Creative Retouching
I’m a freelance creative retoucher in London with more than 25 years’ experience. I work with photographers, agencies and brands on projects ranging from refining a single photograph to building a new image from several different sources, depending on the brief.
My role is to take a visual idea and work out how to achieve it — convincingly and practically. I use detailed Photoshop work, image compositing, colour and tonal manipulation, and element creation or reconstruction to combine photography with other visual material. I work primarily in Photoshop, and I bring in Illustrator or Cinema 4D when a project calls for them.
Creative Retouching & Image Compositing
Some creative projects start with a clear visual concept. Others take shape as I work on the images themselves. I’m comfortable following established art direction, while also contributing ideas where the brief leaves room to explore.
Compositing might mean combining photographs, extending or replacing backgrounds, or integrating new elements into a scene. It often means matching lighting and perspective so that separate sources look like they belong together. My aim isn’t just to assemble different elements — it’s to build one coherent image, where the joins are convincing and the visual treatment supports the original idea.
Some projects need a mixture of photographic retouching, image manipulation and more illustrative techniques to work. For the Milwaukee project shown below, I retained the brand’s distinctive red while giving the rest of the image a more monochrome treatment. I added debris, mist and smoke, and built up extra modelling on the main figure to complete the effect.
Building Images from Multiple Sources
Creative retouching often means finding a way to achieve something the original photograph couldn’t capture on its own.
I might source or adapt additional imagery, build new elements in Photoshop, or combine several photographs together. Sometimes the job is simpler than that: shifting the atmosphere or visual emphasis of an existing image. On one project, I integrated studio photography with imagery of animals in their natural environment. When I couldn’t find the right material, I proposed a graffiti-stencilled treatment built from live animal stock photography — a practical solution that still fitted the creative direction.
I’ve also developed more illustrative approaches through self-initiated projects and collaborations with photographers. This gives me a broad range of creative retouching techniques to draw on, while keeping every finished image grounded in the brief.
Creative Retouching Portfolio
A selection of projects showing different approaches to creative retouching, compositing and image manipulation.
View creative retouching and compositing portfolio
Creative Retouching Before & After
A selected before-and-after example showing the original brief, the retouching and compositing work involved, and how I developed the final image.
This image for LEN European Aquatics Championships is a composite of 2 supplied stock images. The images were:
- cut out and colour matched and blended
- the colours of the background were graded to a more stylised aesthetic
- new sky / glare added
- custom brushes used to create the splash and spray around the swimmers
View creative retouching before and after examples
Discuss a Product Retouching Project
I’m available for freelance creative retouching projects from my London studio, working with photographers, agencies and brands. If you have a brief or an image that needs developing, get in touch to discuss the project.
Contact me to discuss a creative retouching project
All images are copyrighted John Deaville / Photofixer.