PHOTO RETOUCHING IS NO LONGER OPTIONAL


Victoria Pressly, CEO of HYPE Public Relations, LLC represents actors, models, and celebrities. She has booked her clients in major magazines like Playboy, Maxim, Esquire, and GQ and knows that one photo can be the difference between her clients being featured or not. Before she became a publicist, Victoria owned a modeling agency in NYC during the 1990s and she says back then photos weren’t often retouched. Rather, it was the artistic skill and hard work of the photographer and makeup artist to get the best image.

“Now all the top photographers are retouching, and if they don’t, flaws will be more noticeable than they used to be because the standards have changed. In other words, there’s a new normal, and it is very unforgiving,” says Victoria.

Until recently, new photo shoots and professional photo editing were part of the routine for Victoria’s startup clients. This can be a time consuming and expensive process. In addition, many of her clients have non-studio pictures from events and these could usually use a bit of retouching as well before they are pitched to the press.

Victoria and many of her clients have begun to take advantage a new photo editing site called www.touchmeup.com and have realized a huge savings of time and cost. The company was founded by cDs GLOBAL, the leading technology provider in the model and talent industry. It has a global presence with offices in Paris, New York and Cape Town, and actively manages over 30,000,000 images of the world’s leading models.

There are plenty of other photo editing apps and Touchmeup also provides users an i-phone photo editing app to access the service, but the key for Victoria was that the work is done by real professionals from the modeling industry. In just 24 hours, she can describe what needs to be done, get three rounds of edits, and get the image just right for $10 to $17, depending on the type of work needed.

“The impact of this service on my ability to better serve my clients was huge”.

Victoria’s acting clients use the service for new headshots, her professional clients for profile pictures, and even her friends for online dating. In other words, anyone is now able to have their photos retouched by top people in the modeling industry at an affordable cost.

According to Victoria, “Retouching is no longer optional because regardless of whether they should or not, people are going to make judgments based on your photos. A small tweak here or smooth there can be the difference between a YES or a NO, whether it’s for a job, a dating site or anywhere that a first impression means everything”