In this first in a series of free video previews with Nino Batista, we get to know Nino and his views on the industry.

Nino Batista welcomes you to this retouching focused tutorial. Nino gives some background to his history and philosophy in retouching.

Nino lays down what this tutorial is about and what you can expect to see. Nino clarifies that there are no quick fixes here.

The Capture One interface is a major component of this tutorial. Nino walks you through the Capture One layout and a lot of his most used tools.

There are several actions included in this tutorial. This shows you how to install them.

In this video, Nino will go over some of his most commonly used actions. These included actions will help speed up your workflow.

We have included Nino’s FreqSep Control panel as part of this tutorial. This panel helps run frequency separation in a whole different way than any action you have used before but the first step is getting it installed.

We have included Nino’s FreqSep Control panel as part of this tutorial. In this video Nino talks you through how to use this unique plugin.

Culling and shot selection is often an afterthought but Nino talks about why it should be a priority. Having a system will help you find your best images to edit is key to making sure your best work finds its way out into the world. Nino uses a retouching plan on each of his images to show you wh...

Nino divides his RAW processing into two stages. In the first stage, he concentrates on white balance, exposure, highlight and shadow recovery, and skin tone uniformity. He doesn’t just focus on a single image but on a collection of images all at once.

A lot of what Nino does is seeing where he is going with an image vs look at where it is. That mental plan starts to take shape in the creative phase of his RAW preparation. In this you will see how he intentionally uses the skin tone tool, color saturation, and luminosity of reds/yellows, contra...

There are many choices to consider when you are exporting your images from Capture One to Photoshop. A lot of us do things differently but understanding why someone makes the choices they do helps you make informed decisions about which process is best for you.

When you are focusing on skin work, you have to start with the best skin possible. So where does that begin? Nino talks about his go-to tools in cleaning up skin imperfections, small creases, and minor fly away hairs.

Dodge and burn take a lot of time but that effort is rewarded with flawless skin that will set your images apart. Nino walks you through his process while demonstrating to you, in real-time, what he is looking for in this image of Marbella. No fast-forwarding here, you will see each pixel perfect...

Frequency separation has been a major conversation topic since it came to light. There is no way to avoid having this talk whenever they talk of skin works comes about. Nino shares his views on frequency separation while also sharing the techniques he uses when he reaches for this tool. Nino also...

Liquify is another tool that brings out controversy but it is just a tool. The user decides how to use it. Nino uses liquify for corrections and stylistic choices, and done with anatomy/physique kept in mind.

Retouching eyes is a delicate thing - go too far and you can destroy your whole image. Learn Nino’s “less is more” approach to retouching eyes.

Learning to use Nino’s included actions to add textures and noise to your images. A wash of noise can really help tie an image together.

What is a secondary correction? Nino will often pause in his workflow after he has done the majority of the heavy skin work to take a second look at all the colors in the frame. Getting certain areas under control will allow the image to take the color grading even better.

By bringing his image back into the camera raw filter, not to be confused with editing the raw image, Nino corrects some tones for final color grading. After the image has some more color, Nino jumps into some contrast controls. Learn to control contrast in a smart, protected method.

Based on gradient map overlays and then various adjustment layers to achieve the muted warm aesthetic that Nino goes for. The difference between selective color and color balance adjustment layers and why it can matter in your grading. How to layer order makes a difference and why you need to ca...

Learn to look at the overall image and see where you can add in those extra kicks that bring your imagination to life! Short of compositing, this is just adding extra bumps of lighting in a way that compliments your image.

Enhancing existing light effects, especially flare and haze, as desire...

Like icing on a cake, Nino works on compensating for how your color grading affects overall exposure, highlights, shadows, as needed. Vibrance and/or saturation adjustments to get that “pop”.

Publications look for sets of images that match each other in color grading, overall feel, and mood. Since Nino works primarily for publication this phase is a critical element of his process. Join Nino in learning how to make various images from a shoot match each other.

See Nino’s go to settings for exporting for the web, social media, and publication.

Introduction to the shoot with Shelby in her kitchen.

Nino takes his hero shot selection seriously. Following his methodology of comparing similar images to each other Nino talks you through why some images make the cut while others fall to the cutting room floor.

Nino divides his RAW processing into stages. In the first stage, he concentrates on white balance, exposure, highlight and shadow recovery, and skin tone uniformity. In this case, focusing on the gradient of the color temperature falls off. He doesn’t just focus on a single image but a collection...

When you are focusing on skin work, you have to start with the best skin possible. So where does that begin? Nino talks about his go-to tools in cleaning up skin imperfections, small creases, and minor fly away hairs.

Again dodge and burn takes a prominent place in Nino’s workflow. Nino will tell you time and time again that dodge and burn is a time-intensive process, but like anything else, the more you do it, the faster it starts to go. Every image is different, and every image’s dodge and burn needs to be a...

Frequency separation comes back into play in this edit using the median filter function with the preset of 8. Nino walks through his method of using frequency separation again, demonstrating for you the how and why of the plugin.

Nino uses liquify for corrections and stylistic choices, and done with anatomy/physique kept in mind.

Nino jumps into making the eyes pop just a little bit more using levels and a luminosity mask in order to preserve the contrast of the eyes making the windows to the soul a little clearer.

How do you balance noise with the previous sharpening? These actions can often work against each other, so learning to balance the two to make sure you have the best image is critical. Nino focuses on that balance in this video.

What is a secondary correction? Nino will often pause in his workflow after he has done the majority of the heavy skin work to take a second look at all the colors in the frame. Getting certain areas under control will allow the image to take the color grading even better. This is a fine-tuning p...

The last step was targeting small areas that needed targeted adjustments. In this phase Nino focuses on overall skin tones, bringing the image back into the camera raw filter we see Nino focusing on contrast and color of the skin tones.

Based on gradient map overlays and then various adjustment layers to achieve the muted warm aesthetic that Nino goes for. The difference between selective color and color balance adjustment layers and why it can matter in your grading. How to layer order makes a difference and why you need to ca...

Here Nino is focusing on image “compression” using his custom action, which is included in your downloads section. Using a levels adjustment layer Nino works on the overall final contrast of the image in micro increments and runs his “face focus” action to bring about attention to key elements of...

Since Nino works primarily for publication this phase is a critical element of his process, making the images have a harmonized look to each other. Join Nino in learning how to make various images from a shoot match each other.

Understanding the photographer’s perspective on glamour photography is only half the equation. To gain true insight into the world of glamour photography, we reached out to one of Nino’s main collaborators, Shelby, to help us understand the model's side of the industry.

Introduction to the shoot with Lindsay with hard, natural light, outdoors by a pool.

Nino divides his RAW processing into stages. In this particular clean up, Nino demonstrates how he uses Capture One to prepare three images at once for importing in Photoshop, planning for needing matching sets.

When you are focusing on skin work, you have to start with the best skin possible. So where does that begin? Nino talks about his go-to tools in cleaning up skin imperfections, small creases, and minor fly away hairs.

Again dodge and burn takes a prominent place in Nino’s workflow. Nino will tell you time and time again that dodge and burn is a time-intensive process but like anything else the more you do it the faster it starts to go. In this hard light, high contrast image Nino needs to take a build-up appro...

Starting with merging all the layers, Nino uses his (included) plugin to run a frequency separation on the image. In this case, Nino paints nearly every section of skin, often over “painting” to keep the strokes looking natural and worrying about masking the overspray later. This method needs to...

Nino uses liquify for corrections and stylistic choices, and done with anatomy/physique kept in mind. Common in glamour work is an abdominal crease - Nino shows you his technique for minimizing this issue.

Nino jumps into making the eyes pop just a little bit more using levels and a luminosity mask in order to preserve contrast of the eyes.

Nino introduces noise to his image to provide overall harmony to the effects while also using noise to add texture back to the frame. Finding the balance between the previous layers of the edits is critical to your image's final success.

Secondary correction is a moment when Nino pauses to take an objective overview of his image. Getting certain areas under control will allow the image to take the color grading even better. This is a fine-tuning phase. Nino will often use his face focus action here to direct the viewer's attentio...

Opening with the gradient map and then selective color and color balance adjustment layers to achieve the muted warm aesthetic that Nino goes for. Nino will again explore why layer order matters tremendously in his color grading process.

Here Nino is focusing on image “compression” using his custom action, which is included in your downloads section. Using a levels adjustment layer, Nino works on the overall final contrast of the image in micro increments.

Always finishing his final steps of any edit with making sure there is harmony between a set of images - this is a set many photographers do not consider but is critical for those seeking publication. Matching sets will present a cohesive overall story.

Model Lindsay shares her perspective on the Glamour industry, struggles with other people’s thoughts on glamour, and why she finds it empowering. Nino interviews Lindsay to help us understand why women pose for glamour photos.

Introduction to the shoot with Shelby outdoors by the pool. Unlike the outdoor image with Lindsay in hard light, this shot places Shelby in the shade but adds color reflections from the pool.

Nino divides his photos into similar images and looks at all his images as a whole. His synced process helps him narrow his images down to his “hero image”. Your shot selection should never be taken lightly.

Nino starts in Capture One to control highlights, white balance, and shadow recovery. He talks about why Capture One is his choice for a RAW processor. In this particular image, he introduces a small vignette to draw attention to the model. Vignetting is certainly one of those things that, when u...

Working with a pool/water element brings a whole new consideration to the healing phase. In this shot, we have leaves in the pool that need to be considered before normal skin work.

Dodge and burn is so integral to the skin retouching process. This time-intensive process helps minimize skin imperfections and balance transitions from light to dark in your images. The easy way to think about this is helping pixels match the images that are near them.

Dodge and burn are done, but we have several color options in this image that will come into play in this phase. We will need to take care of that color cast on the leg from the pool water. Mixed with the work we just did on the hand in dodge and burn, we have a few unique challenges to address. ...

Nino uses liquify for corrections and stylistic choices, and done with anatomy/physique kept in mind.

In this secondary correction, we have a very large fix to address. This one is less fine-tuning and more addressing a large color problem. Doing color work of this degree will require repainting of the colors.

Nino uses sharpening and noise here to adjust the overall texture of the image to bring the image into a unified state. A high pass sharpening and noise action balanced with each other achieves this.

Based on gradient map overlays and then various adjustment layers to achieve the muted warm aesthetic, this is Nino’s favorite part. This is where Nino is getting creative vs fixing parts of the image.

While doing the finalization Nino is looking at the overall intent of his image. Has he achieved his intent? There is not a “typical” process here. This is the final look to make sure the image remains polished.

In this conversation with Jai Mayhew, a fashion, and portraiture photographer, we get a female photographer’s perspective on sensuality and sexuality in photos.

In contrast to the previous conversation with Jai Mayhew, here we explore a different side of the sensual by looking through Jai’s work and understanding how she looks at the female form.

Each shoot has a story. Nino is known for shooting outdoors but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t take things into the studio. For this shoot, Nino was working for Playboy New Zealand. How will the workflow change with this shooting environment?

Culling and shot selection are super important to Nino but in this situation, that selection is premade. Working for publications and others often give them the lion's share of the decision making. So here Nino talks about what needs to be done on the image selected.

Working in Capture One to get his RAW image ready for Photoshop exporting, Nino works on white balance, exposure, highlight and shadow recovery, and skin tone uniformity.

With the image imported into Photoshop Nino tackles skin cleanup right off the bat. Starting with a spot healing tool.

Dodging and burning helps minimize the effects of depth in various skin textures. Focusing on these micro effects helps polish the overall image without reshaping the image completely or losing textures. Toward the end of the clip, you will see Nino use dodge and burn uniquely.

Nino’s frequency separation techniques can often give you pause. Watching it fully develop is key. Nino has a unique ability to know where he is going instead of thinking about what is right in front of him at the moment.

Nino uses liquify for corrections and stylistic choices, and done with anatomy/physique kept in mind. Nino takes Sarah’s comments to heart to make sure she gets the images she requested.

Learning to use Nino’s included actions to add textures and noise to your images. Again here we seek to find a balance between two texture enhancing techniques.

Thinking about highlights, mids, shadows when considering how your color grade will be applied on top of this image, we start doing secondary corrections to balance the reds and yellows in her skin.

This is a major magazine cover, so the color grading on this one can’t be over the top, too heavy, or overly artistic. Nino considers this as he decides how to color grade this image.

Polishing off the image is key to getting that high contrast imagery that Nino craves while paying attention to this being a major publication’s cover and staying true to their brand.

Nino talks with Shannon Doughtery to gain a woman's insight on sexuality, glamour, and men in the industry.

All the work we have done so far has been on color images but does it work in black and white? PRO EDU challenged Nino to show us his black and white workflow, and he did not disappoint.

With a shot selected we jump right into making a retouching plan for the image of Briana.

RAW preparation is completely different when it comes to black and white. We start the edit by enabling the black and white filter in Capture One. Nino focuses on creating a high contrast image here, knowing that there will be contrast brought down during his Photoshop process.

Part of the cleanup here is helping the backdrop look perfect as well. Looking at the overall image is critical to Nino.

Nino uses liquify for corrections and stylistic choices, and done with anatomy/physique kept in mind.

With color gone, we have the ability to push sharpening and noise a little further. Nino explains how he does this and what the impact is on the image.

The gradient map comes in this time to add contrast. Compressing the image with the included action balances the heavy gradient demonstrating again how layers interact with each other to find the perfect balance.

Does this workflow work when Nino didn’t shoot the image? We use another person’s image to find out. Using an image shot outside at White Sands, New Mexico, we see how Nino would tackle someone else's work.

Nino leaves you with some closing thoughts.