ABOUT ME
Erica Maltese is a freelance photo retoucher with a love for photography, specializing in natural skin retouching for celebrity talent.
Born in New York City and raised in the Hamptons, Erica grew up in a creative household as the daughter of an architect father and graphic designer/artist mother. She graduated in 2006 from Parsons School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Fashion Design. Soon after, Erica began working as a designer in Paris, France for Notify Jeans and K Karl Lagerfeld. Once returning to NYC, Erica designed clothes for Ralph Lauren, DKNY, Jill Stuart and Jay Godfrey to name a few. Over the years, her designs were sold to all major department stores including Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales and other boutique stores including Intermix and Revolve Clothing. Additionally, her work has been featured in WWD, W Magazine, Vogue and W Hotel Magazine and worn by celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Adriana Lima, Kristin Cavallari, Maria Menounos, Emily Ratajkowski, Lisa Rinna and many more.
Throughout Erica's vast experience in the fashion design industry, she often found herself retouching photos as part of her job, whether it was for linesheets, lookbooks, websites or for a particular buyer/client who wanted to see a dress or top in a variety of color combinations. Erica realized immediately that retouching was a skill which came natural to her, given her eye for detail and innate sense of esthetic.
She now has 16 years under her belt as a Photoshop specialist. Erica's goal is to provide each client the exact look they are going for whether it be extensive retouching (wrinkle softening, body slimming, hair retouching, skin tone matching, removing undergarments/tags), or a lighter, softer approach. She always aims to edit the photo leaving the skin's natural texture by using frequency separation, high-pass, dodge & burn and other special techniques in Photoshop and Lightroom.
Erica currently lives in Central New Jersey with her music executive husband Chris, and their daughter.
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