Pixiq

Here’s a really tough test that I presented to see if outsourcing to ReadyRetouch, an Indian firm, would work for me. 

The hidden retouching production step is often the bottleneck both of time and money for studio production. Think of how outsourcing can be an equal fit for both the part time pro and the full studio operation. The less experienced photographer in post can look like a pro, and the very busy studio, especially at holiday,s gets a huge burden removed, not to mention removing the delays.

Just the right touch when retouching portraits is either pretty difficult or totally boring. To learn the fine points of this skill takes the typical 10,000 hours of any artisanal craft. Do it yourself utility retouch programs claim to make you an expert but tend to make you go overboard. Way too plastic faces are the result.  Just because you can do something doesn’t mean your should! 

Competent and tasteful retouching, based on the final purpose of the portrait is totally a matter of good taste and motivation of the piece.

And retouching can be a real time waster. I know; I’m one of those! Or I should say, I’ve been one of those, who learned in the dark ages when we used dye, colored pencils, oil paint, bleach, pastels and  lampblack! I’m changing my tune. 

Outsourcing any job seems difficult, more so for an artist who generally sees relinquishing any part of a job as a loss of control. For retouching, it’s a grey area that is most often the major break in a smooth chain of production. Retouching is like a hiccup in time. The job stops dead while we wait to get the art work done. The enthusiasm of the order placed diminishes both for the buyer and the studio. 

You probably get frequent email solicitations to purchase retouching from specialty companies, primarily off-shore. I devised a simple test to see if outsourcing could be a problem solver for us. Assuming that the postproduction personnel of a company are competent, communication is obviously the key to getting what you want. When I first talked to the ReadyRetouch people, they suggested I give two types of instructions with each order. First, the motivation of the portraits; this means the mood, atmosphere the style that you’re looking for. Second is the specific details of blemishes, backgrounds, color etc. 

OK, so to be fair, I didn’t think of doing this little proof map with arrows until after the fact, so my instructions were not the best. For absolute perfection, you need to give accurate and complete job specs! My bad! 

And honestly, this was a really tough test, and I did not expect ReadyRetouch to succeed. Why is it tough? Three things: the style of this alpha-male portrait is slightly grunge (done with high clarity setting) but I didn’t want the face to look like a million hard lines. Still, this man is major comfortable with who he is, and I wouldn’t dare make his face look like the typical plastic that you see in so much retouching today. The filtered overcast down lighting made the eyes go a little dark in spite of a reflector. The background had some distracting items, and I wanted the person to seem almost three dimensional, popping out of the background. 

1. eyes are a bit dark, they need to pop: subject’s right eye is a little narrow

1a) heavy eye lines must be softened, but not removed; forehead is too light

1. soften neck lines
2. remove background walk
3. remove peeling paint on bench
4. darken background items
5. slight dark vignette to hole the eye in the center of the portrait

Did I tell you that I’m picky? Here’s the result, and you’ll see that ReadyRetouch did really well, considering incomplete instructions, and that this was a first try. You have to look quite closely to see the differences on the web, or enlarge the image, but they are a big improvement when you go to print. These kinds of special services are some of the only things that now set the real pro from the part timer or do it yourselfer.

Face and neck retouch was virtually identical. Background not quite as much as I did, and I didn’t mention the vignette, which is my bad for assuming the heritage of what was always done in the past, practically without thinking. I popped the eyes more and enlarged the right eye slightly to de-emphasize the difference in size. Again I didn’t mention the eye size in my instructions, partly because I couldn’t figure out at the time how to express this requirement.

Overall, a really good first time effort, needing only a little fine tweaking, which could be solved with more communications. Good Job!

I do color and density optimization before a client ever sees an image. Putting images in a logical grouped sequence is another part of the preparation before posting on line or presenting in the studio to the client. For a wedding this can be really time consuming, if you’re picky - and your end client is probably going to be pickier than you can imagine. ReadyRetouch can provide this service for the entire wedding image set. The bride may not know what she is looking at in terms of density and tone, but she’ll know if she doesn’t like how she looks. She just won’t order much. Or she’ll just take the CD and leave, and never make a beautiful presentation. You won’t get any referrals from that client! Not a good business move.

I was really impressed, not just by the diligent quality control checks built into their system, but mainly that ReadyRetouch assigns the same group of people to each individual customer. That means that your personal team quickly begins to know your needs and taste. You’ll need to give less and less instructions; they’ll simply know what you want! Sounds like a deal! 

Quality outsourced retouching is a matter of guaranteed trust, as well as a matter of confidence and collaboration. It takes very little time. And it doesn’t cost much! Can you say the same of very many services these days? The company ReadyRoutouch is one such valuable service. Try them out for free by visiting their website.