Photo Retouching - - Best way to memorize a tutorial!

Donamai · #1 12-14-2006, 10:22 PM

Hi,

I recently went to another country to visit a friend who I had not seen for years. He asked me if I could help him restore some photographs that he could not fix. He only had PS 7 and no internet connection.

I realized that some of them I could fix easily but some others I could not. I wanted to apply some techniques I had learned a long time ago with PS 7 such as bringing detail out of a very underexposed picture or a very dark picture and some other techniques I had not done for a very very long time. To my old reality, I could not remember how to do it. I am so used to the easy tricks on PS CS now that I had no clear memory as how I used my old techniques.

I then realized that I needed to refresh my mind with the tutorials I had learned almost 6 or 7 years. I thought to myself "wow if you don't practice those tutorials they can be forgotten easily and you could spend a lot of time tyring to figure out the best way to fix a picture"

Now, I don't usually have to memorized what I learn as I practice at work with them. It just made me curious to know how people in this forums do to remember the tutorials people post here or in other websites.

What is the best way for you to remember the tutorials you learn besides practice? Any good suggestions?

Do people save their tutorials and review them as a new project or challenge comes up?

Do you learn by practicing a hundred times until you get it burned in your brain?

Just curious about it. Everybody learns diffently cand since PS is so huge some times I would guess that people take different ways to learn a way to get to a good result.

Feel free to share your thoughts and tricks! Take Care!

albatrosss · #2 12-14-2006, 11:14 PM

I know exactly what you mean. There are times when I would get so frustrated remembering that there was a way to correct a particular problem but just couldn't remember how without going through a Google search.

For the past year or so if I find that a technique is successful, whether it's a tutorial or some technique that I just happened to do, I take the time to make my own tutorial, print it out and keep it in a notebook. I find it easier to use a notebook than to view a tutorial on the screen. So far I have about 40 of these in my notebook.

Swampy · #3 12-15-2006, 05:16 AM

Like most folks around here, I keep a folder of hints and tips that I refer to. I also use Adobe CS2's Acrobat 7.5 to download a PDF (with full active links) from tutes on web pages or from this forum.

I often use the note taker in Photoshop to make a sticky note within the file I have worked through. It gets saved with the PSD file. I try to name my files by subject matter "Red Hibiscus", "Moonlight Bridge". I can picture the project in my mind that covered the technique and relate the image to the project that way.

You're right about PS being so deep and broad, I don't know that anyone has fully mastered it. I'm sure that even Bert Monroy feels there is more to learn.

Practice, practice, practice!

Jerryb · #4 12-15-2006, 09:53 AM

hi,
ah memory.. smile... One of the important things I have learned is that each persons ability to remember varies greatly and be come important that each persons know thir weakness's... with that in mind... myself I really have poor memory so I develope my method to overcome that situation where I can overcome and remember how to do something..

now also keep in mind there a old adage "use it or lose it"!! and that very TRUE!!! so one need to prepare for that...

Now like everyone I am saving all the important tutorial I find.. and that gets to be a job in categorizing/organizing them to access them easily...

but I primarily use a 3 prong when it come to PS since there is a lot of details involved in the various techniques..
1. I try to understand the concept (it much easier to remember a concept than details) . This is important because if you understand and remember the concept then it become easier to remember the steps/details , one has forgotten, especially if it been a long time!! Along with that it make it easier to find those details either via tutorials, help sections, specific websites....

2. nothing replaces practicing.. also as much as I can I'll practice and go out of my way if neccessary to use various techniques... just to help on the memorization process..... remembering my old adage use it or lose it.. smile.

3. I also use the references along with the process of remembering..!!!
when i am learning a concept/details I will look at the help section of the program if for nothing else where things are located...section headings!! I may forget details but remembering the concept, and knowing how the help menu is setup and organized, the help menu much easier to find and that help remember the details of the techniques.... along with this , with photoshop, I use certain key websites that has tutorials that covers the basic technique involved with techniques... eventhough it addresses cars... but the tutorial all apply to things that are done on this board..

so if i do forget the details by remembering the concepts, that can shake up those memory cells to remember the details or will allow me to reference the help menu or go a specific website to help me remember the details/techniques...

Well those are my thoughts....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donamai

Hi,

I recently went to another country to visit a friend who I had not seen for years. He asked me if I could help him restore some photographs that he could not fix. He only had PS 7 and no internet connection.

I realized that some of them I could fix easily but some others I could not. I wanted to apply some techniques I had learned a long time ago with PS 7 such as bringing detail out of a very underexposed picture or a very dark picture and some other techniques I had not done for a very very long time. To my old reality, I could not remember how to do it. I am so used to the easy tricks on PS CS now that I had no clear memory as how I used my old techniques.

I then realized that I needed to refresh my mind with the tutorials I had learned almost 6 or 7 years. I thought to myself "wow if you don't practice those tutorials they can be forgotten easily and you could spend a lot of time tyring to figure out the best way to fix a picture"

Now, I don't usually have to memorized what I learn as I practice at work with them. It just made me curious to know how people in this forums do to remember the tutorials people post here or in other websites.

What is the best way for you to remember the tutorials you learn besides practice? Any good suggestions?

Do people save their tutorials and review them as a new project or challenge comes up?

Do you learn by practicing a hundred times until you get it burned in your brain?

Just curious about it. Everybody learns diffently cand since PS is so huge some times I would guess that people take different ways to learn a way to get to a good result.

Feel free to share your thoughts and tricks! Take Care!

Donamai · #5 12-15-2006, 11:34 AM

Hi again!

I see a lot of you guys do the same things about memorizing a tutorial. I wish I could have done the same thing about having a printed record of the tutorials I have encountered. Now I look back and see the techniques that I have worked with, which have been a good amount, but of course I would be a good memorizer if I remember every single detailed listed in those tutorials.

I will actually remember to "Print a reference"

for future practice. Again, every picture is different and every job requires different ways to approach a solution.

I guess it is as our friend Jerry said "practice, practice and practice." I wish some of our good retouchers of this forum would mention what they do when learning a new technique. For example, I have seen great work of our member Flora and she seems to get every detail of the work somehow.

There is got to be a good way of putting your memory in a snapshot for every tutorial you have seen and read. Can you imagine all those books read and out of all of them you just remember the basic ones?

In addition I have seen that when it comes to CREATIVITY, as in composing a work of art, no matter how many tutorials I have learned they seem to be blurred once I want to put them in practice. I guess that as in the great art of writing, you just have to be free and let your mind fly away. What do you think? Can your mind be blocked by what you want to apply, the tutorials you know, as oppose to what your brain can come up with creatively?

palms1 · #6 12-15-2006, 11:58 AM

It seems like other people i do the same, either print out a tutorial or write down in a note book steps taken, but guaranteed the one i absolutely must have is the one i forgot to copy down or i cleared the history before i wrote it down. but i am blessed with the sort of memory that can remember seeing a tut or post in a forum and where to go and look for it, Funny that, i can remember where i have seen something but not how to do it ! ! !

As for the other poser on creativity i think i will pass, but i will add that i have noticed i have had more feed back on artifying a photo that took say 5 minutes than some i have spent hours doing

Palms

Kraellin · #7 12-15-2006, 12:47 PM

basically, the more you use something, the easier it is to recount how to do it. i find that rather than trying to remember a particular technique, i simply get to know my tools. if i know the tools, the technique is secondary and i dont have to try to remember as much.

in the case of being familiar with cs2 and then working in ps 7, some things are going to be the same and obviously, some not. so, the first paragraph doesnt quite appy here as much.

therefore, it is a good idea to have a sort of lexicon of techniques. whether you do this by printing things out or remembering where you found such and such a tut or whether you bookmark in your browser or whether you add exif data to an image or whether you label all of your layers or whether you use a book, or some combination of all or some of those, it's a good idea.

one of the things i approached doug about here on RP, was trying to organize a sort of the best of the best of RP and putting all of those in a separate forum, because frankly, i run into the same thing. there's that one technique that you remember seeing and reading and maybe even practiced a bit, but you just dont remember and now you try to find it and it's 20 pages down somewhere in maybe this forum or that one and you spend more time trying to find the tut than you would just making a new technique.

well, doug's response was really rather simple. we already have that. it's the tutorials forum. get more folks to write tutorials. get them to post them and there's your library of the best of the best of RP. and that's why you've seen recent pushes to build up this library of technques. if we have one central repository of tutorials, the only thing you'll need to remember is to check the tutorials forum!

so, how's that for a sneaky way to push you to writing more tutorials

but it is true and it's really not that difficult and would save all of us a tremendous amount of time if we all worked on building up our library of techniques, much the same way that we're building up our library of links. so, there's your solution, whether you're using ps 7, cs2, psp or something else. that would be our book, our how-to, our reference manual here on RP. and it would also have the added benefit of saving your poor, old librarian from having to pour through thousands of posts trying to build it all himself

jdelrio · #8 12-15-2006, 01:04 PM

well mi carry on my external hard drive everywhere.... with the tutorials, brushes etc...

Lasa · #9 12-15-2006, 01:10 PM

I have cheat sheets...example: smooth skin
I've got easy 15-20 different ways I've found interesting over time.
Found 3 the other day on the RP acne picture. Some were new spins on older ideas but everything is good. The issue becomes knowing when to use each.
Like Smooth skin I have Noise, Color caste some others..
Lasa

skydog · #10 12-15-2006, 04:58 PM

I bought a plastic file container ~$15 at a the local office supply. I keep folders of various categories: masking, color, art effects, skins, eyes, teeth, plug-ins, etc so when I need it, I can usually find it. The key information I find REALLY useful I incorporate into my normal work flow and PRACTICE.

Stroker · #11 12-15-2006, 05:21 PM

I have 2 notebooks. One is spiral and perferated. I keep this one next to my mousepad for easy jotting. As I fill the pages, I move them to my 3' D-ring. Not as fancy as printing and scrapbooking, but works for me.

Oh, I also keep unlined and graph paper handy.

Oh -again- I also keep Post-Its handy for little reminders that I want to incorporate into my flow. For example, I have the hardest time remembering that raising saturation can fix a certain kind of bad photograph. Until I can remember without looking, that little Post-It is stuck to the corner of my monitor.