RetouchPRO LIVE 05/27/09 Event Feedback Thread

[Doug Nelson]

Post your reviews of the first RetouchPRO LIVE event here.

Be honest, but also be fair (after all, it's our first time).

There are separate threads for future topic requests.

[Cyberek]

As it goes for me, great stuff. All was describet quite well. Hope to see more of this kind of shows.

Do You plan to make recordings of this kind of seminars, so We can Buy them?

[ashphotoart]

Its Great.

Love the question of Doug, I will need more advance training next time,
Luminosity mask and hue sat adjustment technique should be post again to revise it,

Ash

[Leafnline]

Great! Love it! I learn new things to combine with the techniques I use and also To add new ones.
The echo wasn't so bad, the resolution was really good. I'm glad I'm registered to RetouchPRO and hope to have more LIVE events for retouching.
Thanks Chris and also Thanks Doug

[Macint0sh]

Very good. Learned several new, specific tips to help my work. Absolutely worth the money, you could easily bump it to $15, and it would still be a bargain. Echo wasn't that bad.

[ashphotoart]

ECHO was bad for me, I was unable to heard properly what is Doug saying.

Ash

[ecqns]

Can anyone explain how to post questions for next time? There wasn't a dialogue box on my screen.

[Asiris]

Disappointed. Didn't work for me. Paid, but wasn't able to connect the event.

[lurch]

I'm double-posting here, 'cause Doug's post directing us here came while I was typing the other one. The whole thing was well worth the cost and time, except I couldn't find any place to ask questions. Looking forward to more.

[DWThomp]

Originally Posted by asiris

disappointed. Didn't work for me. Paid, but wasn't able to connect the event.

^^^^^^^+1^^^^^^

[Leafnline]

Well I couldn't find where to write questions, but anyway I think it was really good, maybe in a new thread we can ask some things to Chris and also I hope he releases his DVD soon

[Droolio]

Well I thoroughly enjoyed the webinar.
Apart from the small technical echo problem that popped-up (which wasn't that bad really), the event was well put together.
What I really enjoyed, apart from Chris Tarantino's tips and techniques, is the interactivity. Pertinent questions were answered consistently and with consideration. It really felt like a private 2-hour class where you get to ask specific questions which you wouldn't get a chance to otherwise.

In terms of feedback, sometimes things went a little quickly, so maybe slowing down things, mainly when explaining the technical aspects and the steps to go through to create the desired layer or whatnot.

Nothing much more I can say. This was a great learning event. You really can't get any closer look on a retoucher's work and flow than this.

So thanks to Doug Nelson & Chris Tarantino. Hopefully there will be more of these events to come.

(btw, the question box was attached to the floating tablet that had double arrows and a button to toggle between full screen and widow screen. There was a little plus sign to expand the chat box. For me the box was already opened on default when I logged in the webinar.)

[suchyy]

It was good. The quality of streaming was great, no problems at all, and I could see a difference in colour when adjusted by 1%. The only problem was an echo, but you already know that.

I didn't learn much, but thats not a drawback. Good to know that I know some theory and now need to practice It wasn't boring, Chris was friendly and you did a good job with being a host and asking questions.

I don't know if this is a place to ask Chris additional questions, but there is one I asked at the end of Webinar and it wasn't mentioned:

If you have much more skin to retouch (eg. a picture of girl in bikini), do you apply the same methods all over the body ? I mean, are you equally precise retouching skin on legs as you are when retouching skin on face ? If yes, how many hours does it take you to retouch such an image ?

Looking forward for next webinars!
Regards
Jakub

[Macint0sh]

Might consider showing the work done in the raw converter, before going into photoshop on webinars ahead.

[pixel_monkey]

Overall, I thought this was a very successful webinary given that it was the first ever. I'm sure Doug will get the echoes under control next time. It was really great to be able to see a typical retouching workflow through the perspective of a real pro. I've always doubted if I were doing the right things when I retouch. The only assurance I get is that I'm able to predict the result through my method. It was really great to be able to compare my own workflow side-by-side with Chris's and it turned out that I've been doing the right things all along. Nothing's fancy...just straight hard work.
The only suggestion that I have for future events is that maybe each session should have its own category, such as from beginner to advanced. I know Doug did rule out many of the PS 101 questions, but I felt that it was still going a bit slow.

[chas18052]

video was excellent...But unfortunatly for me my audio on my computer quit on me right before it started.. so i missed alot im sure. and as luck would have it i got it working right after the webinar ended.. I would attend again.

[CJ Swartz]

(I'm having to re-type this since the first try got "eaten")

I was truly impressed by the crisp video and audio (other than the echo) - very useful technology!

The echo...echo...echo... from Doug's side was terrible, but Chris repeated the questions so I still understood the Q/A.

I got lost in Chris's explanation about use of the Selective Color adj. layer to remove the black from each of the hues -- didn't want to interrupt then, and later thought it was a bit late to ask him to bring that part back up to go over. I just need to learn how to handle questions I have in future programs. When the material is somewhat familiar, I can keep up, but when it's something I haven't heard of before, I need to "raise my hand".

Kudos to Doug and Chris for setting this up and being willing to participate!

[CaptainHook]

I think there should be "advanced" versions. It felt like most things got repeated at least
2 times and people weren't paying attention and then asked questions about things
already covered.

They should definitely be recorded and provided to the attendees to review in
their own time.

I could personally do without so much talking and questions. It interrupted the 'flow'
for me quite a bit. Except chris explaining WHY he's doing certain things is great.
And obviously any key commands we can't see need to be explained.

Zooming in and out by chris seemed to lag the stream a bit. Probably can't be
avoided but sometimes we missed a bit although we could hear chris talking
about what he was doing.

I did pick up a few tips though and thought overall it was good.
The seminar software seems really good.

Cheers.

[eos]

Just want to say thanks to Chris for doing this and Doug for setting it up.

I couldn't say thanks at the end because I had no way of asking questions through the interface which was a little disappointing as I had a few. I was watching on a mac so perhaps that was the problem. I've done webinars before and not had that problem so hopefully Doug can sort it out for the next time.

I hope Chris will be willing to do some more as it was very informative.

Thanks again.

[fryday]

Originally Posted by Asiris

Disappointed. Didn't work for me. Paid, but wasn't able to connect the event.

It didnt work on my mac when it first started so had to switch to my pc and then it worked fine.

Thanks alot Chris and Doug. Great work. Was pretty basic but im sure future ones will touch on some more advanced areas.

Can i ask how many people attended? Was it a good enough turn out for future webinars?

[jrose001]

Overall quite good, save the audio troubles. In the future I think the moderator should bow out for the duration of the presentation, collect questions in the background, then come back for the last 20-30 minutes and conclude with those questions being put to the guest. I found the frequent interjections to be quite distracting.

[Janet Petty]

To quote CJ:
"I got lost in Chris's explanation about use of the Selective Color adj. layer to remove the black from each of the hues -- didn't want to interrupt then, and later thought it was a bit late to ask him to bring that part back up to go over... ."

But even then I figured it out after the fact. I have 4 pages of notes in tiny little writing. I'll be dissecting and feasting on those written tidbits for days.

This was without a doubt a stroke of genius to plan, put together, and execute a class like this. It is nearly perfect for those of us who have a tough time physically as well as financially traveling to other locations for classes. While true there were some technical difficulties, it was easy to overlook them and feast from the meat.

Thank you,

Janet

[LESider]

Great job by both Chris and Doug. Doug I thing you made a great choice in photo as she really needed some work, to her defense my girlfriend has worked with her before and said she usually looks better.
It was a really good beauty retouching 101, all basics covered and now future webisodes can be a little more advanced.
Thanks again for doing this.

[GlamGuru]

This was a great show. Thanks to Chris for sharing the information that most higher end retouchers keep private. The echo was really bad for me so I didn't understand most of the questions that were being asked to Chris. On the next one if it happens again, the presenter should repeat each question asked. I also agree on hardly any interuption to the presenter and save the questions for last.

Overall, great job! Can't wait for the next one.

[DiamondsDr47]

I did pick up a few tips.
Thanks!

[James Penner]

A big thanks to Chris and Doug for making this happen. It was definitely a great learning experience, and I'm looking forward to practicing the techniques Chris discussed. Hopefully there are more to come!

[Rydiant]

I'll echo (har-har) the kudos to Chris and Doug. Big thanks for doing this. It was a promising start to a format I hope will continue and improve.

We work on a variety of subjects at my agency, but this is the first time I've been able to watch someone with extensive experience with high-end beauty retouching. I've learned a lot from Chris' posts in the forums. He has and continues to be one of the most generous and knowledgeable members on RetouchPRO. I think he was an ideal choice to present the first live seminar.

The clarity of the stream was excellent. The ability to quickly zoom to the full resolution of Chris' screen and scale it to fit my lower resolution was handy. I only experienced a few problems with the presentation.

First, the echo on Doug's voice. It wasn't a problem for some but on this end it overlapped Doug's speech to the point it became intelligible. Blame it on the rain, blame it on Milli Vanilli -- who knows? Hopefully it's an issue that can be prevented in the future or corrected sooner if it happens.

Second, I couldn't find the chat window. It was a pain not being able to ask questions, something I was pretty keen on when I bought my pass. Searching the menus and skimming the help system didn't reveal anything. I downloaded the Webinar client through Safari 3.2.1 on a Mac OS X 10.4 system. Maybe the client isn't feature complete on such a setup. I'll check more thoroughly before next time.

Third, I'd also prefer less conversation from the host during the work. The constant questions, valid as they were, got in the way. I'd rather hear more from the presenter directly.

Tonight was a great start. I wish we could view the presentation again. Details are bound to be lost; most of us aren't court reporters. But that's what the forums are for, right?

Thanks again, Chris and Doug.

[Doug Nelson]

Thanks for all the great feedback so far.

I just got off a long support call with the company and got potential solutions to both the echo problem and the mac user's lack of a question box.

[Steve uk]

Thanks Doug & Chris! I really enjoyed it and found it very useful. More to come hopefully! The picture quality was superb for an over-the-net event, shame about the echo, but it did clear itself eventually. Also a shame that us Mac users couldn't ask questions, hopefully that can be resolved for the next one? I was lucky I had a shoot cancelled for today, so the time (2am to 4am) wasn't too much of an issue in the end, apart from trying to get to sleep as the birds were singing the dawn chorus! But for future events, I hope some compromise can be made on the time? Of course I understand that you can't please everyone around the world on this, it's a long way from from US to Europe to Australia to Far East.
Thanks again
Steve

[Gene McCullagh]

Excellent webinar! Thanks to Chris for generously sharing his talent and giving us an inside look at how a professional retoucher approaches his craft. Very informative!

Doug did an excellent job moderating and keeping things under control. I will agree with an earlier poster that for future webinars, the moderator should do intro and wrapup but be mute for the rest of the presentation. Perhaps if there are logical breaks whomever is moderating can do some Q&A at those points.

Overall a great experience and well worth the time and money. I look forward to the next one! Thanks!