Photography advice from a Pro Retoucher

[Midwinter]

http://www.jamesmidwinter.com

As both a developing pro photographer and an established professional retoucher for clients like Vogue, i-D magazine, Nike and Topman, I thought I might be able to share some info about how my post production experience makes me' approach shoots.

Below are links to two separate tutorials I've written on my blog. The first details how I organised a recent shoot with former Placebo drummer Steve Hewitts new band Love Amongst Ruin, to ensure a smooth, effective post production process.

http://postcardineversent.blogspot.com/2010/06/lar-shoot-making-of-warning-major-geek.html

The second tries to show how I then make my Photoshop files as flexible as possible, so that any number of drastic changes or crazy requests from the client can be fulfilled with little trouble:

http://postcardineversent.blogspot.com/2010/06/lar-shoot-making-of-part-2.html

As my first attempt at sharing the things I've learnt, I hope anyone finds this even slightly useful. By no means do I feel my methods are flawless, but hopefully there are some small bits of info in there that could prove useful for others. If nothing else, any retoucher you send your work too in the future when you're a super succesful pro will appreciate the thought you've put into your images.

Hope you like!

James Midwinter
http://www.jamesmidwinter.com

[ravens-eye]

Very interesting reading James..... I especially like how you dealt with the missing band member and planned ahead. Thank you for taking time out to write such a detailed insight into how it all happens and sharing it with us.

[Midwinter]

Hey no problem, I hope it was at least interesting for a fraction of a second, thanks for taking the time to wade through it!

[JamieWillmott]

Good article, it was interesting to see your approach and how you organised the components in photoshop. I've linked to the article on twitter, hope you don't mind.

[Midwinter]

Thanks Jamie, appreciate it, thanks for sharing it mate.