RetouchPRO LIVE with Amy Dresser

[gamedonechanged]

Yeah I couldn't care less about the technical issues. Besides we ran over the original time anyway so we all got our moneys worth and more. It would have been good though to maybe work on an image that we can all get access too. Just a thought.

[robertmccadden]

All in all I am happy with the presentation and the couple new techniques that I learned. I agree with the previously mentioned comments about too much small talk, not enough questions asked (about the retouch that is), and wanting to know more about the details of a more involved edit (the eyes and skin). Good show Doug and Amy.

[robertmccadden]

Originally Posted by 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

Perhaps if were lucky Amy can clear up to the answer to this question in this thread. I believe she understood the question to be how do you know what color to correct instead of how to you know what color to adjust.

[mcherry]

Originally Posted by visualprop

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



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

I can offer beauty shots or portraits with rights.

[visualprop]

The decision which color to choose in the curves adjustment was actually one of the questions answered:

It depends what you want:

red channel: moving up -> more red, moving down -> more cyan
green channel: moving up -> more green, moving down -> more magenta
blue channel: moving up -> more blue, moving down -> more yellow

It is just another way of using a colorbalance adjustment layer.

So if you want less green + plus more red you probably would use the red channel and move the curve up. If you want less green but not so much red you probably would move down the curve in the green channel.



What is interesting is how she had her PS Palletes organized. I just quickly recreated and saved the workspace in the technical break. Never had the idea to move the tool-palette to the right next to the other palettes. It's unused for me, but I guess I will save time by not having to move the cursor across the whole screen to the other side to change the tool (yes, I use shortcuts, but sometime I just click on the tool in the palette)

Another interesting thing was, how she customized her wacom-pen to change the size of the brush. This is very clever. Wonder what happens if the brush is not selected. because I have one of the buttons behave as a right click and I like the contextual menu of each tool, which one can access while right clicking.

[Studio SIX]

Will there be a Rebroadcast?

[gamedonechanged]

Hey stop stealing my sharingan.

[Studio SIX]

Well if i saw Sasuke's this would be easier lol. Itachi seems just fine where he is :P

[gamedonechanged]

You see I need to be unique. I will change mine to a rinnegan later lol Only kidding....

I better stop there before the mods ask why I am dragging this off topic.

[eos]

Unfortunately I had to miss this one. Doug, can we expect to see a rebroadcast?

[Andrew Lawrence]

My favorite part-
Doug: "but using dodge and burn on the actual layer is destructive to the pixels right?"
Amy: "Well.... the pixels can just get over it..."

Haha, awesome! I bet there was a bunch of people gasping at this point in the event, I'm sure Doug was being assaulted with with questions also.

Great event. I kind of want to move next to a staples now. Much thanks to Doug and Amy for all the work they did putting this together and troubleshooting during the show.

I would love to see an advanced event on hair... all the different ways to fill in gaps, manipulate the hair, cleaning flyaways, advanced masking for difficult background changes, maybe tackling the calculations dialogue. Maybe some creative color changes to change the mood.

[Andrew Lawrence]

Originally Posted by eos

Unfortunately I had to miss this one. Doug, can we expect to see a rebroadcast?

I think there's always a rebroadcast of each show... Right?

[elboertjie]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

My favorite part-
Doug: "but using dodge and burn on the actual layer is destructive to the pixels right?"
Amy: "Well.... the pixels can just get over it..."

Haha, awesome! I bet there was a bunch of people gasping at this point in the event, ....

The problem with this approach is that once she has finished her retouching, it is near impossible to re-adjust something that she has already retouched and therefore has to retouch it again to an extent.

This is why she also said later in the show that she wants all the requests from her clients upfront, before she starts to retouch, as opposed to afterwards.

Her retouching approach is a one-way approach, not an approach that one can use to re-visit the steps later.

Still interesting though, even if it is destructive.

[jbedford]

I've had about 48 hours to digest the content in Amy & Doug's Webinar...

Pros: She is VERY easy to listen to and had me laughing at some points
Video quality was fantastic despite the technical problems
A couple of new tricks learned
Well organized presentation (despite the tech-issues)

Cons: Doug talked too much about nothing in particular...
The image she was working on was pretty ho-hum
How were the issues of eye-makeup, that flip of red hair, and the blownout highlights not addressed? They were the 800 lb gorilla in the room!
No PSD file
Not enough questions asked and answered

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by jbedford

The image she was working on was pretty ho-hum
How were the issues of eye-makeup, that flip of red hair, and the blownout highlights not addressed? They were the 800 lb gorilla in the room!
No PSD file

Several folks have mentioned that they thought the eye makeup should have been retouched -- but unless the photographer or art director asked for a change, why would the retoucher do anything except make sure that the saturation/color was constant within the area? The model would have been told to change the makeup and/or her hair color before the shoot if the look wasn't what they wanted in the final image. Amy Dresser mentioned that the size of the finished image as it was going to be used was small so that details (even those she did work on) would not be noticeable.

Here is a website that saved a copy of Amy Dresser's work from a website she had previously - it includes a .psd file download for the image discussed - it is listed as a pdf download, but is the psd file.

http://photodevotion.com/2009/07/amy...er-retouching/

[ApWizard]

That was my first Webinar with RetouchPro and that was as expected (really professional quality for audio and video and for the technical stuff behind), except for one thing: the "talk show", that surprised me in a good way.

Let me explain how I see the talk that Doug had done, Doug had done two basic things here, make Amy Dresser comfortable and at the same time pulled out her attitude about retouching and arts in general. I've a passion for social dynamics and communication so it was really interesting.

Half of the "how Amy Dresser do a retouching" comes by her attitude, thanks to Doug and his questions; the other half comes by seeing her doing various things (thanks to Amy ). The technical stuff was in there so there is no need to hear her spoke about what she is doing, is really better this way (hearing her attitude and watching her techniques). The only thing that remain uncovered is "why you do that in this way?", well do it and discover yourself; that's the better part, where you actually learn something and don't emulate someone like a robot would do.

I don't know about the previous events but I'm really glad that this one was done in this way.

[leo958]

does anybody know if there is going to be a rebroadcast?

[Flashtones]

Originally Posted by elboertjie

The problem with this approach is that once she has finished her retouching, it is near impossible to re-adjust something that she has already retouched and therefore has to retouch it again to an extent.

Not sure I agree. How is working on a duped layer any more destructive than working on a blank, 50% gray, or adjustment layer? In each case the underlying pixels (the background layer) are never touched or "destroyed".

Changes to her burn/dodge layer are done in the same way as any other b/d layer: mask/erase/opacity/clipping an adjustment layer to it, etc. If she needs to rework a small area all she has to do is select it from the background and CMD+J above her b/d layer. How is that so different than erasing or otherwise re-adjusting whatever b/d method you consider superior?

The trick is to find a way of working that is comfortable and predictable, and getting really good at it. Her methods don't seem to prevent her from doing top quality work, so who cares how it's done, other than to learn from it?

Some of this non-destructive editing can go too far, like the people who can't accept that their edits made their picture look a lot better just because now there are spikes in the histogram. If "destroying" pixels makes the picture look better than I'm all for destroying pixels.

[Studio SIX]

So many ask yet still no answer. Will there be a Rebroadcast of Amy Dresser....

[dianajenna]

"Half of the "how Amy Dresser do a retouching" comes by her attitude, thanks to Doug and his questions; the other half comes by seeing her doing various things (thanks to Amy ). The technical stuff was in there so there is no need to hear her spoke about what she is doing, is really better this way (hearing her attitude and watching her techniques). "

I agree.

[Studio SIX]

Less of the redundant feed back, More of a answer...

[Andrew Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Studio SIX

Less of the redundant feed back, More of a answer...

Patience.... there's only one person that can answer your question - the rest of us don't know if there will be a rebroadcast or not, so we can't answer that question. Usually there's always a rebroadcast but:

There were a lot of technical difficulties for this one.... and it went extra long..... so if there is a rebroadcast it might take a while to edit out all of the in between troubleshooting parts...

Part of the purpose for this thread is for feedback....

[Studio SIX]

oh i know i was just really upset because i missed the braodcast

[eos]

Watched the rebroadcast yesterday. Truly insightful and inspiring. I really hope Doug can convince Amy to do another show.

[Janet Petty]

My only regret was that I had to miss the first show. This is one I would gladly have done twice. Superb instruction. I've already put the technique to use. Thank you.

Janet

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by CJ Swartz

Here is a website that saved a copy of Amy Dresser's work from a website she had previously - it includes a .psd file download for the image discussed - it is listed as a pdf download, but is the psd file.

http://photodevotion.com/2009/07/amy...er-retouching/

Thanks so much, CJ.

I attended the rebroadcast, and despite all of my notes, I've already forgotten half of the techniques. This download is invaluable.

Lorraine

[bbabich]

How does the replay work? Can we just pay to download the presentation?

[Doug Nelson]

Rebroadcasts work precisely the same as live shows, only you'll watch a recording instead of live people. Announcement, registration, etc., is identical.