Photography assignment Joshua Ellis
Photographing and retouching photos for a UK based manufacturer of cashmere. As I have mentioned before, I am not only a photo retoucher, but I am also a photographer and also a video producer. Recently I got to use all three of these services in one project. I was contracted to go to Yorkshire to photograph. Retouch the photos and create and edit a video for Joshua Ellis. A bespoke manufacturer of top quality cashmere clothing. Renowed the world over for producing the finest handcrafted cashmere and woollen fabrics. Joshua Ellis fabrics and accessories are sought after by luxury fashion houses. Exported from the Yorkshire mill to over 23 different countries.
Photographing and retouching photos
Of course I jumped at the offer, the first part of the project was to spend a morning at the factory. To photograph the machines, workers and the space for the new website which was being designed. After a meeting with the marketing department. I had enough information about the type of photographs they wanted. and how I should go about retouching them to create a unique style for Joshua Ellis.
A close up of the Joshua Ellis loom
They were celebrating 250 years of manufacturing. The retouched “look” they were after was “traditional, heritage and classic”. Once the photographs were taken, I went ahead with the retouching. I was fortunate enough to have stored and created specific actions in Photoshop. So rather than retouch all the photos, adding layers and masks etc. What I did was record an action (process) and then apply it to all the images. This retouching action saved me a huge amount of time. I was able to deliver the final retouches in a fraction of the time.
capturing the hands at work on the loom
If you are interested in creating your own actions in Photoshop. There are many videos and tutorials online, I will create a post soon covering this.
Upon completion I sent the final print and web optimised version to the client. I was pleased to hear they were over the moon with the final retouched photos and no changes were needed!
photographing details for the website
