DIGITAL SEPARATION!

Thanks to digital I don't have to file my slides in shoe boxes - do you remember this?  If I have a dime for every gigabyte of storage I have, I would be rich!  If you have ever assisted in a shoot as a Digital Artist or Tech, then you know how necessary and valuable you and your skills are now.

It seems as though in a number of circles, retouchers are playing more than a technical function in the workflow.  Now there even are hints of a Digital Asset Management role in addition to retouching.  Now admittedly this is not the case for all photography, but where it is, it is growing.

It is difficult to imagine someone trying to master the photography, asset management and retouching let alone the printing.  I think photographers now are more savvy and involved in making the image front to back, but are also realizing that in order to stay behind the camera they need someone to rely on in front of the computer.  I for one am all for these creative partnerships and think the future image makers will need to embrace this more and more.  The vision can still be the photographers and the execution can be the digital artists, but as a creative as well,  I think the retouchers of the world have a whole lot to offer and can take some photography to new heights.