RetouchPRO LIVE with Amy Dresser

[johnpd]

As far as the technical problems go, stuff happens. Things just don't run perfectly all the time. Loved Amy. Can't wait to try out some of her painting techniques myself as well as how she played with color/curves using various selections. Hope Doug can get her to come back again sometime.

[rystro]

I agree with some... would love to her the artists thoughts aloud as she is working as oppose to the jibber jabber.

[mcherry]

This is my first live presentation, but I did see the last rebroadcast you held, which aside from a technical issue I have with GoToWebinar, I thought was fantastic. As far as this one goes...

Two things, first, how could you have not asked her about that horrendous eye makeup and why she chose not to fix it? Perhaps my questions went into the ether...

Second, Do you really need to spend so much time with the ridiculous banter? I don't carve out two hours on a Saturday evening for that. More questions, more tech, allow the artist to present and less inane blather, please. Anyway, I'm sure others feel differently but those are my $0.02 on the presentation.

As far as GoToWebinar goes, I'm still having audio issues running through a pro soundcard at the studio and no one seems to know why.

[doctorontop]

Really enjoyed the Broadcast many would have given up with all the technical problems but Amy kept it going well done to her

[Olga]

Sorry, in some way just missed the last 3 layers, where is 65, blur and some else. Could somebody explain me? Thank You

[viking]

Great to see Amy on this way thanks for this !

About the software - have you tried Adobe Connect to use for such shows ?

[d00dle]

the best webninar EVER! seriously, i really enjoy watching her explaining her workflow and technique (+listen to her talks 'bout her background and how she got started are priceless)). I learn a lot in 2hrs than years in college...they don't teach sh*t in photoshop classes. good stuff.

@ Olga, if i remember correctly, 65 is the number she uses in color range (naming 65 so that she can remember) to add a punch to highlight, then duplicate and blur to make it glow and shiny...don't remember the last layer, but seem like she duplicates all, blur, and opacity to about 20-40% for vignette effect (i believe) .

[jfrancis]

Good stuff.

Even with the technical problems, Amy D webinar @ $5/hour = cannot possibly lose.

[unretouched]

Great Webinar Doug. I missed quite a bit of it due to the technical difficulties.
I don't think a refund is in order but if you could do a rebroadcast for those that already paid for the first one that would be great.

[ADGibson]

I was very impressed. I saw some techniques that I have never seen elsewhere. I am now a fan for life.

[unretouched]

I thought this was a great webinar but I have to agree with MCherry. I think the problem was that she is not an instructor and she was not laying things out like it was a lesson to be taught. She's a working pro who admitted she didn't have a very tight workflow. The biographical stuff Doug talked to her about was interesting but I would rather have more details about the techniques. Great stuff regardless.

[diggnikon]

Loved the Webinar regardless or tech probs .Straight shooter for how she works and what she does.
Love the way she works with Curves and the Hi lights painted in . Very worthwhile and im sure we all walked away with value and knowledge of how a pro works day to day editing

Thanx for getting Amy on here Doug

[Diego81]

Good webinar. Always something new to learn. I finished about 1 am. in the Uk but it was woth the wait.

Thanks Amy and Doug.

[ptyap]

Can't believe I missed this. Any replay?

[CJ Swartz]

It was fascinating to hear how she got her start in the business as well as her thoughts about the image she was working on -- Doug, I think you brought out some of the important points that she might not have brought up by herself.

Thanks to Amy Dresser and to Doug for this webinar and for sticking with it through the technical glitches (which are a part of life, although her ISP seems to be a glitch all by itself).

[skydog]

Great webinar..interesting to learn her background...

[Macint0sh]

as for getting your money's worth, you couldn't complain if it had just cut out when her mic first died.

interesting to see someone with such a "wrong" approach, make interesting pictures, and as always, picked up a few tips and tricks.

[RetouchOz]

Well done Amy!! The next presenter should be Andrzej Dragan as I'm sure he'd be much like you; mostly talent and basic brushes. Sure tricks and stuff can save time, but if you don't have an eye for it, every other thing is just a plain waste of time. All the gurus and their non-destructive layer, blah blah blah. Ha! who'd use a bunch of layers if they didn't have Clients.

Regards

Paul

[ekuna]

I missed everything except the last half an hour, but I still enjoyed it. Would love to see rebroadcast. Many thanks to Amy Dresser.

I try to catch almost every webinar (sometimes twice if there is a rebroadcast). I'm just hooked on this site and want to give special thanks to Doug Nelson for all the work he does.

Kat.

[munn_photo]

Amy Dresser is a true professional which is evident in the fact that she was prepared to run out to replace the broken USB connector in the middle of the broadcast. I believe we have all faced different crisis at times but it is how we deal with them that's important and I applaud her tenacity to continue on. I think problems were handled very well. I thought this was a great demonstration and tutorial of how Amy works. She is very refreshing and has a straight forward way of explaining her techniques with a humorous approach. I enjoyed it very much, learned a great deal and I hope that she will do another presentation in the near future. Sign me up please!!
Thanks again for a great show Amy, I do hope it's not your last.

Regards,
Larry

[gamedonechanged]

Overall a great session, my first too. I will definately be coming back for future sessions. I just hope in time we are able to purchase the sessions as it is so much better to have something visual to refer to as oppose to hurried notes. I suppose in one way I have to be thankful for the chit chat and technical issues so I could clean up my notes inbetween.

Thanks Doug and Amy.

[visualprop]

Originally Posted by mcherry

Two things, first, how could you have not asked her about that horrendous eye makeup and why she chose not to fix it? Perhaps my questions went into the ether...

I was thinking this myself. I would have fixed the makeup.

Originally Posted by mcherry

Second, Do you really need to spend so much time with the ridiculous banter? I don't carve out two hours on a Saturday evening for that. More questions, more tech, allow the artist to present and less inane blather, please. Anyway, I'm sure others feel differently but those are my $0.02 on the presentation.

I think it was said by others as well: too much smalltalk. And there have been only about 3 to 4 Questions answered.

My summary (This was my first webinar):
- technical problems: well, s... happens
- presentation: too much small talk, at times Doug didn't let Amy have her own flow (too much interruptions)
- quality: I had good picture and good sound

All in all it was well worth the 10 bucks. And I maybe consider to attend another webinar.

Regarding a downloadable PDS-File:
I understand that there are licensing issues with "client"-pictures, but why can't the presenters work on a picture from a stock-archive. There are a lot of very good portraits on stock-archives which don't have license issues. And I don't mind on which pic Amy or someone else demos their stuff. And I wold even pay more to cover the costs to license such a stock-archive pic.

Doug, another idea would be to have a model/fashion/portrait shoot for retouch pro, where the pics can then be used in the webinars and given to the attendies.

All the best
Mirko

[Olga]

Originally Posted by d00dle

@ Olga, if i remember correctly, 65 is the number she uses in color range (naming 65 so that she can remember) to add a punch to highlight, then duplicate and blur to make it glow and shiny...don't remember the last layer, but seem like she duplicates all, blur, and opacity to about 20-40% for vignette effect (i believe) .

Thank a lot

[visualprop]

Originally Posted by Olga

Sorry, in some way just missed the last 3 layers, where is 65, blur and some else. Could somebody explain me? Thank You

The 65 layer was a white layer with colorrange-selection set to 65 to add more white (shine) to the highlights. With the setting of 65 she selected all the Highlights in the pic. She duplicated the layer and then applied a gaussian blur at about 21.5 to add more shine/glow to the Highlights. She masked out both layers there the white would cover to much of the underlying details via layermasks.

The 1.9 layer was layer set to overlay with the highpass-filter at 1.9 (again with layer-mask).

Hope that helps
Mirko

[markc78]

Personally I quite enjoy the banter & entertainment that Doug adds to the webinars, keeps it nice & grounded & less clinical while still keeping the focus on the retouch, also I'm all for getting an overall picture on a persons retouching lifestyle ..how they got into it etc
One gripe is that Doug never seems to air any of my Q's ...but sure he's overloaded etc...

Also couldn't help feeling that the quality of the image wasn't great...alot of blown out regions which seemed unretouchable, dodgy makeup not getting any mention, loads of stray hairs just left , & the bones in her chest kept catching my eye in a bad way ...
would like to know what others feel about those areas & if they'd be inclined to retouch them or not?

[amica999]

Originally Posted by markc78

Also couldn't help feeling that the quality of the image wasn't great...alot of blown out regions which seemed unretouchable, dodgy makeup not getting any mention , & the bones in her chest kept catching my eye in a bad way ...
would like to know what others feel about those areas & if they'd be inclined to retouch them or not?

I enjoyed the show as well, but I really second every word you said! To be honest I don't think I would have bothered to retouch a pic of this quality at all or would have cropped the hell out of it

[gamedonechanged]

Anyone remember what she said in regards to the curves adjustment layers. Eg if you want to lower the red you can either lower the red curve or play with the green or blue curve. What did she say in regards to how she makes her decision which to go for?

Thanks

[unretouched]

This wasn't a big feature of her retouching.
she would see an area she thought was , lets say, a little green,
she would make a selection around the area, put it on a layer, select curves in
adjustment layers, then make a minor tweak in either R,G, or B. The effect was
almost unnoticeable. But that was how all of her moves were. An accumulation of
dozens of moves that in themselves made little impression but cumulatively
had a large effect. I mean, the tolerances on some of her brushes was 1-3%!
Talk about subtle.

[gamedonechanged]

Yes I will definatley be using that method or at least trying it out. I might enroll in a life drawing class too.

[wbphotography]

i was a big fan of the retouchpro live events .... just missed a few shows ... and i still love it didn't mind the technical problems and hey for just $10 getting the chance to watch professionals like chris, amy and others - in my opinion it's just priceless

liked what amy did ... also her voice sounds really great. so hopefully we will be seeing another webinar with her.

doug, keep on the good work!