Retoucher........help - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

05/04/2007 07:57:31 AM · #1

Greetings, I applied for a job as a Photograph Retoucher. It sounded like I was basically qualified for the job, but I was trying to understand the difference between editing and retouching. Would that be like the difference between Basic editing and Advanced editing in the challenges?

slide12345678

Canon EOS-5D

05/04/2007 08:06:29 AM · #2

retouching is usually focused on fixing people in a photograph (stray hair, complexion, clothes, colors, etc.)

editing can be just about anything (fixing the lighting of a picture, replacing someone's head, cloning out a thing in the background, maybe adding text, more major changes, etc.)

05/04/2007 08:38:14 AM · #3

Thanks. Its what I thought. Adjusting Levels, Sharpening, Cropping would be basic editing. When I clone out zits, soften crows feet, or whiten teeth it would be Retouching.

Prof_Fate

05/04/2007 08:59:05 AM · #4

Depends on the photographer - I know some that do practically nothing, others do quite a lot.
Most all will have a workflow they want you to use so that the work is consistent from client to client, month to month, etc.
If they shoot a lot of HS kids you'll get a lot of work eliminating acne and braces.
If the photog is a 'get it right in the camera' you'll not have much to do. If he's a 'fix it in PS later' type then that might mean a lot of work.
I edit every portrait shot and project them for sales - 80 shots or so. takes 2 hours. most is boring, sometimes i make a B&W or do something creeative.
For weddings it's a lot of RAW adjustments and conversion, convert for proofing (size), etc. Then for an album or the prints that are ordered the images get edited.
I consider any curves/USM/vignetting or wrinkly/wart/acne/catchlights/stray hairs,etc to be editing - I don't put 'retouching' in a separate classification, but most old school (film) photographers do as it used to be a specialist job.
It isn't anymore.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

05/04/2007 10:02:26 AM · #5

Prof-Fate; Most sports shots that I'm going to sell I just Crop, Resize, Adjust Levels, and Sharpen. If there is something really distracting I'll fix it. On special shots, whether for sale or not I'll use the cloning, blurring, dodging, burning, and sharpen tools until I'm satisfied.

The job posting was for a Retoucher to prepare photos for advertisment and other media uses.

Thanks for the input.

wavelength

Nikon D300

05/04/2007 10:11:11 AM · #6

I have a question, in looking for similar jobs in my area, Hallmark wants (among others things) for the person to have: expert knowledge of numeric values in RGB, LAD, Grayscale, and CMYK color spaces...

Is this really necessary for a retouching job?