. Highlights on glass can conceivably all look different, just like highlights on hair and skin can look different.
I suggest a good course of action would be to study what you see on Mr. Laita's and try to duplicate his work. At the very least, you'll be working from images made by one of the most sought after commercial product shooters that ever lived, which I think is a far cry from the tutorials you might run into.

And this is pretty much WHY I haven´t done one yet.

I did talk to Wacom about using one of their product launchings and their personal photographer to do a free webinar on the subject. It could be interesting for people to actually SEE there´s little difference.

But again, I do agree and I always make a point to students to have a flexible but organized workshop and change the mindset from "retouching eyes" "Retouching skin" "Retouching hair" "Retouching lifestyle", etc to "retouching color and light density, texture and shape"

Natalia_Taffarel wrote:
With product retouching you can illustrate a lot more since textures are not as complex.

I'm pleased you agree, I'm trying hard to find the words that will avoid a fight. I don't want to be argumentative, but anything made of cloth or leather could give you a run for the money. One of absolutely the hardest things to retouch seamlessly, is a football or a basketball. Try removing the logo and making all those little bumps line up... yuk!

Robert Randall wrote:

I'm pleased you agree, I'm trying hard to find the words that will avoid a fight. I don't want to be argumentative, but anything made of cloth or leather could give you a run for the money. One of absolutely the hardest things to retouch seamlessly, is a football or a basketball. Try removing the logo and making all those little bumps line up... yuk!

I wouldn't want to try.

Robert Randall wrote:

I'm pleased you agree, I'm trying hard to find the words that will avoid a fight. I don't want to be argumentative, but anything made of cloth or leather could give you a run for the money. One of absolutely the hardest things to retouch seamlessly, is a football or a basketball. Try removing the logo and making all those little bumps line up... yuk!

Like lace in full body suit



I was referring more to plastic, glass and metal.

Maybe it's because I can illustrate (drawn since I was a kid) so painting a bottle from scratch, specially when having the right references as you mentioned, it's not as hard as having to preserve the texture (like a basketball skin, hair, lace)