As I have mentioned before, not only do I retouch photos, I am also a photographer. I recently had a great photography assignment in London to shoot a product library of antiques. photographywebsitedesign.co.uk is my photography website just in case you are interested.
I was first contacted by RedMile London around 2 years ago to retouch some of their product photos. They are a bespoke antique dealer based on the Kings Road in Chelsea. The photos were of “a non professional standard” and needed a fair bit of retouching to get them presentable. Jason, the director explained to me that like many businesses that have a large amount of stock, he had purchased a digital camera with the aim of using it to catalog his stock. He also admitted that he had very limited photographic knowledge, hence the quality of the images.
Whenever he sent me photos to retouch and mask, I noticed unlike many clients, he had a real interest in understanding photography. I started offering tips on how he could improve his photography. I know that this could be seen as short sighted on my side, and there was a chance I could lose him as a client. But at the same time I firmly believe that knowledge and experience should be shared.
Photographing antiques in London
It was really great to see how the photographs that he sent me, were steadily improving in quality, with way less colour correction and exposure correction needed.
A great photography assignment
It was a pleasant surprise when Jason called and invited me to come to London to photograph his stock. His company was upgrading their website and wanted the best possible photos taken for them. We agreed that with the regular turnover of his stock, it was economically unviable for him to continuously hire a professional photographer – this could turn out to be quite costly, and my trip to London would not only be to shoot his antiques, but to teach him the finer points of stock photography.
It was a gruelling 2 day shoot, we literally went through all of the shop, photographing every item on sale. Let me tell you there were some really heavy pieces, that we had to carefully move and set up for a decent photo. The new website is now ready, and recently I received another batch of photos to mask out. What gives me the most satisfaction is that the quality of his images are now really great!
Antique chandelier that needed added to the catalogue
As it turns out I still regularly retouch his photos, so the idea of losing a client if you empower them with photographic skills is quite often untrue. Three of my best photo retouching clients are photographers. Whenever they contact me to send me photos to edit we end up chatting about all things photographic, including tips on how to improve photography and other secrets. A photo retoucher has a unique perspective on the photos, and I am happy to share this with my clients.
feel free to contact me if you have any photographic or retouching enquiries
