Rising Stars: Meet Pratik Naik

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pratik Naik.

Hi Pratik, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In 2008, I graduated from the University of Houston and went to work for a hotel company for two years. During my time in college and while I was at work, I dabbled in photography because I wanted a creative outlet that involved interacting with other interesting people. Prior to photography, I also built up an interest in Photoshop for a few years. Photography felt like the perfect companion hobby! Once I began doing photography, taking those photos into Photoshop became a natural step and I actually fell in love with both crafts! Showing my work online in online forums, photographers became interested in my Photoshop work, also known as retouching. I started getting requests to retouch other people’s work. Slowly but surely, the demand rose seemingly out of nowhere! I was still working at my job and within two years I decided to quit and pursue this passion of mine.

Soon, I began retouching images for magazines, covers, celebrities, and it escalated. Around that time, I also started teaching retouching as well and began traveling all over the world for education. I also launched my own online platform for education that has done incredibly well. From 2010 to around 2018, I was a full time retoucher and educator. I also did photography but I never shared it as much. Eventually I became a retouching agency, where we had a full team of retouchers working with me to help photographers. This lasted for a couple of years until I realized that I wanted to take a step back and focus on many other goals of mine. I decided to release a tool for Photoshop called Infinite Color panel. It is a tool that helps photographers color tone their images. Think of the color filters you get for Instagram, except this tool gives you an unlimited number of options so you can really find what you’re looking for! When we launched in 2018, it became a success and we began creating other Infinite tools!

Around 2019, I was only retouching for a few clients, growing our new community for Infinite products, and I had more free time to start shooting more. Interestingly enough, I began to get a lot of traction with my photography as well and became represented by one of the world’s biggest lighting companies within the first year and grew to over 15,000 followers and quickly growing. Ultimately, photography, retouching, education, and creating online products for Photoshop all became successful and rewarding!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Most of the struggles were from just knowing what direction to go. I realized that as a creative entrepreneur, it was okay to change paths based on what I wanted. It was always evolving just as different opportunities presented themselves. I lost many relationships, struggled with personal health issues, and tried to manage everything while enduring mental health issues too. The constant work it took caused a lot of health struggles that I was forced to address. During 2020 as we were forced to slow down a little, I used that time to relax and focus on improving my own health. Another hurdle was learning things about finance and taxes that we’re never taught in school through my growing and changing business structure. This also included money management and investing opportunities beyond just saving money and budgeting. Being only 35, I feel like I’ve learned a vast amount in just 12 years after college.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I would say I am most proud of the growth and flexibility of my path. I’ve been able to adapt to different circumstances and life structures and still evolve. I’m proud of being able to fail at many things but find success in others from that failure. I’m also proud of trusting the process and continue moving even though it seems pointless. I am different from the competition because my quality of work has put me a part. My ability to be inclusive and constantly educate others in my field about what I do is something that has given back in so many ways.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was always into art, drawing and painting growing up. I couldn’t pay attention in school for the life of me and I hated reading things that I didn’t want to in school. It took me a lot longer to learn something that most, but it’s an advantage now that I am in a position to educate others in a way that they would understand. I connected very well with people online since it didn’t require in-person skills to do so. I also really empathized with many people from different walks of life so in school I was a part of many groups and never really fit in just one place. I loved playing games and felt they really taught me a lot about playing well with other people, strategy, and dedication more than anything else in my life did.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.solsticeretouch.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/solsticeretouch
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/c/pratiknaikstudio