Blog - Julia Kuzmenko McKim

Becoming a Successful Beauty Model

“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.”

– William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, dramatist and writer (1865-1939)

As a beauty photographer for over a decade, I’ve had the privilege of working with countless models from all over the world, each bringing their own unique essence to the shoot.

However, every so often, someone stands out not just for her photogenic beauty, but for remarkable professionalism and eagerness to contribute positively to every aspect of the creative process. Even if that means getting out of her way to do things that other models aren’t willing to do.

One such model is Jessica Cook, whose proactive approach and dedication to her craft inspired me to hound her until she agreed to share her outlook on the profession with me and those who read my scribbles.

Get The Best Out of Your Raw Files Before Retouching

As a professional photographer, I am sure you only shoot in Raw format. But do you pull all of the good color and luminosity data out of your Raw files before taking them to Photoshop for retouching?

Today, I want to share with you how I prepare my Raw files for retouching. I believe this is a very important step in retouching workflow, but from my observations over the years, very few photographers and retouchers do this.

While you may not need to do this with every image, it is an extremely helpful method to know so you can always salvage a shot that was not captured perfectly.

10 Retouching Skills Guaranteed To Upgrade Your Portfolio

Most of the popular photography genres involve human faces as the focal point – from portraits to weddings, to fashion and beauty photography.

This emphasis on faces makes skin and hair retouching skills some of the most impactful tools for freelancers in the industry.

While in the past decade we have seen a significant rise in especially natural and authentic styles in both photography and retouching, any experienced retoucher will agree that the polished, yet natural retouch requires more skill, than the simple “skin smoothing plow” approach.

Career Opportunities for Retouchers

This is an excerpt from the Professional Beauty Retouching course I created along with the Retouching Academy team.

Photo Retouching is a potent skill for all content creators. Retouching tools, emerging phone apps, and shortcut retouching software are very helpful for artists who only use retouching to supplement their main services such as photographers, makeup artists, graphic designers, social media managers, and so on.

However, for freelancers who offer retouching as their principal service, an additional understanding of career opportunities, tools, techniques, and business practices is necessary.

If you are interested in a professional retouching career, particularly serving commercial higher-paying clients, or if you are a photographer who provides retouching services to clients as well — this article is for you.

8 Qualities of My Ideal Makeup Artist

After a decade in the beauty industry as a photographer and retoucher, 90% of my body of work is created with a handful of makeup artists I consider my ‘core team’.

With these creative professionals, I’ve done my best portfolio work as well as completed the largest and most complex commercial projects.

They are the artists with whom I experimented and learned the most, fine-tuning all aspects of my skills both in photography and retouching along the way.

While clear communication with everyone on set is necessary, nothing compares to the level of understanding between you and your makeup artist.

The Most Powerful Way To Sustainable Freelance Business

The freelance market is booming and is expected to double in size in the next decade. This is a golden opportunity for those who desire to break free from traditional employment and build a sustainable freelance business.

While a freelance arrangement might lack the financial security of full- or part-time employment, freelance workers don’t have to earn less than their traditionally employed counterparts. In fact, according to Upwork’s data on freelancers, 44% of freelancers made more money than they did when employed at a traditional job. Additionally, the 2022 Payoneer global freelancer income report revealed a significant increase in the global hourly freelancing rate from $21 in 2020 to $28 in 2022.
Business News Daily, In Most Countries, Freelancers Earn More Than Average Workers

Basics of AI, LLMs, GPTs and Generative AI for Freelancers

Several friends and colleagues have privately asked me if the MIT “Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation” course was worth taking (it is quite expensive and intense) after I shared my certificate of successful completion. My answer is that it was definitely worth it for me in my quest to find the most impactful use of Generative AI for freelancers beyond image and video generation, though perhaps not as much as for many of my classmates who hold CIO or other digital transformation roles in companies across various industries worldwide.

Additional great benefit for me was reading submitted forum assignments and peeking into AI use cases for all sorts of purposes in business and education.

While the course covered a lot of ground that wasn’t directly relevant to my professional or personal goals, it did provide me with a strong foundation for what my intentions are, allowing me to continue confidently exploring how we, freelancers in visual content creation, can use AI capabilities and emerging tools to supercharge personal and professional growth, as well as take our freelance business to the next level.

If you’re curious about how Generative AI can benefit your business and professional development, let’s start with the basics today and explore its full potential together going forward.

Generative AI: New Professional Trajectory for Freelancers

I won’t be breaking any news by stating that the world of freelancing is on the cusp of a revolution, driven by the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Generative AI.

Based on my behind-the-scenes conversations with other creative professionals in the field of visual arts, I conclude that most of us have experienced similar reactions to the emergence of generative AI.

Dissecting My Skill Development In Beauty Photography & Retouching

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”

– Edgar Degas, French Impressionist artist (1834-1917)

As I am studying new creative disciplines, I often look back at the lessons I learned during the past decade in the beauty industry. One of the most impactful elements of my growth was developing visual taste in Beauty Photography and Retouching through mental representations.

Dissecting my past experiences and gaining new understanding (through great books on the topic) of how we, humans, learn is helping me to craft better strategies and map out a framework for acquiring new skills faster.

I hope you will find a few useful nuggets here!

Charting the Path to Your Creative Career Dreams

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

– “Alice in Wonderland”, Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

We, independent artists, always have many creative career aspirations – getting hired by that dream client, charging more for our work, growing our freelance business, adding a new skill to our creative and business skillsets, and so on…

If you are anything like me, your inner world easily gets chaotic with so many targets and desires that just don’t seem to be realizing as quickly as you’d like 😰

Ah, those shimmering visions that ignite our souls, the reason we hustle through late nights, weekends, and endless cups of coffee!

Here’s the brutal truth we all already know: dreams and creative desires without concrete plans of “attack” are like fireworks without a fuse – life and work always get in the way and they fizzle out, leaving nothing but a lingering disappointment inside.