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My perfect portable setup for the traveling retoucher or photographer

Technology has really evolved in a way that has made it possible for people to work more efficiently on the go. I used to remember when laptops were barely able to keep up with Photoshop and working on the road was a huge pain. Now it’s changed drastically!

I am a working and traveling retoucher, photographer, and co-founder of Infinite Tools. This year alone I’ve had the pleasure of traveling and working in places like Cape Town, Iceland, and Namibia! Whether it’s going abroad or locally, I always need to be able to retouch client work and I wanted a setup that could adapt to home and travel life. After all, sometimes I am only home for a bit and even when I’m home, I like to work in different locations to change things up.

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Infinite Tools launches new Guide Plugin to help you learn retouching

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It seems like there is no end to the creation of useful post-production panels being invented by Pratik Naik and his Infinite Tools team. It could be called Infinite Ideas no less!

The latest addition to the suite of tools available for photographers and retouchers is their Infinite Guide Plugin, which is aimed towards people relatively new to retouching.

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The skin is the star in these make-up free beauty portraits by Pratik Naik

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The name Pratik Naik is probably already familiar with you. He’s become a bit of a household name for image retouching and if you haven’t heard of his Infinite tools and Photoshop plug-ins yet I am going to assume that you either shoot film with a vintage camera and develop it yourself, or live under a rock somewhere off-grid. What you probably don’t know Pratik for, however, is his photography.

But he is in fact (kind of annoyingly) a very accomplished photographer with an artist’s eye. He let DIYP take a look at one of his latest personal projects that combine his love of black and white portraiture with retouching in his project titled ‘Fresh Faced Beauty’.

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This comprehensive tutorial guides you through all the secrets of advanced hair retouching

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Retouching hair in Photoshop requires a lot of patience and skill. Thankfully, there are amazing tutorials out there to help you master it, and this one comes from Pratik Naik. In his latest video, he’ll guide you through his hair retouching process and show you all the tips, tricks and secrets to help you nail it.

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10 essential pieces of gear for the traveling retoucher

As a retoucher, I travel quite frequently for workshops or events I put on, and there are a few things I consider essentials in my bag. And not surprisingly, people are always curious to see what other people travel with!

My kit always keeps updating based on what I see other people do, or as I find out about better options that are required for each job. I figure this may be of interest to you. If you have any essentials of your own, I’d love to read your comments and see what you take with you too.

Here’s an example of what’s currently in my travel kit. This does not include the obvious like passports, currency, credit card, etc.

I’m going to be doing a creative retreat in Croatia at the end of May (which I’d love for you to be a part of) and this is what I’ll be taking with me, among many other items that change based on the location at hand!

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Retouching Toolkit 3.0 initial review – it kicks butt

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When Conny told me about the brand new Retouching Toolkit 3.0, it almost felt too good to be true. Can you imagine having a more modular version of Photoshop? I wish it was like this out of the box. Since it isn’t, Conny had to go and make it and thank goodness he did.

It’s a software that allows you to make your own modular panels so that they can be used in Photoshop! It allows you to modify and combine your favorite actions, scripts, PS tools, shortcuts, and menu options in any way that is best for your own workflow. It’s future proof as it will begin to include future modules, updates, and it already has the ability to save and share setups from other users. So now you can combine different tools for different jobs in the most concise way possible. That is the premise of the new Retouching Toolkit.

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Your self-doubt might be coming from imposter syndrome

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I don’t deserve to be writing this because there are more capable people who can speak more eloquently than I can that can deliver this message to you.

This is exact thought that went through my head as I was writing this blog post because I’m not the best writer. It took 10 minutes just to figure out to start and I often make mistakes even after proofreading. I try twice as hard to convey my thoughts, so why should you be reading this?

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GQ brings the humor with their “botched” Comedy Issue cover

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Is it April Fool’s day yet? Because GQ just won next year’s contest (if there was one).

In jest of all the botched jobs on other magazine covers, they decided to release this cover for the Comedy Issue with the best/worst issues! How many can you spot? I swear, I am now tempted to make one just for fun!

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What is that purple line on your Photoshop Brush tool, and how to turn it off

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If you just updated to Photoshop CC 2018, you may have noticed a small purple line that follows your brush around, and until you figure what it is, you may be frustrated by it. Retoucher Pratik Naik put out a great video explaining exactly what this purple line is.

Turns out this purple line is an indication of a feature called smoothing that is turned on. Smoothing makes your brush strokes… well…. smoother.

There are quite a bit of options on that tool and the video does a great job of breaking them down.

[What Is That Purple Line On My Brush Tool In Photoshop CC2018? | Pratik Naik]

How to edit video in Photoshop in 7 easy steps

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I make a lot of screen recordings that I need to edit quickly. With someone who doesn’t have a lot of video experience, I did my best to learn the basics of Premiere. Being that it was a foreign program, there wasn’t much familiarity. About the same time, I came across this video from Scott Kelby that showed me it was possible to edit video in Photoshop. It has most of the basic tools you’d need, and you use adjustment layers for grading!

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