Diego Angarita co-founded Freelance Retoucher Ltd in 2012. His passion for working directly with photographers and ad agencies in the creative process to produce stunning pieces of imagery for commercial usage. Based in the UK, the high-end creative retoucher has had experience working in advertising, providing post-production services worldwide for clients in the TV, music, fashion and advertising industries. I asked Diego for a moment of his time to share his journey as a freelance retoucher and the processes that he undergoes when he is working on a project.
Diego actually started in the industry as a photographer, he explained, “My background is in photography. I landed in this exciting career by accident and am very glad I did. It all started 9 years ago as a photographer in a studio where I began editing and retouching my own images. I then realised that this was the part I enjoyed most and immersed myself completely to learn all aspects of photo retouching. I then did freelancing for various ad agencies around London and worked for a few years in a top London post-production house where I was exposed to advertising. Since then I have co-founded my own post-production studio, Freelance Retoucher Ltd, and have been working with some great photographers and ad agencies around the world.”
From the awe inspiring images that he continues to produce as a profession, one wonders where Diego’s ideas for his images comes from and how he starts his creative process, he expressed that “I’m very inspired by classic films such as Schindler’s List and The Pianist, and modern films like Sin City, The Matrix, Oblivion, Elysium and Cloud Atlas, etc. I also take inspiration from classic painters and love Rembrandt and his use of interacting shadows and light called chiaroscuro. I follow photographers online and blogs to see what the latest trends are and keep in touch with people and network. Usually the ideas come from a brief with references, sketches and mock-ups followed by a creative call with the agency or photographer along with research on the client to get a feel of the look of their brand. Keeping in close contact with the client is important to ensure you don’t take the image far [from the brief].”
When talking about his approach to retouching, Diego voiced that “I think it is probably about pushing the boundaries of an image to create from a realistic image, a unreal scenario achieved by not being afraid to take the risk in doing something different. I feel that this approach allows us to create beautiful pieces that evoke emotions in our artwork for the ad campaign.”
In regards to future plans, Diego mentions that “We are just setting up a blog right now that will contain a lot of industry info and nice articles. We are planning some very exciting things this year so if you are interested then please subscribe to the newsletter on our website”.
To find out more about Diego Angarita and his work here at www.freelanceretoucher.co.uk
Works from Freelance Retoucher has been published on Behance so feel free to check it out.
To contact Diego, details are on the contact page on the website or feel free to get on the phone to his business partner Alex who is always happy to help and have a chat.
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