Retouching and compositing have always been something we love to do at James Nader. I have done most of it and will keep on with the compositing work but finally, I have to hold up my hat and hand over skin and beauty retouching to some new recruits.
I have retouched skin for many years now but realised at some point in time you have to delegate and move on, After my trip to Europe and shooting for Lambertz the final images had taken its toll on the eyesight and realised that I am better at shooting and wanted to shoot more so.
Over the coming weeks, I will be adding in some real value for people who either watch my youtube or view the blog.
I will be giving away ideas and techniques which allow for a good retouch in a non-destructive way.
What are the best ways to retouch?
How to find the best imager to retouch?
Workflow for retouching?
I have just been supplied with a Ring Flash and some new LED lights to play around with, this shoot was created using those lights. Having never shot with Ring Flash before I was more than happy with the stark Paparazzi washed outlook with the added benefit of a slight shadow to the wall.
I personally love to shoot with film lighting and would choose it over flash if the exposures can be controlled well without fast action, However recently I added a range of different sized LED lights which I now shoot with. I can use gels and grids to control these and mix this with a Tronix battery to power 2 lights then you have a nice little set of very portable but powerful lights. Back these up with a few smaller handheld devices and you can create some super looks. The shot below was lit entirely with a small handheld LED with 160 small bulbs and mixed with a slightly timed exposure and higher iso this effect is easily achievable. the good thing is which LED as with film lighting you can actually see what you are getting through the lens on the fly and helps shoot quickly.
