A year later , Levchenko ’ s hobby of photography morphed into his work , though he never left his retouching job at the photo studio . Originally working with film , he struggled with the switch to the processes of digital photography , and it took him about 5 years before learning how to properly convert raw files .
“ I had very poor skills in studio photography in those days ” laughed Levchenko , “ I ’ ve continued to experiment with film - different developers , different brands of films and use of grain . During the last ten years , photography was both my main hobby and work , I had no relationships , no vacations , only work , work , work .”
Levchenko ’ s stunning images in portraiture can be divided into a few main directions : Portrait , which he uses to “ express the atmosphere and person ’ s character ”; Beauty Portraits , in which he “ creates fantasy images ” of people - stylizing the beauty of humans through makeup , light and image manipulation ; Nude Portraits , in which he highlights the “ beauty of the body through light and shapes ”; and Fitness Portraits , where he captures “ muscles and proportion with special light setups and use of low-key ”. Sometimes Levchenko is even the subject of his own portraiture , which he confesses takes months of preparation , dieting and beard growing .
“ Funny thing , I recently opened my profile on 500px ( https :// 500px . com / lev4 ) to see how many views I had , and to select images for this interview , and the highest number of views was on a picture of myself !” chuckled Levchenko .