As im inching my way into the industry I find that there is a lack of formal training in Retouching techniques.

I live in NYC and will be attending Katrins Eismanns's hand on training seminar at the photo expo but besides that I cant seem to find any good advanced workshops specifically targeted for Retouching.


So my question is..
How have the high end retouchers here gained their wealth of knowledge outside of forums & tutorials & trail & error?

On the job training?
School?
Seminars? (If so, WHERE?!)

Who was/is your most influential mentor?

For the retouchers in the NYC area:
Anyone interested in a intern/mentor type relationship?

I think learning the craft is the same pretty much as learning to be a master chef. You get as much training in the basics as you can by reading, studying, seminars, instructional DVD's, challenges, hands-on, critiques, etc.

Eventually you can get into a job situation and hopefully get a chance to work and learn beside a high level retoucher and pick up the workflow that way. There is no easy road to perfection other than imitating and then innovating

Katrin is great - she is very approachable and always seems eager to help when she can. Think through that one question you want her to answer - at the Expo, she'll be swamped around the time of the class, so you'll have to be quick. She is rare in the industry - someone who is eager to teach everything she knows.

On the job is the best place. You will be challanged in many many ways. Also working on high fashion images and beauty shots is different from the one you practice on to start with. Try and get your foot in the door at a retouching house.

Nothing beats just hands on. More hours you can spend doing homework, the more it will pay in the end. You do have to have a genuine interest to do that though. A lot of the lessons are of course nothing to do with the software, but sure you need to learn the tools, thats how you find you own solutions. I hate working with people that clearly haven't bothered to go through this process though, its the easy bit! Shows to me a lack of interest, and thats not a good start.

A word of warning is that in my humble opinion there is a great deal of dodgy Photoshop and "retouching" instruction out there. Most people who want to write books are not practicing. I could write a list, but won't of the people, and books to avoid. Eismann I wouldn't put into that category (not too much of the time anyway :-/) but she's the only example I could really recommend. She certainly has some things which will set you off on the right kind of path.

yea, i agree. I don't usually reference online tutorials these days because most of what they practice I would not dare to teach.

If I had to guess a # of images that Ive already worked on in the past year, it would easily exceed 1000. Of course, ill have to continue to practice always but i do feel confident in saying that I know what I am doing.

I guess i'm just not certain its how the "pro's" would do it.
And there are always those little tips that make you go "oh! THAT's how you do it!?"

I have to say by reading the forums here, you guys definately know your stuff so I will definately check back here more often.

Thanks for your response!

Katrin is great - she is very approachable and always seems eager to help when she can. Think through that one question you want her to answer - at the Expo, she'll be swamped around the time of the class, so you'll have to be quick. She is rare in the industry - someone who is eager to teach everything she knows.

Yea, im totally excited! Ill be sure to take notes to share..