Shoot Digital 23 E. Fourth St. New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 353-3330 Fax: (212) 353-9051 www.shootdigital.com	HOURLY RATES: $300/hr. PRIMARY EQUIPMENT: Mac studio; two drum scanners and two flatbed scanners; Adobe Photoshop; Kodak Approval for output SPEED OF TURNAROUND: Depends on complexity of work—one day to ten days.	CONTACT FOR RETOUCHING SERVICES: Randi Coran, general manager, randi@shootdigital.com OTHER PRINCIPALS: Mark Boyer, partner, mark@shootdigital.com Oren Glick, partner Matthew Supple, head of retouching

SHOOT DIGITAL

Shoot Digital’s retouching team specializes in advertising with a strong focus on fashion and beauty. Clients/projects include Versace, TBWA\Chiat\Day, Absolut, Air France, Oil of Olay, Saatchi & Saatchi and Ann Taylor. Partner Mark Boyer says the overall esthetic of the shop is oriented toward “preserving the organic quality of the photograph. Many of our retouchers come from a hand-retouching background, so they understand the craft from its roots. We believe almost anything can be done and will work with art directors and photographers to get there.”

One project that exhibits the depth of the studio’s digital services is the Eluxury.com Web site and print catalogues, produced for LVMH and AR Media. Shoot Digital handles both the retouching and the digital photography technical oversight for Eluxury, which sells the LVMH brands Dior, Celine, DKNY, Fendi, Bulgari and more. Both the Web site and the print catalogues are produced digitally, overseen by AR Media creative director Alex Gonzales.

Shoot Digital’s contribution begins during production: the studio provides the medium-format digital backs and computer workstations and oversees the digital capture during the shoot. Boyer says retouching markups begin immediately on set, starting with a first-round markup and any notations where multiple digital captures are to be composited for a final. Boyer explains, “Typically, the retouching we do on this job is classic fashion retouching: making skin perfect, taking wrinkles out of clothes, occasionally swapping a head or an arm or a leg and generally making things look perfect.”

The high-res files then go directly to workstations, where the retouchers do a first round based on the markups. In the case of files for the Web, the art directors see rounds for markup only on screen. For the print catalogue, images are output on Kodak Approval and sent to the agency for markups. The Web work is staged directly to the LVMH in-house production department, while the images for the print catalogue go to the agency where they are combined with the Quark files and sent to the printers.

“This project illustrates several of our capabilities,” Boyer says. “It is very high quality for very particular clients. The deadlines tend to be quite tight, and we are able to put six or seven retouchers on the project simultaneously, all under the creative oversight of our lead retoucher, giving a consistent direction and feel to all the work.”


Image © Absolut