Creative retouching since 1988

Hi, my name's Nicola Marshall and I've been a professional retoucher at the highest level since the days of hand retouching, using dyes and brushes on film.
It wasn't so easy to do back then and I can't remember how some things were even possible. But we did it.

In the intervening 20 years I've progressed through a succession of digital tools to do the job but the level of work has remained the same. From Barco Creator to Adobe Photoshop, the days of being one of the few high end retouchers in the world are over. There's many a retoucher out there now, but few - like me -who have worked consistently at this level.

So what's this ' high end' you keep hearing about? I've worked with major advertising agencies such as Saatchi's, Dorlands, Publicis, CDP, Y&R  since the early days of digital retouching - they were the only ones who could afford it at that time.

When Photoshop exploded onto the market, retouching became the domain of fashion photographers and everyone wanted to use good retouchers.
The best were sought out by the best. I've worked with fashion photographers Rankin (for years!), Phil Poynter, David Sims, Norbert Schoerner, Dan Jackson, Bryan Adams, Michael Woolley, Toby McFarlan Pond and many more.

Who have I retouched? Just about every celebrity that Rankin photographed and that's like half the world, a zillion top models and even the Queen!

The quotes to me from people I've worked with - at the top of the page - show the restraint that is required of top retouchers today. That's how I work, thanks to those guys.