Kate Aelita

I started retouching in 2017 when a photographer friend asked me to clean up a few shots from a wedding. Twelve hours later, I had gone through the entire set and realized I enjoyed the process more than I expected. That was the beginning.

Over the past nine years, I have retouched tens of thousands of images. Portraits, beauty campaigns, fashion editorials, product shots, family sessions. I have worked with photographers and agencies across Ukraine, Europe, and now the United States.

In 2024, everything changed. AI retouching tools went from a novelty to something actually useful. Instead of ignoring them, I spent months learning how to integrate them into my workflow. The result: I can now handle larger volumes faster without dropping the quality bar. AI does the repetitive parts. I handle the parts that need a real eye.

I moved to the US in 2022. New country, new market, new challenges. But the work stays the same: take a raw photo and make it look exactly the way the photographer intended.