Marshalls Flag Paving Retouch

Professional retouching services play an important role in the effective reuse of clients’ existing photographic assets, as well as saving money on location photography and saving time waiting for the right weather conditions.

For this existing street scene, the client wanted to showcase a new range of stone which was not then installed anywhere else. To begin the process, a photographed sample of the new stone was supplied.

A single sample was repeated to form a large artboard to work with. The repetitive elements were then either removed or made more random to add natural variation in markings and finishes. Paths were created around the existing flagstones to retain the grout lines, and the new stone texture was inserted. This texture was then superimposed with perspective to give the illusion of distance and diminishing detail. At this point, there was no shadow detail on the paving making it stand out.

To create the shadow a path was added filled with a semi transparent grey finish with a feathered edge to soften the effect on a less bright day. Harsher, crisper shadows were also added to the right of the bollards to eliminate the effect that these were ‘floating’ in the image. To really bring the piece to life, a natural random quality and markings were added to the flags, making them look more ‘lived in’ rather than brand new. This created a more realistic scene to really help the client and potential customers to visualise their new product in an existing street scene.