Professional specialized
photo retouching service

The photo retoucher specialized in ordinary body

In the fields of photography, it is an unglamorous profession, almost occult because by definition, invisible, and yet holds a place absolutely necessary: ​​the photo retoucher. And there are countless of specialties: from the face retoucher for cosmetics, to the car retoucher for industry, event the sandwich retoucher for food industry, each commercial field has his specialized retoucher, and only few are able to do the stretching between two disciplines, as much as they can be distinct.

« Top models are the standard of perfection, right? »

Undoubtedly one of the very advanced specializations: the lingerie photographs. Indeed, remodeling of a normal body, regardless of its position, angle and lighting, proves to be an area of ​​the photo that only a few professional retoucher master. In fact, a retoucher for working in fashion or advertising works mainly on retouching professional models that were chosen for the perfection of their body. A professional model will indeed invest a lot of time to perfect the outlook of its body, through an appropriate lifestyle and diet, and daily exercises that will shape its forms and muscles, to be closer to perfection that is expected for their job.

Beside, a private individual, an amateur, or even a TV star may have many personal concerns and other professional priorities than invest its time to look like a top model. And certainly its body will stigmatize more or less, be it a simple muscle imbalance, overweight, or skin symptoms such aging, wilting and other cellulite of all kinds. All those physical demonstrations are usually not a problem and can hardly blemish the appearance of a woman in his life everyday.

« Specialized in bulges and cellulite »

But when it comes to a boudoir photos shooting, in order to make an original gift to her husband for example, it is far from being an ordinary day for the average of the population. Besides the psychological pressure getting naked in front of a stranger, furthermore a professional that is accustomed to seeing beautiful models every day, the beginner model will also have to assume once a year all her flaws, and present them in broad light as an icon of her own person, moreover in front of device able to see the slightest imperfection, and freeze it on a film such as an indelible evidence of the aftermaths of the modern life.

A fashion retoucher is certainly not immune to the woes of the western life, and can certainly notice it on him-self or his relatives. But the women that they retouch every day for fashion magazines and commercials are far from being a standard, and most of the time look like an alien or an oddities of nature rather than a normal human being in the 21st century. For most of them, the daily work within their agency confine to retouch a few spots on the face or to remove some wrinkles over a beautiful up-market skirt, but mostly it may consist of decorating the photo to make it more impressive, more professional and more arty.

Many of those prestigious fashion retouch artists would certainly turn pale if you would ask them to retouch a leg with cellulite, where the muscle is shyly hidden under a layer of laminated fat of several years. It is likely that, many professional retoucher, bristling with their CV full of the most prestigious fashion brands, may end up facing a challenge in their own job, and maybe would finally reject it as someone would denigrate the honorable work of the garbage collectors.

For having tried the experiment several times to recruit a brilliant professional retoucher, in order to work on pictures of showbiz people or private individuals, if half of them shall proudly refuse to work on such an unglamorous task, an other half would make the try, at least for the financial contribution, but in most of the cases the task will prove to be such a nightmare. How come a body can be so destroyed, they may wonder. Well, the showbiz and the TV world is not very well known for its healthy, balance way of living, and between the drugs, the alcohol and the restaurants, the aftermaths can be extremely destructive on the body.

« But... How is it supposed to look like normally? »

By working with a boudoir photographer, even experienced retouchers can feel without resources, facing a real mountain to climb, as if they never did this kind of retouching of their life. All their decoration skills and soft retouching techniques shall seem ineffective given the amount to retouch.

The job of TV stars retoucher is a very thin area in the Photoshop world, much more close to the sculpture than to the arty decoration of the fashion magazines. If the modelling paste is a very simple tool to handle, to manage to sculpt a realistic body in it is far from an easy task. It requires a very good knowledge of the human anatomy, as well as a developed sensitivity for the curves of the body. But mostly, it demands a certain experience that cannot be compressed... We'll have to get bumbed off and retouch a lot of bodies, of any shape!

You will find, most of the time, those talented photo retoucher working for magazines where we can see TV stars and showbiz people looking like top models, or even as private retouchers for Hollywood stars. Unlike fashion retouch artists, you shall never hear their names, you'll rarely see them in the credits pictures, and yet they show an expertise that could make turn pale some of the most famous retouching.

Nicolas