Anon Retouch

http://www.anonymousretouch.com


Another retouching studio that offers service for beauty and fashion photographs. I think the name also has good connotations because clients and companies do not want to admit to their photographs being retouched and 'anonymous' has connotations that it would be kept hidden.

The studio produces works that are very minimalistic, clean and crisp. The entire focus becomes about the subject as they have successfully removed all distractions.

One thing I have noticed with studio websites is that they all include a list of past clients, this raises there status and connotes that they are an excellent studio as they have worked for such established clients.

Being a Success

We looked at the WPO's photographic conversations on student photography and I took away some great advice and motivation. Here are the important parts of the presentation that I found helpful:

Why am I doing what I am doing?
How does this reflect the world?
Change subjects to show a new or unseen viewpoint
I need to care about my subjects
Research into the people I am photographing and showing work too, how would they expect it?
How will it be presented? does this compliment or contrast with the subject?
Do I know why I am networking and marketing?
Use each and every tool available to me
Photography is not always behind a camera
Break down the walls I build around myself
I will develop my own personal style



How to be a Success

There are many articles, videos and books available trying to uncover the secrets of being successful, however I feel these are useless as success must come from within and no matter how much you read about being successful it is redundant unless it is put into practice. But here are some tips from the presentation we given in this weeks lecture:

Move past fear
Failure is part of it
Find a drive
What you put in, you get back out
Be nice to people
Network is key
No debts, try keep on top of everything
Market yourself
JUST DO IT
Theres no age limit
Do I deserve it ?
RELAX!
Whats your personal style?

Creative Live

https://www.creativelive.com/catalog/all?qd=retouching&sort=1&upcoming=0

This website holds a range of classes available for retouching in a variety of subjects:

All classes are available to purchase for a range of prices depending on the subject and the amount of content included. Although I have not yet purchased any classes I am going to look into the different classes and see which will offer me the most personal benefit as their are courses designed specifically for retouching (see below)


Aaron Nace

food retouching
step-by-step workflow to speed up the process


Lindsay Adler

portraits
creative techniques
advanced techniques
beauty shots
skin


Julia Kuzmenko McKim

commercial beauty
basic portrait techniques

Pratik Naik (retoucher)

https://www.creativelive.com/courses/art-business-high-end-retouching-pratik-naik



This link is a website which hosts online classes available to purchase, this class that is linked is a step by step of a photography shoot he is working on and shows us how his high end images are created and retouched. He also talks about the business side which is important to know so that profit can be made effectively and insurance is in place incase of unexpected problems arising. In the class he has uploaded a range of documents which include; his photoshop files, his actions that he uses within photoshop and discount codes.

He is the owner of Solstice Retouch which is a studio offering services for all genres of photography and he also offers seminars and workshops through his website. He aims to make the photographs appear natural yet perfect, which is what photographs for commercial purposes should be.

Becky Van Ommen

http://www.beckyvanommen.com/about/

She is a photographer and retoucher who works commercially to create works for commercial, conceptual, fashion and beauty images, she has worked with very established clients. Her website shows only the final versions of her works and the originals and the process are not visible, I personally would like to see the process that she takes to create her photographs as I feel I could leaner from it and gain more of an insight and appreciation for the work she has done.

Joel Pares - Retouching

http://www.joelpares.com/retouching/

A photographer and retoucher in one he combines his retouching skills to enhance and create his projects. I think that retouching is a great skill to learn for photographers because it means that the expense of paying for a retoucher to fox overlooked mistakes does not need to happen and any retouching done on personal work remains personal as the photographer knows the exact vision that they have for the final outcome.

His website also shows the step by step process he has taken for some of his photographs, and although I feel that some of the work did not need the extreme retouching that it has received it also makes me think that I can not trust any photograph that I see because the photographs could be digitally created like his are.

NAPP and Photoshop User

http://kelbyone.com/magazine/

Photoshop User

This is a monthly magazine which includes many tutorials and articles, signing up for a membership gives the member access to 10 magazine issues a year.

The October issue features 100 tips for using Photoshop and other tips and tricks, it also has some halloween themed tutorials to help with upcoming seasonal holiday. There is also some reviews on books written about photoshop.

http://members.photoshopuser.com/

NAPP

The NAPP stands for National Association of Photoshop Professionals, this website hosts many different tutorials and online classes, it also offers a range of discounts on Apple photo imaging products to photography book making to website hosting sites. This website is also associated with Kelby One as the NAPP website links through to the Kelby One.

Retoucher

Retouching is the post production work that happens to photographs and videos after being shot. There are many studios available that offer retouching services these include Happy Finish, Pro Image Experts and Studio Invisible.

Happy Finish

Offers services in both photographic and video retouching. Undertakes work for a multitude of photographic genres across a wide variety of countries. Worked with very well established companies to produce adverts for cars, fashion and product. So their retouchers are all well versed with many skills needed for each genre.


Pro Image Experts

Another worldwide company they also provide service for a wide range of genres within photography, they also offer services for individual technical problems that may photographer may have had. They also offer video editing services.

Studio Invisible

This studio offers services to a few couple specific genres; fashion and advertising. This means that their retouchers will have set skills that have been learned specifically for those genres and will be more able to find and fix problems because of their experience working within the same genre means they can spot mistakes that would be typical in these genres. The studio is a London based company which puts the emphasis of the company on the client not just the services they offer.

The Photographic Industry (Career Paths)

We had another quick view at some more competitions today in lecture

AOP and Nat Geo are both well established competitions and they have a "pay per single entry" fee however I do not think I will be entering these because of the reputation and standing of these is quite off putting as I do not feel my work is up to the same standard as featured works. 

We were introduced to the terms and conditions of some competition; reading these is important as it states who is eligible to enter and the requirements for the photographs that get entered. Different contests require different file sizes and if this is not explicitly followed then it will lead to your photographs being disqualified. Some websites even have specific requirements for naming files that are entered.

We were also shown a presentation about different careers in the photographic industry that were not photographing specific. These include:

Curator (gathers / organises work for exhibits)

Editor (selects the 'best' photographs to show)

Researcher (archives works, writes photographic theorys / academic books)

Teacher

Retoucher (post production work)

Arts Organiser (organises events, council members)

Critic (reviews others works/exhibition)

Assistant (helps for novice photographers/builds portfolio)

Printer

Sales (selling works/frames/photography gear)

Royal Photographic Society

2015 Members Biennial

http://www.rps-biennial.org/

touring exhibition of 100 entries
free submission to members
16th of August - 20th of October
submit uptoo 4 images


Monthly Competition

http://www.rps.org/exhibitions-and-competitions/competitions/monthly-competition

five images can be uploaded each month
has to relate to the given theme
other members "pick" their favourites
staff members also "pick" two
receive print of the work by Metro print
featured in the journal

Lens Culture

https://www.lensculture.com/visual-storytelling-awards-2014



Deadline :

19th October 2014

Brief :

" Show us your story "

Perks :

the five winners recieve cash prize and to work with Edition One on publishing their work
online promo
catalog sent to "Lens Culture insiders"

Past Winners

their success stories are on the website



 Copyright :

Sony World Photography

http://worldphoto.org/about-the-sony-world-photography-awards/

Different competitions :

open, youth, professional, student focus


Deadline :

Student -6th December 2014
youth - 5th January 2015

Prizes:

Travelling Exhibition :

Competition held:
yearly

Student Focus Competition brief:

Youth Category :

these are the three sub categories for the youth comp

Aperture

http://www.aperture.org/portfolio-prize/



Deadline :

Tuesday December 2nd 2014


Past Winners :

Winner and runner ups work all available to view, also says some details about how what has happened to them after the comp

What happens after the comp :

magazines, travelling exhibition,

Exhibitr

Criteria :

full or part time education
over 16

Brief :

"an eye for a shot"

Deadline :

8th January 2015

Prizes / Perks :

Canon 70D for the winner
IXUS 155 for 3 runner ups
Premium account with Exhibitr for 30 runner ups

Competitions and Awards Introduction

Things to look at beforehand :

check guidelines for eligibility
who is hosting the competition ?
 - look for high profile ones
who will be seeing the comp/work ?
 - networking, collaborations, online viewing, exhibits, published in magazines
what will i win?
is there a theme?
what fees is there ?
do i get to keep the rights to the photograph ?
 - copyright
look at the feedback from previous years winners
what happens after the comp finishes
 - events, website, perks from entering, Cv line
deadlines



Competitions I should look at :

Aperture
Daylight Photo
Lens Culture
Sony World Photography
World Press Photo

Using Blogs / Research Skills

Today in lecture we looked at examples of how present their work online through a range of different media's such blogger, website servers and Tumblr. I think I am going to stay on blogger as then all my work across all the subjects can remain together and organised and I won't forget to update regularly.


As we are studying a visual degree blogs are expected to be a visual archive of our progress and developments and blogs are a multi functional tool able to effortlessy combine images and texts.

Some of the websites were laid out so the viewer had to scroll left to right to view more images; I did not like this layout as though we read from left to right on a computer screen it is typical to scroll up and down and this layout is expected and when viewing this site the rest of the images were almost missed because it was not clear how to navigate the website.