Interview with Photo-retoucher Neil Rhodes

I was lucky enough to get an interview with the Neil Rhodes of thephotoretoucher.co.uk! Neil has been exploring photoshop for the last 17yrs and has run a menagerie of photo-retouching businesses varying from wedding to commercial. So check out the interview below and I hope you guys like it!

K: How did you get into photo retouching?

N: Marketed myself on the internet, spent a while trying to get to the first page on Google for “Photo Retouching” Not everyone lives in London!

K: Can you briefly describe your process?

N: Each image has its own process. If it were a model retouch : 

-Remove blemishes, wrinkles, veins 

-Attention to hair , fly away hair, kinks, etc. Then cellulite or odd shadows 

-Then shaping and skin soothing using frequency separation techniques, coarse, medium, small 

-Eyes + Eye sharpening 

-Lips 

-Colour tone contrast, shaping with shadow and D+B or adjustment layers 

-Sharpen 

-Check comp.

K: What is your favourite genre of photography to retouch?

N: Wedding & fashion.

K: What is your favourite piece of work you have done and why?

N: Honestly I’ve never considered I had a favourite.

K: What new skill would you love to learn to improve your work?

N: 3D, so objects can be integrated into the composite work.

K: What have been the highlights of your career so far?

N: Getting the gig or first job and realizing that I had the skills to make the industry.

K: What has been your biggest mistake?

N: Not going straight into work experience with a Oceanic Videographer when I was 19, I could be in the Bahamas right now!

Not having enough RAM or good enough machine to cope with a job where files exceeded 3 GB in size! Always save a layered .psd

K: What do you believe is the future of retouching?

N: More and more work ending up being done by our Eastern cousins or farmed out overseas.

K: Do you have a favourite saying or mantra to keep you going?

N: “A new image, a new story, a new day.”

Thanks again Neil Rhodes for the time you took out of your busy schedule to answer my questions, I really appreciate it!