Ask A Pro

[heyrad]

I bet you do... do you guys have any idea how much I get for an hour's work?

[Sunniee]

*drooling* no..... but I wish I did..... by experience that is.....

[stopa]

Thread like this make me think faster - nowadays another hi-end retoucher is thinking about his book/dvd... something is going to happen... I wonder what... (are u Boys tired of dotting & brushing ??? Or maybe U arn't earn enough??? hihihihi )

Few days ago I propound Cricket1961- the same topic as Crazyflay said.
I think that if you really want to share with us your skills, record your work from beginning to end. This would be really exhibitionist ... I think that the first retoucher who will do it - will took all the prizes, and audience.

From the other hand: in XV age da Vinci said; "Never share your secrets with the throng - you will always be misunderstand"

I subscribe to this thread - I am really curious of every little world You (Heyard) said.

[bandenk]

hahahha.. i agree actually with crazyfly thats what all of us want to see from a professional high end retoucher... we will sit there and watch for hours... details.. we want details.. workflows... layers.. an example out from a raw image to a ready print one... if it is not much to ask...

thank you for sharing your knowledge....

[heyrad]

I hear you all loud and clear... watching me retouch for 4hrs may answer a few questions, but may also confuse you terribly. "Why did he use Hue/Sat instead of color balance?", "why did he use a level instead of a curve?"... "wait, did he change brush sizes?". To be honest with you all, I'd probably end up creating more questions than solutions. I move very quickly and it's hard to keep up. You'd end up watching me do 4 things in a 15 second period and say... "what the hell did he just do?". And if I didn't verbalize every little move that I made I'd lose you... so you see, I can't just sit there and hit the record button. It wouldn't be fair to most viewers and a 4hr video of a flying cursor won't win me any oscars either

Remember my friends... crawl, walk, then run... the smartest way to become a great retoucher is to understand the theories behind each move and the thought that inspired it, not the move itself. This is so true if you ask anyone like myself or Cricket... I don't do the same thing, the same way on every image-- other than my prep and organizing. I see something and in a split second make a decision. I'm able to do that because for many years I spent 8hrs/day burning through images for a corp magazine dept... 40 images/day that need color and manipulation on a daily basis makes you quick.

Think of it like a martial art... Sure it's cool to watch somebody train. But if you don't understand the fighter's reasons for making a certain technique, it will all just be a blur. Understand the technique, how to use it. Then apply it, then forget it...

c

[palms]

Heyrad
In a way you have already answered my question on your thought process, quite interesting, although this type of retouching isnt quite my area, and I have no dreams to do it "for real" As i said just reading through the posts is really interesting And i think the most important thing to learn whichever your area is, is that no two images are the same and so there is not one single technique/workflow for all

but hows this for a idea if someone was to post a untouched image (hi res of course) and members then posted there thoughts and idea's for the image (not actually do it ) and see if you/or another pro agree with them or not ( all done in a friendly sort of way that is by every one ) surely a lot can be learnt that way

Palms

[heyrad]

HIya Palms..

great idea... let me work on it

[cricket1961]

Super Idea Palms.

Guys, these kinds of Projects take a bit to pull together. Even after writing books and articles it still came as a shock to me when I started putting together the idea for a DVD how vastly different it is. It was not something that could be whipped together, even if it is going to be something like a 6 hour video of watching an image go from start to finish. It still needs to be made so that the majority can understand what is going on easily. And man the edits. They are a killer!

Chris

[stopa]

Originally Posted by heyrad

I hear you all loud and clear... watching me retouch for 4hrs may answer a few questions, but may also confuse you terribly. "Why did he use Hue/Sat instead of color balance?", "why did he use a level instead of a curve?"... "wait, did he change brush sizes?". To be honest with you all, I'd probably end up creating more questions than solutions. I move very quickly and it's hard to keep up. You'd end up watching me do 4 things in a 15 second period and say... "what the hell did he just do?". And if I didn't verbalize every little move that I made I'd lose you... so you see, I can't just sit there and hit the record button. It wouldn't be fair to most viewers and a 4hr video of a flying cursor won't win me any oscars either

I complete agree with you! And that is why Leonardo da Vinci said "Never share your secrets with the throng - you will always be misunderstand"
But believe me: if I have a chance to watch how do you work - even it will be a 4h of record, I would do it, again and again.

Originally Posted by heyrad

Remember my friends... crawl, walk, then run... the smartest way to become a great retoucher is to understand the theories behind each move and the thought that inspired it, not the move itself. I'm able to do that because for many years I spent 8hrs/day burning through images for a corp magazine dept... 40 images/day that need color and manipulation on a daily basis makes you quick.

From my experience: I did my best retouch progress when I have to retouch 80 images of a swimsuits on location! Time was running fast- that is why I have to think, not only just dot-dot-dot... and suddenly BANG!!! barinvawe! It is only a light - nothing less nothing more...
That is why I agree with Heyrad, and all past and future craftman's: practice make you a master.

Originally Posted by heyrad

Think of it like a martial art... Understand the technique, how to use it. Then apply it, then forget it...

You are my man!

[stopa]

AND may be a good idea to write a book together: Cricket and Heyard!!!

[Julesj]

Cheers Rovis and Conrad,

I've now got a method that works well, using desat, selective colour and colour balance/curves + custom gradient map.

I now have all the techniques I need to retouch my own work, just need to practice ;-)

[Tim Whitney]

Conrad,

I would love to see more information on working with hair, like removing cross hairs and especially filling in gaps in the hair.

[MatthewMarshall]

welcome back

[toxic_snake]

I'm super excited to know that you'll be doing some tutorials.

As most of them mentioned, skin tones would be a great idea to start with, also another thing that would be great to cover is how to remove skin imperfections without losing the skin texture, specially when it comes to pictures with 'bad' skin.

And palms made a vey great point as well that will actualy help everyone.

[di_dia]

Hi Conrad,
I would like to learn how you retouch still life...
methods of combing and achieving a composition, creating gradients and shadows and backgrounds ...
Thanks,
Diyana

[DiamondsDr47]

"Why did he use Hue/Sat instead of color balance?" For targeting a specific range of color...
Best regards,

[MrAlexajlex]

I'd be interested in a skin tone tutorial.

I'm a photog that gets bogged down sometimes with the amount of images that need to be processed.

The market/products I work could not afford a Pro retoucher so I have to do all the work myself.

At the same time the work I do is not for national campaigns (or even close to that) so some basic tutorial is all I would need.

I'd be interested in a simplified skin tone tutorial geared towards the photog that is trying to do some very minimal work (more like color and not really CMYK reference numbers).

I constantly read skin tutorials but I feel that there is a good opportunity for a excellent simplified tutorial to come out.

[Calvinhollywood]

Hi there

My name is Calvin and i already did 3 DVDs about Retouching and Manipulation in Germany.

Its a hard work to get 5 Hours or more. I needed 10 Days production for 6 hours of Videotutorials.

But you can also do a 2 hours DVD.

Bring something where cant find on every DVD.... bring some Personality inside the DVD

If you will do that.... i am the first one who will buy it*g*

lg Calvin
http://www.calvinhollywood.de

[Lasse]

This is for conrad and chris alike. Some trivia and some more serious too:

Q1: Could we see 1 or 2 Images of your workspace?

Q2: Hdr, Im guessing you deal with them at least occasionally right? do you use any automated apps for the the startup or are they all done manually from start to finish. any quick thoughts on hdr, other than stay away from the Hyper Radioactive looks ?

q3: your quick view on displays, is it resolution over color accuracy? I mean if you can do colors greatly by the numbers seeing more of the image at once would be more valued than getting fooled into thinking you get the exact color from the display, or?

O4: besides a retoucher would you consider yourself a better illustrator or photographer?

Q5: Can you look at persons standing close to you without thinking about skin textures and highlights?

Q6; any tips for working with a wacom 8 hours a day? its not like you can just switch hands every hour or so.

About the Dvd(s) I would very much appreciate more of the idea and thoughts approach as opposed to the speed dials featured on youtube (not the same but still)
your thoughts about masking things that go out of of focus as well as coloring (maybe combined) would also be a killer feature on the dvd.

if you have any first hand experience retouching on location, some tips and trick could make for a great short bonus clip