A note from the Retouching Academy team: We are sharing this guest post as a supporter of an initiative that puts fellow retouchers and their work in the spotlight. Retouching Academy is not an organizer, judge, or paid partner, and we have no role in entries, fees, payments, judging, or results. All questions about the competition, including registration and payment, should go to the Retoucher of the Year team directly. The post below is from its founder, Timea Buknicz. We wish participants the best of luck!
If you are a retoucher, I don’t need to explain how much skill, judgement and care go into a final image. You know the difference thoughtful post-production makes to captured images and the value it adds. The question is: how do we make that contribution more visible, recognised and respected?
Hello, I’m Timea Buknicz, the founder of Retoucher of the Year, and a photographer and retoucher myself. For a long time I knew I wanted to give something back to the industry that shaped my career. I just didn’t know what form that would take. Then, one evening in the winter of 2023, after watching the creative industry change at speed since 2022, the idea arrived: put the spotlight on retouching.
By 2025, the conversation across photography and post-production had changed. People were anxious about the future: whether newcomers would still enter the profession, and whether the human skills we spent years developing would keep their value. At the same time, retouching had become far more established as a standalone profession, which means more talented artists competing for the same visibility. It is hard to stand out through a portfolio alone, and equally hard for clients to tell one level of skill from another.
I believe the profession has reached the point where it needs fair assessment and meaningful recognition: a way for retouchers to demonstrate their ability and give the industry a reason to know their names. Being the person behind the image doesn’t mean you should stay invisible behind it.
What is Retoucher of the Year?
Retoucher of the Year is an independently founded international competition created specifically for retouching professionals. It runs across four regions: Europe, including Eastern European countries and Russia, the Americas, Africa & West Asia, and Asia-Pacific, including Australia. Every entrant in a category and region works from the same official RAW files and creative brief, and titles are awarded at two levels: Regional and Global.
For this first edition, we are creating seven recognised titles:
| Title | Focus |
|---|---|
| Beauty Retoucher of the Year | Beauty retouching |
| Product Retoucher of the Year | Product retouching |
| Fashion Retoucher of the Year | Fashion retouching |
| Colour Grader of the Year | Colour grading (the Luminist category) |
| Composite Retoucher of the Year | Compositing and Key Art |
| Rising Star in Beauty | Emerging beauty retouchers |
| Rising Star in Product | Emerging product retouchers |
The competition starts in the four regions, where the first-place artist in each category earns their Regional Title (for example: Beauty Retoucher of the Year, Europe).
The top three artists in each category from each region then advance to the Global Final, where they face a new challenge and compete for the Global Titles. Ultimately, we want to name the Retoucher of the Year in the world for each category.
Ambitious? Absolutely. But if we’re going to build something for this industry, I don’t see the point in thinking small.
How do I enter Retoucher of the Year?
The first step is to register for Retoucher of the Year by 30 September 2026. Once registered, you choose which category, or categories, you want to enter. Entering a category costs £19, £45, or £65, depending on your country of residence. We built three country-based pricing tiers because talent exists everywhere, but income and purchasing power are not the same, and we wanted entry to be accessible internationally.
You are not limited to one category. Many entrants are challenging themselves across three or four. Then, on 1 October, the actual challenge begins: entrants receive the official RAW files and creative brief for the categories they entered. Everyone competing within the same category and region starts with the same material. From there, it’s over to you: follow the brief, bring your own vision to the images, and submit your work. The judges take it from there.
What if you don’t finish in the top three?
Recognition goes beyond the podium. Beyond the first-, second-, and third-place artists, we will select 50 of the strongest artists across all categories in each region, creating a Regional Top 50 for Europe, including Eastern European countries and Russia, the Americas, Africa & West Asia, and Asia-Pacific, including Australia. That means another 200 artists whose names we want the industry to know. Winning matters, but so does being able to say: I ranked among the strongest retouchers in my region.
How is the judging kept fair?
A portfolio doesn’t always tell the full story. Not everyone has had the chance to work with world-class photographers or major clients, and sometimes your strongest work can’t be shown at all because of NDAs and permissions. That’s why everyone in the same category and region receives the same official RAW files and creative brief. Everyone starts from the same place; how you interpret it and where you take the image is your own.
We also look beyond the finished JPG. As artists progress through our three-round judging process, we review the layered PSD files to assess the technical knowledge and workflow behind the final image. Your chance to win should depend on the work you create here, not on the opportunities you had before you entered or the work you’re allowed to show.
Why does a recognised title matter?
Think about what happens when someone is introduced as a Cannes Lions winner. Before you’ve seen their work, you already assume they’re exceptional at what they do. That’s the power of a recognised title: it speaks for your ability before you have to. Retouching has never had an equivalent title created specifically for this profession, and I think it’s about time.
A title doesn’t become prestigious simply because we create one. It becomes prestigious because of the calibre of the people competing for it, and because of what that title comes to represent within the industry.
What happens after you win?
That’s where our job really begins. We don’t want someone to win Retoucher of the Year, receive a certificate, make an Instagram post, and watch the moment disappear. We want people outside the retouching community to know who our winners are, so we’re building relationships with magazines and industry platforms for interviews, editorial coverage and winner features.
Established industry names are beginning to stand behind the competition too. Capture One is supporting Luminist, our dedicated colour-grading category, and we’re continuing to build partnerships with organisations that believe in human creativity and skill.
We also don’t want that recognition to exist only online: we’re developing plans for a Retoucher of the Year exhibition and award ceremony in London, putting the winning work, and the people behind it, in front of the industry. We’re currently exploring funding to bring it to life at the end of February or the beginning of March next year. We are doing the heavy lifting; your job is to enter and show us what you can do.
I already have the clients and the reputation. Why should I enter?
Because at a certain point in your career, it isn’t only about getting the next client. It’s about prestige: having your name recognised alongside the strongest people in your profession, and being able to put Regional Top 50, a Regional Title, or even Retoucher of the Year next to a career you’ve spent years building. When those names are published, the industry will see who stepped forward and earned their place.
And if you’re already one of the retouchers people consider among the best, wouldn’t you want your name to be there? You may not need another client. But there are some things even a great client list can’t give you, and a recognised title is one of them.
Do I have to call myself a retoucher to enter?
No. If retouching is part of what you do, this competition can be for you. Many photographers retouch their own work without thinking of themselves as retouchers. But if you’re taking your images through post-production and creating the finished result yourself, you are doing the work we’re here to recognise.
The same applies to designers working in Composite and Key Art. You may call yourself a designer, compositor or Key Art artist rather than a retoucher, but that work is part of the post-production world too. That’s also one of the reasons we created our Photographer Open Call: it wasn’t simply about sourcing RAW files, it’s a way to bring the photography community into the conversation around post-production and recognition. Retoucher of the Year isn’t about the job title on your LinkedIn profile. It’s about the work you create.
What is the one thing only you can do?
Enter. That’s the part we can’t do for you. We can build the competition, bring together the jury, create the challenges, build the partnerships, speak to the press, and organise the exhibition, but we need to come together to make these titles mean something. We cannot put your name on that list. Only you can do that.
Registration is open until 30 September. We are building the stage. You only have to decide whether you are ready to step onto it.
Learn more about the competition, its mission, and register for the first international edition: Retoucher of the Year registration
