Wamsutta Product and Beauty Retouching

I was recently approached by Wray Ward to retouch several images for a new Wamsutta campaign and have enjoyed working on them immensely.  Wamsutta is an internationally recognized name for producing soft and vibrantly colored bedding. My primary goal was to ensure that the viewer wants nothing more than to get lost in the softness of the fabric and to explore every delicate texture. It helps to start out with wonderfully captured images and the lighting and feel of these are superb.

High End Female Beauty Photo Retouching

I love retouching all kinds of people, leaving them with perfect skin and features, yet perfectly real. I utilize a number of different techniques depending on the scope of a project.  My favorite method by far is a pixel by pixel approach known as "dodge and burn". This helps me render skin and hair that is without flaw, yet believably so. It is a time intensive process, but is by far the most widely agreed upon method used in most high end fashion magazines like Marie Claire, and Vogue. There are many different attitudes regarding the perception of beauty, but it's importance to the fashion industry can not be understated. When we open a magazine it is thick with lush and vibrant images which attempt to identify with us on a number of levels. Whether these campaigns speak to the fashion savvy or the health conscious, every one of them shows us an image of a beautiful and confident person in some form or another and that person needs to look flawless.

The goal of any retoucher when altering an image is make adjustments to whatever extent the client requires and to get out without leaving a single trace. We may balance the symmetry of a body or even reshape a face, but none of these changes can look unnatural. It is important to me on every image that I stay true to each individual and to do them justice.

Team Building Photo Manipulation

This is a composite photo manipulation of several photographs taken by  Mike Carroll Photography for a national client. The players were captured in three groups in the studio, while the tunnel was photographed on location. And what could be more believable than recruiting an actual football team? That's just what Mike did. The client's concept was to represent an intense sense of camaraderie and determination for a team building campaign. These team members are ready to exit onto the field and conquer the task at hand. My job is to work with photographers and art directors to interpret their concepts into a strong image that reads well and get's the point across. Communication with the client, transparency, and dedication to each and every image is what HeavyTheory is all about.

Cinematic Male Model Photo Retouch

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Sometimes even a casual photograph can become something emotive and expressive.  I took this image of my close friend Ryan while on a trip to Atlanta. We were exploring the Candler Estate - home of one of the more eccentric progeny of the Coca Cola dynasty who at one point owned a private zoo complete with a menagerie of exotic birds, a Bengal tiger and even four full grown elephants ironically named Coca, Cola, Refreshing, and Delicious! With the light at this point in the afternoon being soft open shade, I fired off a single exposure of Ryan.  I had a good feeling about it and when I got home I set about to bring something else to it visually. He has spent most of his life traveling the country, constantly on the move. He has seen a parts of America that most common citizens like you and I don't care to, or don't have the time to see.  I wanted to let these experiences show in his face, in his eyes.  This is how I see my friend, with a quiet and honest reserve.

At HeavyTheory I work with clients to bring something rare and defining to their imagery.  My job is to go beyond what a digital sensor or a silver halide negative can capture, and to show something that we can all feel, the reason we capture these images in the first place.