I recently collaborated with model, Aneesah Hanan and makeup artist, Tony Stylez for a high fashion themed shoot. As you can see, they both did a great job and with their help, we got a great image. The photos straight out of the camera looked great but I wanted to practice my retouching skills and make this image shine.
In the video below, you can see my progress as I just about edited every pixel of this photo. From adding extra eyelashes, dodging and burning to bring out and enhance features to removing an ear-piercing hole, this photo is polished. Don’t get me wrong, Aneesah looked amazing with no editing whatsoever but this shoot was an exercise in attaining the super-clean and expertly polished beauty shot. While many companies are shying away from retouching, there is still a very strong desire for this level of perfection. Plus you still see Aneesah’s natural beauty and features – we’re not talking about changing nose shape or manufacturing cheekbones here.
Quick overview of the retouching process.