Freelance Retouching (by John Ross)

Starting Out As A Freelance Retoucher.

http://retouchingacademy.com/starting-out-as-a-freelance-retoucher/

(I was looking about steps for becoming a retouch as I enjoy working in Photoshop, this article by John Ross, I found informative and good advise so I'm going to pull some quotes from it)

"If you don’t have any prior experience as a retoucher, it would be very helpful to start as an intern. The importance of this, is that you get to learn about diverse aspects of this craft, while still being guided and supervised by more experienced professionals."

This seems to be a quicker and easier to get experience as a retoucher and to see the level I need to get to and get assistance to get there. This would also allow me to see client interaction, still feel I need to develop a little more before I look at doing this but its just making sure I now the basics at least.

"Don’t forget to improve your skills by practising complex retouching at home. Personal work is very beneficial to your growth because you can explore your talents, strengths, and preferences, without any limitations."

I watch and learn various retouching at home at the moment but I think I need to filter what I'm doing have a structure of what I'm learning so I cover most important things with the best understanding.

"In this day and age, one of the best ways to get your work in front of your potential employers is setting up a website and posting some of your best work on it."

I have a website (that needs to be sorted as I removed all the work as I hated it) I never thought of having a section on there focused on my retouching skills, this is something I should have.

"After creating an attractive online portfolio, you can begin researching local photographers in your area."

I could offer my skills to my peers at uni as It will allow me to start a client base with the future photographers, that I have a personal contact with. Also my tutors could pass around to MA Students that I'm for higher.

"It is apparent that getting hired as a retoucher depends on how you promote yourself and your work."

I need to be active at promoting myself though social media, though Facebook Twitter, Instagram 500px etc.

"But if you are just starting out and don’t even have good work to display in your portfolio, try bidding for jobs on various freelance websites such as Odesk or eLance (update May 2015: these two services have merged into Upwork.com). If you are interested in getting hired to gain more retouching experience on such websites, you can bid for published projects at lower rates and you will eventually get hired."

The website mentioned above seems so helpful in getting work, I sent the site to my friend who just graduated graphics as there is a lot of logo design in the site and any work is better that none when starting out, I saw a professional fashion retouch job for $300 so I need to explore what is the cost for retouching.

Useful Websites

-https://www.udemy.com/

-https://www.upwork.com/