Pratik Naik is a high end retoucher based out of the United States, specializing in commercial and editorial work.

With 10 years experience working with top professional photographers, he aims to create images as perfect as possible while adhering to the vision of the photographer.

Influenced through his training in fine art, Naik’s belief in retouching is based on simplicity and efficiency. The end goal is to keep the images as natural as possible while still being perfect in the eyes of the photographer.

Aside from working in the field, Naik enjoys teaching. Many people want to know the essentials of retouching in a way that is easily understood. “There is no greater joy than being able to show someone what they want to know,” says Naik. 

Owner of Solstice Retouch, Naik is also the founder of “Infinite Color” the Photoshop color grading extension, along with another line of other Infinite tools.


Visit: Solstice Retouch

Presentation: The World Of High End Retouching


This sneak peek into the world of high-end retouching will show you how to edit your own work, as well as best practices when working with a professional retoucher. While Pratik Naik’s expertise is fashion and beauty retouching, the presentation will include many tips that can be transferred to any genre of photography and Pratik will be sure to accommodate for the diversity of the crowd. 

During the presentation, we will take a look at retouching from a professional retoucher’s point of view: we’ll discuss the history and ethics of retouching, considerations to help make retouching your own work easier, and the best way to set up your workflow when working with a professional retoucher. 

Using both landscape and fashion images, we’ll consider what adjustments and tools can be used on RAW files to create a solid base before taking them into Photoshop. Once that preparation is complete we’ll move into Photoshop for more in depth work.

Pratik will demonstrate a traditional workflow in Photoshop using portrait images. The first step is to set a game plan for portrait retouching:  note aspects to consider before attempting to edit photographs, discuss layer structure, and then go through each layer step by step highlighting which tools they are best paired which layers to produce a pleasing result.

In the end you will come away with a better understanding of the world of retouching, the retouching tools that could benefit photographers, how to improve your own retouching workflow, and how to set yourself up for success when working with a professional retoucher.