Long before any thought of becoming a newborn photographer I dreamed of being a pro-retoucher. Is it strange that I even remember the first photo I retouched? It was animate of this boy who had a few moles/beauty marks on his face and I used paint (yeah, thats right paint!) to get rid of them. I zoomed into the pixel level and would paint the skin in the surrounding color patterns. I was absolutely hooked. Then in high school when I found photoshop a love affair began. I took every digital manipulation class I could get my hands on in college. Its funny I actually barely passed my first photoshop class because I was so bored I never went. I couldn’t believe we spent a whole day just learning how to make a circle selection. Oh the silly things we do in college 😉 And I think of how one teacher actually taught us how to “blur” skin to retouch it. When I think of all the horrible photoshop sins we have committed it makes me cringe, lol. But, its like anything else-you learn though trial and error. 

I think it was about a year and a half to two years ago I really started applying myself to retouching. I joined all the forums. Spent hour watching tutorials. And while its not something I do professionally, it has helped me so much and really made me a better photographer.

I thought I’d give people a little sneak peak of a before and after image. The one on the RIGHT is SOOC (straight out of camera), and the one on the LEFT is after editing. 

If you want a look at more of my retouching work here is the link to my portfolio website. 
http://www.brendenmurphy.com/retouching.html