Photo & Video Retoucher

Description:

Town & Country Living is a global leader in home décor, textiles, and design. Our expanded family includes Home Dynamix and Amalgamated Textiles, providing more than 60 years of combined experience in the home décor industry. The combination of all three companies together brings unmatched expertise and excellence in sales, design, development, sourcing, supply chain efficiencies, customer service, and e-commerce fulfillment. With our company’s diverse multi-product assortment across all home categories, we can provide excellent offerings and service to our retail partners while responding quickly to the ever-changing needs of the marketplace.

The role of the Retoucher is focused on closing the loop in the Studio workflow. This position is the final step in image and content quality control, with ultimate responsibility for delivery of fully retouched and color corrected assets. The Retoucher works with our off-site team to coordinate overnight retouching, so images are ready for final approval as quickly as possible. All post-production will be tracked using the studio’s work management system (Trello). This is a highly skilled position requiring years of experience retouching as part of a team and time spent collaborating with others. The Retoucher will take on the task of ongoing quality control with the off-site retouching team through email and instructional video. This training will ultimately expand services and decrease turnaround time, resulting in greater efficiencies in workflow. Constant communication with the studio team through notes in the Digital Asset Manager (DAM) system, Work Management System (Trello) and on-set conversations, are vital to a unified and dynamic workflow.

The mission of the role is to be the gatekeeper that ensures all content, images and video, are delivered to stakeholders with the highest quality and consistently at a high level to expectation. Delivering assets to our in-house teams through the DAM system and assisting with meta data uploads are also key responsibilities that maintain corporate efficiency goals. This team member will also assist in the maintenance and utilization of the DAM, keeping assets and their data organized and accessible to the appropriate stakeholders, preventing buildup of excess files and data and contributing to thought and process change as it fits.

This position will serve as the source for all images and video delivered to stakeholders, ensuring image quality is of the highest caliber. An attention to process and detail is key, as the format and naming convention of each project varies based on final use case. Communicating with stakeholders in various departments to understand their needs and deliverables is pertinent.

As our only on-site post-production team member, this individual will maintain timelines through pre-planning, open communication with the off-site retouching team and utilization of the work management system (Trello). In daily standups with the studio team the Retoucher will detail project status and inform the team of any potential bottlenecks that have the potential to endanger delivery dates.

This role will be influential in helping the studio team schedule and organize upcoming projects. Using their knowledge of ongoing projects and workload capacities, the Retoucher gives expert guidance and suggests alternative workflows to maintain operational efficiencies.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• The Retoucher will own the post-production lifecycle of all brand content, both images and video files. From processing and sorting files, to retouching, color matching, quality control, facilitating reviews/approvals, and asset management/archiving.
• The role requires bringing a balanced approach to creating high quality images and videos while also excelling in high a volume workflow. As a partner in the production process the Retoucher works directly with the studio team to ensure workflows and efficiencies are maintained.
• Execute quality retouching of digital photos and video with a keen ability to discern and apply color, an in-depth understanding of fabric flows, shadow and lighting.
• Manage the day-to-day workflow of digital files from capture to post-production and delivery, naming according to established process and guidelines.
• This position requires in person communication with the studio team and confidence giving on-set advice that informs both production and post production workflows.
• This team member will participate in pre-production meetings, drawing from each their own touch points and contributions to the production process.
• Communicate project overview, workload and deadlines to off-site retouching team, anticipating problems in workflow and proactively creating solutions.
• Have intuitive knowledge to provide basic mark-ups and retouching notes for off-site retouching team; work with studio team to provide more detailed retouching callouts.
• Execute color correction using product samples and provide color standard/color guide for off-site retouching team.
• Manage your own time and workflow to balance quality and output, considering immediate and distant deadlines.
• Composite product into existing lifestyle imagery, creating realistic highlights and shadows while preserving texture, perspective, and depth of the product.
• Control the quality of all retouched images, evaluating aesthetics, technical specs, and adherence to style and brand guides; Fix images as needed to meet production standards.
• Maintain top-level output at high volume under tight deadlines.
• Work with design and merchandising teams to apply copy and graphics to final photography.
• When required, work closely with other stakeholders and creative collaborators for final approval of assets.
• As the last step of the photography process, ensure that the quality and quantity standards of our style guide are executed and delivered to relevant stakeholders.
• Assist stakeholders in image retrieval, cropping, resizing, and sharing images as needed.
• Help edit dynamic image formats (Time lapse, animated GIFs, etc.) for ecommerce and social media purposes.
• Maintain asset organization and distribution on the Digital Asset Management system.

Requirements:

QUALIFICATIONS

• This is an in-person position, working in the Photography Studio
• Portfolio demonstrating expert retouching ability is required to apply.
• Minimum 3-5 years relevant experience.
• Mac proficient, Adobe Suite & Photoshop are required, Illustrator and InDesign proficiency is a plus.
• Background in digital project management.
• Strong understanding of digital file handling, color management, and file formats.
• Experience working with Digital Asset Management platforms a plus.
• Process-oriented, highly organized with excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Multi-tasker with positive, flexible attitude and ability to pivot easily.
• Experience with Trello is a major plus.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Dropbox.
• Video editing experience a plus but not required.