Scrubbing the House

I remember once hearing a big name photo-retoucher say that working on skin - specifically creating that perfect, porcelain look of high-fashion magazines - is like scrubbing a house from top to bottom with a tooth brush.

Oh, how true that is.

Even when your model has beautiful skin, like Amy (pictured here wearing earrings and necklace by Birna Jewelry), it can still take hours of pixel by pixel work to give it the high-polish feel so necessary in jewelry advertising. Every pore, every freckle, every loose strand of hair gets digitally erased, touched-up, re-imagined until it's perfect.

After staring at a 200% close-up for hours on end, I often find myself loosing track of what I'm even working on. Is that a mole, or an eyelash? Is that her nose, or elbow? I have no idea, but I love the way it looks!

Time to grab my toothbrush, I still have 15 images to correct.