great! thanks

anything else people?

superb!!!

superb!!!

Do you mean Natalia Taffarel's DVD?
as I googled Natasha Taffrail and found no one with that name

cracked me up

Scribbler wrote:

Hahahaha I just choked on my soda in the undergrad library laughing

SMASSH STUDIO wrote:

Hahahaha I just choked on my soda in the undergrad library laughing

No drinking in the library, unless you bring enough beer for everyone..

I'd be cautious buying that dvd as I had a very difficult time when I purchased it. The dvd itself never came so after about two weeks I got a link for a download but none of the media players could support the file, then when I got a new link, the download didn't have any english subtitles. I never got a link to download any of the psd's and each time there was an issue, it took roughly two weeks to resolve. Eventually I was able to download the tutorial (with english subtitles), but it took a long time to happen...

Had not seen these before, interesting.

That doesn't sound very promising. Could be an incident though..
Is there some forum as well, or a review page?
How was the content and which one(s) did you buy?

I suspect as much. From my understanding, Stanislov is a fairly busy man literally traveling the world for his shoots which could explain why it took so long to reply to my emails. But that also means it may not have been an isolated incident which is why I caution those who wish to buy his dvd's.

I personally don't know of any forums or reviews as I was never able to find any but I purchased his second dvd on the basics of matte painting nonetheless.

Over all I think there is a lot to be gained from watching it but its not without its flaws. Those who are new to photoshop should steer clear of this until they have a good understanding of the basics because he covers none of that here. There's no mention of keyboard shortcuts, no retouching is done nor are specific settings stated and there is very little mention of specific tools being used. Those who are familiar with photoshop likely wont have a hard time following along though. However, a mildly frustrating aspect of the dvd is sometimes the subtitles are only briefly displayed and you may not have enough time to read it in its entirety. The video cycles back and forth between Jaraslov (the host), working at his computer and his screen as he works. I'm not sure if the program used for the screen grab was a bad program but the contrast is so high (which is further compounded by dark, contrasty scenes), that at times it can be difficult to make out what he's doing. More often then not, the shadows look as if they're clipped to black and he is painting on them with no effect when in reality, there is detail that can clearly be seen when the camera goes back to him working at his computer. Some may also complain that the techniques explained are only demonstrations and may feel they're missing something. None of the four images used are fully fleshed out and are only discussed for roughly a half hour to forty five minutes a piece. For instance, the second image (the one with the horses), is a composite of the foreground, the horses, the model, the trees in the background and clouds. There is no discussion of masking, composting or perspective. The image is already composited and you just jump right in to dodging and burning. Masking and compositing isn't discussed much until nearly the end of the video.

Those who frequent these forums often and/or have watched Natalia's, Kruno's and/or Gry's dvd's, are not likely to learn any new techniques per se. The vast majority of the video is a demonstration mostly of dodge and burn which he refers to as, "airbrushing." There are of course, other techniques demonstrated but dodge and burn holds the most runtime. You do get to see d&b as it applies to an editorial instead of the usual beauty retouch though; indeed the models are barely even touched. Of particular note, you get to see how d&b can literally relight the whole image. The scene with the horses begins with placing  a light behind the model and then adding highlights and shadows that would have been there had the image been backlit to begin with. Jaroslav also likes to finish the images out with various toning techniques (such as channel blending or adjustment layers), to add mood and drama. Its also interesting to note that the first image of the girl sitting on a log, is a tone mapped image.

Despite its short comings, I liked the video and from an artistic perpective, learned a good deal from it. I probably would have purchased some of the other tutorials had I not had to wait a few months to get this one. Looking through his website just now though, none of his tutorials are offered as dvd's any more but are downloads only. So hopefully his customers wont have the same difficulties I had.

dirkschmitz wrote:
Looking at the photography work, are those skin colors/effects on the portraits only a result of the lighting?

It looks like a illustrative effect and I'm not referring to the wind machine.

http://www.glucone-r.com/images/background_8.jpg

Yeah you need some good lighting, 3-5 lights (rim, hair etc) to start with.

After that
- Clarity + Fill light in LR/ACR
- Cleaning up and DnB in PS
- (for your example) more smoothing; micro DnB or dust&scratches/blurring.

I tried something like that here, bit rough and worked with only a lowres jpg, but you get the idea:


Stock from photl.com

Try not to read between the lines. I clearly stated for someone who is just learning the basics of manipulation: cropping or masking, blending between images, learning the tools for them, it could be helpful.
For taking a basic knowledge to the next level, it's not recommended. What the OP linked to as examples were more intricate manipulations than just the average take a model image and paste it over a single photo background.