Retouching Style and Philosophy

My philosophy on retouching style is pretty simple: Play, and make your own art.

Downloading an action or following a step-by-step tutorial will begin to give you ideas of what you like and what you don’t like, but it’s ultimately up to you to figure out what’s best. One thing I can assure you though is that if you decide to just buy some software to do the work for you, you’re going to get lost in the crowd. There are soooo many photographers out there relying on plugins/software like Portraiture, Topaz, onOne, Portrait Pro, VSCO, etc. It’s easy to spot, and it looks artificial. Not just artificial as in a poor job with smoothing skin or whatnot, but artificial as in “cookie cutter.” There is no finesse involved in my opinion. No thought process on which technique will be best for the subject and mood of the art in front of you. Ultimately the work becomes status quo. And, if everyone can do it at the click of a button, is it really art? Delving even deeper, is the programmer who wrote that software or person who created that action the true artist? Is it a collaboration at that point?

I can go deeper, but I’m not really trying to make your head hurt. What I am attempting to get at is that you, yes YOU, need to start creating your own art. In this digital age, photographers have the opportunity to evolve the same way photographers of the past evolved once they got a grasp on the darkroom and started tinkering with their prints. We are, for the most part, digital artists now, and we need to realize that how we bring our photos from photons to paper matters. Enough with the cookie cutter BS. Enough with gawking at the hottest new action for Photoshop like it’s the answer to all your photography woes. Enough with spending money instead of spending time to grow your craft. It takes time, but your work WILL get better the more you practice. You WILL start to understand why something looks good and which areas need improvement.

Over the past few years I’ve grown my work from a piss poor excuse for a photo to creating art that I’m absolutely ecstatic to hang on my wall. It took time to figure out what I liked, and it took even more time to learn how to get there. I’ll be growing and nurturing my craft for many years to come, and I’m perfectly okay with that as long as I’m not becoming stagnant with my own art. That’s how I feel we all should be.

 

Thanks for reading through! I hope you’re able to take something away that will help you grow your work! I’ll be sure to add some of my actual retouching pipelines, and my thoughts on in-camera vs post in the future. Make sure to check back here for more content soon! And, don’t forget to drop me a line on Facebook!

Cheers!

-NBMA