Retouching Is Not About Blurring Or Airbrushing Skin

The retouching of images has gathered quite a bad reputation over the last few years with the skin of starlets and models looking so perfect, it almost looks plastic and the Liquify tool put into overdrive to make already perfect pins appear even more thin. However, one retoucher is trying to educate the world that really, when retouching is done correctly that you won't even know an image has been retouched. 

Pratik Naik, owner of Solstice Retouch, says: "It should be what a person looks like on their best day, realistic yet natural and full of visible skin texture."

To help people understand what the retouching business is really about, Pratik has put together a hair and skin retouching time-lapse that squeezes 8 hours of patient work into an 8-minute video. 

The healing, cloning and dodge & burn tools are all put to good use with a final bit of colour correction to complete the image in what Pratik describes as a 'non-destructive way'. Capture One Pro 8.2 and Adobe Photoshop CC are used in the subtle cleaning up of the model's skin and hair.

Here are the before & after images:

Pratik will be adding more retouching videos to his Youtube channel and you can also visit his website - www.solsticeretouch.com.