Why Shoot Retouch Design?

Many people have asked and commented on the choice for the business name.

Shoot Retouch Design was named after 3 passions and 3 crafts.

I love to photograph, I love to retouch and I love to design.....and the name just came from that.

While it may not be the most romantic business name, especially in the Wedding Business, it is a descriptive name to the process of digital wedding photography.

On the topic with the videos posted below, this leads me to my latest blog entry: Retouching!!

Retouching here at Shoot Retouch Design has several meanings. The most important one being that we process the image our way! A digital darkroom, just like we do with film, we can expose a fstop under or over, or dodge and burn here and there, change color tones, add contrast, blow out highlights, etc. Photography is art....the negative simply a blue print that we then take into the dark room and process to reflect our style and as our art.

While our photographic eye, our composition and the way we see the world through our lenses is key, taking the image to the next level is a crucial part of the process.

Take 10 photographers to the same location with the same tools and you will get 10 very different images, give 10 professional retoucher's the same image and you will get 10 completely different outcomes. Photography is perception like any other art form but so is retouching, and two very different skill sets along with design, which I will talk about in a later blog.

When choosing a wedding photographer, it can some what TMI when understanding the latest terms and processing wording. Questions to always keep in mind in terms of looking at images are quality over quantity. Be sure to see a full wedding coverage, see a retouched print. Do you like the way they have processed the image? Is it to your taste? Do they do all the retouching and processing themselves? do they have a lab do it? Is there consistency?

While the term 'retouching' can and is related to the airbrushed models and celebs we see in the mags, it really is a universal term and like art perceived in many ways.

I enjoy the whole process from start to finish. From creating the blue print, to retouching and then design so you can be rest assured your final album and prints will be true art.



This was a beautiful autumn wedding and I wanted to enhance those beautiful colors to compliment the Brides georgeous red hair and really make this image POP with vibrant colors.



Whoops, we were so excited at this location, we left a camera in the frame....so that had to be removed, then some nice retouching was done with the dress and the flowers to make this dreamy romantic image.



This image needed little retouching, I turned it to black and white and diffused the window light to give this bridal portrait a very romantic classic look.



This is one of Jakes Masters Program Projects, and I love to retouch so I played around with this image to give it that colonial tattered vintage feel as if they were found relics.




This is a personal project of mine that I am working on right now, as you might have read the story posted previously. I am doing a past to present series inspired my childhood family polaroids shot by my parents. I thought I would post the before and after. I really wanted to capture the saturated aged feel that certain polaroid film gives