I've read so many books lately I dont know where to start in altering my workflow. I do realize that the best tool for the job is the one you know.

I've been playing with Google Earth and SketchUp. And while it's really cool that I can type in my street address and get an eagle's eye view;

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/mem...ntstarfort.jpg

It's also rather creepy in a big-brother-is-watching-you kind of way.

I played around with two files made available here at RetouchPRO;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancee_...7623055071521/

I know the eye catchlights are cringingly, embarrassingly bad. But I was really stoked to try my hand at this kind of retouching.

And then five (!!!) more were made available. With these I learned of my sorry limitations. One was mostly cyan/magenta - that one veered wildly out of gamut instantly and was quickly set aside. This second one was a great file for me to work on while I tried to understand this thread. I'm still kinda fuzzy on why it works but the results are truly amazing. And it was also an eye opener to attempt editing on such a large(ish) file with my 5 year old Dell. It would grunt and wheeze away giving me heaps of time to determine my next move.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2754/...e993aa2682.jpg

The first retouch was so exciting and I thought, 'people get to do this for a living?' The second one I found rather tedious. And thought, 'hat's off to those who do this for a living.'