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Do you feel exhausted from the last hot summer days and would like to spend a few more weeks relaxed and cooler? Over the years, I have listened to many strategies from friends and colleagues on how they deal with heat in their workplace while summer. This ranged from cold footbaths to vests with integrated cold packs. However, not everyone has the opportunity to unpack these relative big specialties undisturbed and, something like this is always associated with justification. That’s […]
An incredible number of books have been written on this subject: how do you become productive, how to be REALLY productive, how to focus, how to be great at your job, how to stop procrastinating, how do you get rich, how do you become the perfect company. Let me tell you; there is no secret recipe, just good inspiration. The bad news first: you have to overcome yourself to implement your perfect method. What works: routine Routine gives you security. Security […]
Author: Stefan Kohler We know the problem – you want to send a (hopefully) cleanly edited image for printing and look for suitable resharpening methods. So most people open a little sharpen filter and twist the radius until the picture is appropriately sharp. Of course, we know that you have to sharpen more for printing, so it rotates a little further than you would for screen playback. Was everything done right? Probably not. If you deal with images and retouching […]
Author: Stefan Kohler You see them again and again, totally over-sharpened images. Funny Jesus halos were created, hair looks super dry, and somehow everything becomes cheap again. What is sharpness? Sharpness is in contrast. The contrast in the form of differences in brightness at edges and details – but also color contrast or saturation contrast. Yes – even the image content can affect image sharpness. Adobe Photoshop looks for edges when sharpening them and makes them lighter on one side […]
When to use this masking method There are many options for masking objects and models in Adobe Photoshop. If the current methods fail, you have to resort to unknown and creative ways to help yourself. This method is also suitable for more complex objects and hair. The background should be as solid as possible (not white, grey, or black). Method – Step by Step Guide Use the Eyedropper (I) tool to sample a larger area of the background (minimum of […]
“Cherrydeck and MK Retouching invite you.” It all started with this saying. We – Cherrydeck & MK Retouching – held an exclusive meet and greet of the beauty & fashion scene from Munich and the surrounding area on November 23rd, 2019. What was this networking event about? “Find and connect with photographers, videographers and models. We make collaboration between creatives and businesses easier.” – Cherrydeck This is Cherrydeck’s motto. Which fits perfectly with this concept of events. For me they […]
So far, removing dust spots has been one of the first steps in post-production. Previously, there were two ways to do this: While the limited number of 100 points within the Remove Spot option in Capture One 12 was quite unflexible and, of course, limited; Photoshop was more time-consuming but more accurate and flexible in the shape of the correction area. There we used the combination of our Solar Curve (= Dust Spot Finder) and Healing Brush/Spot Healing Brush. Some time passed, […]
Since we were little, we are judged by our zodiac sign or ascendant, pigeonholed by friends, family, or strangers. From time to time, we stumble over various personality tests. And we have to find out our strengths and weaknesses for job interviews. After a specific time, we finally think that we know each other very well or know each other better than anyone else on this planet. No matter how much you may have thought about yourself, this article gives you […]
Facial aging is a dynamic process involving the aging of soft tissue and bony structures. In image editing or retouching, we influence this bone structure and the fall of light on the human face through Dodge&Burn (painting with light and shadow) and Liquify. We must therefore be clear whether we are artificially rejuvenating a model and whether this is intentional or undesirable. We also have to be careful not to mix different signs of age, i.e., to hide some signs […]
Large amounts of data are generated during post-production – previews, composites, layered and non-layered versions, revisions, etc. – also for the client. These files consume storage space and must be backed up. Ultimately, we have to keep an eye on our files and reduce the file size to a minimum – of course, without loss of quality. Minimize RAW files Dotphoton Raw (now Rawsie) offers lossless compression of RAW files with up to 80% file size reduction. Check out their website to […]
There is excellent news for all our German fans! In the course of the last Coronavirus events, we took part in a great tutorial campaign to support other photography artists and recorded a 30-minute retouching video for retouching hair. The tutorial should be available on March 26th up to March 28th 2020. Whole three days! Limited Offer! Click here to get to the shop. We hope we can use it to fill your free time sensibly and hope you have a […]
Dodge & Burn is a subject where opinions differ. There are many ways to make areas in the picture lighter or darker. We quickly discuss the different methods and test them for suitability – there are sky-wide differences. Dodge & Burn Tools (DE: Abwedler & Nachbelichter) Photoshop has always offered two tools for Dodge & Burn. Surely everyone has experienced this situation: take the Dodge tool and painted around in the picture, oops done too much, used the Burn tool to […]
Author: Stefan Kohler Conny Wallström posted a video on YouTube about “Brightness vs. Luminosity inside of Photoshop”. As always, a somewhat more technical topic, but fascinating: It is about the possibilities of transforming an image into its black-and-white representation. Primarily when you use this as a help layer while retouching, you have to be extremely careful — otherwise, you get massive color problems very quickly. Conny shows the different interpretation possibilities in Photoshop: The initial picture: Here we have […]
Author: Stefan Kohler What is the “Solar Curve”? The “Solar Curve” looks like a wave created from the normal linear curve inside of Photoshop. Normally 4 or 6 points are inserted. Mathematically one divides the entire range (0-255) into 5 or 7 parts and sets accordingly the points: 4-point Solar Curve If you want to set 4 new points, simply divide the 255 (maximum) by five and get 51. These points result accordingly: Input / Output 0/0 51/255 101/0 152/255 […]
Author: Stefan Kohler Presumably, each of you knows: You retouched forever on an image, retouched the fingers sore, and if you want to show the final image, quite strange rings in color gradients arise. These rings are called “banding” and are nothing more than tonal value demolitions. Before I explain where these tonal separations come from and how to avoid them, I would like to show you a small example: As you can see in the background, we have — just on […]
“Our language culture is in a rapid transition to a visual culture” (Franke, 1997, quoted in Gläßel, 2010, p. 17). Considering the date of this quote – we actually live in a visual culture. In which way do our brains process (ideal body) images? Which tools and biologically preprogrammed patterns does advertising use to make the images more effective? These questions will be discussed in the following sections. Credibility of images Besides the impressive effect of images, there’s another dimension — […]
Author: Stefan Kohler I recently had an interview on the ethical responsibility of retouching. I found the experience very moving and very thought-provoking. In this article, I would like to write down a few of these thoughts. What we see in advertisements and magazines every day feels like reality to people outside of the retouching industry: Impeccable models, even skin, great characters. If the retouching is carried out correctly, the processing won’t be visible — which creates an own reality. […]
Almost every one of us is seeking a change of one kind or another. Being thinner, firmer, smoother, better trained, or simply a different look — beauty is at its peak. Photographers and retouchers apply this analogously to the digital image: A flawless appearance of the image becomes the goal. The discrepancy between the beauty of the recipient and the medially ideal of advertising is increasingly emphasized by retouching. When does retouching starts? The question of where exactly image manipulation starts […]
MK Retouching investigated different Vogue Paris on retouching lables in 2019 after the first investigation in 2018. Here you can read about the latest developments and possible forecasts. It is recommended to read the general legal context and the first study from 2018 to understand the overall meaning. In the last study, it could be determined that the advertisements do not change depending on the magazine. Therefore, this time only Vogue Paris was chosen as the magazine that had the most retouching […]
Presence of advertising Media are everywhere: They reinforce values, offer models of behavior, shape role models — they make us think about different topics, they evoke emotions, we learn from them, we identify with them. They become co-designers and orientation aids at the same time (Jäckel et al., 2009, pp. 7-8, Gläßel, 2010, p. 13). That does not sound problematic at first. But what if this leads to unconscious processes and influence that we can not escape, that we can not control? […]
MK Retouching investigated popular fashion magazines on retouching labels in research in Paris. These were then sorted and evaluated according to their appearance. To visit Paris is unavoidable, as the access to resources in Germany is very limited. For this purpose, various editions of the following different magazines (french edition) were examined several times. Vogue Paris (No. 981, October 2017) Vogue Paris (No. 982, November 2017) Vogue Paris (No. 983, December 2017) Vogue Paris (No. 984, February 2018) Vogue Paris […]
Background to the adoption of legal measures In France, studies have come to the following conclusion: Worrying developments regarding women, such as the increase in eating disorders, are probably due to the medially widespread and their slimming norms. France sought a way to protect its population from unattainable, unrealistic body images, and to avoid anorexia (anorexia) among adolescents. This resulted in the restrictive decree “2017-738”, which came into force on 1st October 2017. Advertising bans and restrictions But what is […]
Presence of the retouching label in public How to deal with an avoidable retouching label in public? Through a 3-day stay (15.02.2018 – 17.02.2018) for orientation and material procurement in Paris, MK Retouching was able to get an idea of the current distribution of the retouching label “Photographie retouchée” in public places. Overall, it was noticeable that very few advertising posters with a hint of retouching were to be found in the streets of Paris. Even in the expensive department store […]