Photo retouching video tutorial

[Wes]

After watching the promo I think I'm going to spend the money on this one. It looks like a great workshop on a DVD. Click the Tutorial tab and watch the guy do a very cool photo session using nothing but a Canon G9.

http://www.digitalphotoshopretouching.com/index.htm

[blazinphotography]

Pretty cool. Five hours retouching wow!

[Wes]

I like the way that he used curves adjustment layers as his dodging and burning tool. Never thought about doing it that way.

[SaSha]

That is pretty cool stuff. Nice find.

[canoflan]

I just purchased this video and if you have purchased other DVDs on high end professional retouching, you will find that most have 5 ways of accomplishing the same thing.

The key always is to know how to prevent the viewer from knowing you did anything, but improving the photo; then if you go to the model look where you perfect and bring out certain aspects for commercial or art purposes, doing this professionally is also taught.

If you learn anything in this or other retouching videos, learn how to reconstruct eyes that have weak, missing or misplaced catchlights and poor color. Eyes are the key and if you can make them sparkle, then the rest of the face won't need as much. I would say second to this is eyelashes, brows, then facial skin, then hair. Remove stray hairs as much as possible and learn the fastest, but most convincing, way to do this.

Keep in mind you should review this DVD several times until you can tell when to use what because they only teach the tools and how they affect the image, not necessarily the best time to use them since all images are different. Taste and objective for the final result always drive the use of the tools taught.

One thing you will find is that this guy is very careful about not oversharpening until he knows the media that will receive the print since glossy photos and matte photos require different amounts of sharpening. Be mindful of this to ensure you do not damage photos by oversharpening until the media is known.

Enjoy and let us know your thoughts after viewing it a few times.
Pat

[Wes]

Overall, are you pretty happy with what you see in the video? Is the quality of instruction okay?

[canoflan]

Yeah, if you have never purchased one of these videos, this is an excellent one to get; however, it only covers a female model with close to perfect skin, so the breadth of examples is confined to a single one; but you can take these techniques to all sorts of other people and even landscape and other types of photography.

Due to the nature of the photography, some photographers that create these retouching DVDs cover other aspects such as retouching grandparents, men, glare in eyeglasses, etc....

You may want to check out this link to Jane Conner Ziser's video from software cinema (I have this one as well):

http://www.software-cinema.com/produ...uct_details/95

You will find that good retouching is based on keeping the original skin texture and tones to enhance, not fully change the person so that they are improved, not changed so they can tell. This is an art, but I find that the more I take photos and do a little to each one, I get better and find some of the tools in photoshop such as the liquify and warp tools which are extremely powerful are not so formidable after using them here and there. After a while, you will find snapshots can be highly improved with one or two enhancements with a careful hand and the right tool.

BTW, I assume you have a wacom tablet for doing this, else, your precision may suffer a bit and since you will be working at the 1 to 2 pixel sized brush level often, you need good precision the tablet provides.

Lastly, I worked on a photo for my neighbor of his wife that was a quicky after taking photos of their 1 year old son. The photo required major cropping to get the look he wanted. After I was done, they didn't know I did anything, but I have a feeling they always like my work, so really didn't look for any changes and simply liked the photo; however, when you flip in Adobe Lightroom in compare mode back and forth, you can see the enhancements really dressed her up nicely, but without changing what makes her, "her."