Photo Magic

Jay Johnson - High school reunions are often glum and wooden affairs. I skipped my 40th reunion, but gave my life update to the reunion organizers so they could put together their booklet for the class.

Imagine my surprise when I connected with Las Vegas based Lorie Zirbes. She and I didn't know each other in high school (Class of 1970, Clinton High School, Clinton, IA), but she contacted me from my profile information.

It turns out that Lorie is a world-class photography retoucher. Go to her website to read all about what she does. Here are some samples of how she can take your photos and turn them into something bright and new - or completely different.

 

Lorie shared this amazing story with Design2Share:

A retired fireman recently moved here to Las Vegas from Chicago, and had a photo of his dad, rescuing another man. His entire family is either firemen or police officers in Chicago. He asked me to color tint the photo according to his instructions, and I took notes on everything - including the glove, which is orange. He said it was his Dad's "signature" glove. This was the original photo - a very dramatic scene. His dad was 6' 5" and the man he's holding weighed 200 pounds.

Then he asked if I would put "angel wings" on his Dad! Putting on "angel wings" presented a problem. Most pictures of angel wings are on sculptures, paintings, or the fake feathers that they use on children. I finally found some, and then sort of faded them into the background. The original didn't have enough on top, so I had to add more background. There was a hint of smoke, but very little, so I also added smoke from three different images, plus the wings. It was a challenge, but fun to do.

He was crazy about this retouched photo and he ordered a 24 x 30 print. After he saw the finished picture, he went to his back porch to smoke a cigerette. He was thinking to himself, "hope you like the picture, Dad." All of a sudden, he looked down and there was a large white feather in front of him. He said that he had never seen any big white feathers around his house before. Don't suppose it was a piece of "angel wing" do you?

Visit the Retouching by Lorie website to create your own piece of photo magic.