Code Red Retouching

10+ years in the automotive retouching business builds trust and that trust is needed when you are launching a brand new car model that is top secret. In the industry, we call that a “code red” project and it requires its own set of procedures and safe guards so that images aren’t leaked ahead of the big release date. World renown photographer, Caleb Kuhl was commissioned by Saatchi & Saatchi with shooting the vehicle in secure locations and he tasked Studio KB with replacing the stand-in-car with the new ‘code red’ model, a Corolla Cross Hybrid.

All the usual retouching work still needed to be done. We added image extensions, replaced skies, removed rigs, pieced together the car and communicated all of this through multiple rounds, all while keeping the images encrypted while in transit. In the end, the code red retouching was a success, just like the other countless code red projects we have completed in the past.