|
Forums >
Digital Art and Retouching >
your go to resources/books for learning techniques
I am not great at teaching myself & I feel like I learn best by hands on less just from a book. I feel like I have a decent base knowledge of cs5 lr5 but need to take the next step in my ability to retouch my images. I still don't necessarily understand what the terminology means and how some thing impact the tools. I bought the complete raw work flow guide and will force myself through it but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice as to where to start as far looking online for tutorials that are poignant and yet not boring. thanks Sep 06 13 04:36 am Link The very best beginner book I can think of is Adobe's Classroom In A Book. Simple, hands on tutorials, that easily explain most of the software functions. Sep 06 13 07:08 am Link It depends what kind of retouching you looking for? Sep 06 13 11:34 am Link I'd like to be able to make my images crisp clean and less flawed. maybe take the next step in my progression towards developing my skill set. Sep 06 13 11:58 am Link If colors right and unwanted parts removed it should be fine. Skin is another problem. Which part you want to address? Sep 06 13 12:29 pm Link lynda.com Sep 06 13 02:47 pm Link I've learnt everything I know (which is not that much, but enough to get me by) by watching youtube. Sep 07 13 04:19 am Link Adam J Caldwell wrote: Same here. Youtube has some great tutorials on just about everything. Sep 07 13 04:50 am Link With Photoshop, I like seeing how things are done rather than just reading about them. Although I have several books on Photoshop, I’ve had the best success with video tutorials. I started out almost two years ago with the videos on lynda.com. The presenters (especially Deke McClelland and Chris Orwig) are very knowledgable. The videos are very detailed – maybe too detailed for the beginner (like a seven-hour video just on sharpening!). I never found a basic workflow there. It took me seven weeks to finish retouching the first photo – working a while, then referring to a video. A couple of months later I found I was doing things in the wrong order – like sharpening at the beginning of the process. DVD’s I’ve bought and recommend – these three: http://digitalphotoshopretouching.com/o … uching-dvd Free tutorials: Phlearn.com adds 2-3 free tutorials (average time, 20-30 minutes) each week. If you go back to his first year, when Aaron did the videos with his girlfriend, they’re kinda giggly – but the information is good. He’s kinda quirky but upbeat – and I’ve seen good info in his tutorials that I haven’t found anywhere else. Very basic to very advanced. In some of his videos, he explores one Photoshop tool. In others, he shows how he retouched a specific photo, or achieved a particular effect, from beginning to end using multiple tools. In addition to retouching videos, he also has videos on photography and compositing. He also has a few more in-depth tutorials (2-3 hours each) for $25-$35. New ones start out on sale for about $15. It will take some time just to see the full scope of what’s available on this web site. http://phlearn.com I discovered another web site with tutorials a couple of days ago. I haven’t spent a lot of time on it yet, but it looks good so far. http://www.photoshopessentials.com/ Sep 07 13 06:34 am Link No about of books, even authored by Ansel Adams or [InsertFamousNameHere] will teach you. What you need to have is a pre-visualization in your mind's eye. To train your mind's eye to see the image before even making it, requires creativity and thinking outside the box. You need to be disciplined and study the images of photographs and study the style of photographs who you wish to draw inspiration from. By looking nothing but these amazing quality images, you are—in essence—calibrating your mind's eye to these higher standards of image making. If you want to procure these necessary calibrations and training your creative vision, here are the books that will help you to create the image in your head. 1) Professional Photoshop by Dan Margulis. 2) Katrin Eismann's books on retouching and masking. 3) Internet resources and forums like RetouchPro.com. 4) Practice, practice, and more practice. There will always be a margin of error between theory and experiment. The more experiment you perform, the closer you will reach the expected results. J A CALDWELL wrote: Sep 08 13 10:04 am Link Ronald N. Tan wrote: Wise words. I'm always telling people the same thing, see it before you shoot it. Sep 08 13 02:17 pm Link Thanks! I am a product of the advice I give. A person can spend thousands upon thousands or even attend *real* art schools. If you can't previs or have the image in your mind's eye. No amount of money or reading until your eyes bleed will help you. cinema photography wrote: Sep 08 13 02:51 pm Link |
