Kseniya Soltan Interview: Photography today is a huge part of life! This is a powerful tool that adapts to each person individually, allowing to develop.
Swanky Magazine Interviews the wonderfully talented retoucher - Kseniya Soltan
RETOUCHER SPOTLIGHT | Kseniya Soltan based out of Vilnius, Lithuania
Q1.Swanky Mag: Hello Kseniya, Can you introduce yourself to Swanky Magazine's readers? Can you tell us a little about you?
Hello! My name is Kseniya, I’m a retoucher and owner of the Kseniya Soltan retouching studio. Professionally I’ve been doing retouching since 2020, but before that my whole life was built on the love of photography and retouching, this is my passion and great love!
Q2. How, and when did you get into retouching?
Initially, I’m a journalist by education and used to work in media and advertising for a long time. I was engaged not only in writing articles, but also in the visual content, worked not only with designers and photographers, but also did a lot of content on my own, and then I realized that I get incredible pleasure from it! I can say that I’ve been doing retouching since childhood, but it was more of an experiment and a search for myself. But when I started working professionally in advertising, I realized that retouching and photography were what I wanted to do. Therefore, in 2020 I opened my own retouching studio and in the future, I plan to attract other retouchers to make a lot of high-quality content!
Q3.What does photography mean to you?
Photography today is a huge part of life! This is a powerful tool that adapts to each person individually, allowing to develop. I love photography for its comprehensiveness! It helps photographers to reveal their creativity, share their vision with the world! It allows people who come to the photo session to become more confident, increase their self-esteem and love for themselves! It’s a powerful assistant in any business, which will ultimately benefit people! Photography is a whole world, it can cover completely different needs and have different goals. And I, as a retoucher, always strive to give the photo the final look that will lead to the desired result. It’s important, I’m always on the side of the photographer and the end viewer of the content.
Q4.Please briefly describe your retouching style for our readers.
I do retouching in completely different styles. Most often it’s fashion, beauty, portraits, studio, boudoir. I also do package retouching of the entire photo series, family, love, and so on.
Q5.Where do you get your inspiration from?
Really everywhere! I’m a perfectionist and always try to surround myself with beautiful things and look for beauty everywhere! But my main passion of mine – is travel. It’s my main source of inspiration!
Q6. Do you think in advance what you want in the picture?
I’m a retoucher so most often I work based on the photographer’s wishes. But I always work with everyone individually. There are photographers who have a clear vision and then I do exactly what they want. Some photographers rely on my own professional vision, they just tell me the idea and I choose the appropriate type of retouching. With some, we discuss the final look of the photo and come to a common vision. Always different. But if I retouch for myself, then only creativity comes into force, I experiment, and sometimes really interesting colors and ideas are born.
Q7.Would you consider yourself a hobbyist or a paid professional?
I’m a paid professional, but I love my job so much that I can really call it a hobby. Favorite paid hobby!
Q8. What is one piece of advice you would like to offer a new photographer/retoucher looking to start their own business?
If you really want to do this in your life and if you really get much pleasure with it, just keep doing it! Do forward and never give up!
Q9. What do you think of our new magazine?
I really like it, you are great! Everything is done with style and taste!
Work page: instagram.com/retouch_studio_ks
Personal page: instagram.com/kseniya_soltan