Here’s the second video from my retouching tutorial series that I created exclusively for Model Mayhem.
In this tutorial, I discuss the process behind preparing a RAW image for publication (both online and in print). I also explore frequency separation for skin retouching and sharpening, which basically entails separating your image’s colors from its textures.
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July 14, 2012 at 9:49 pm, Erika Barker said:
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge Mike. I have been using Photoshop for 16 years, and I learned a lot from your video. It’s always great to get a different perspective on this topic. Thank you so much once again Mike!
July 15, 2012 at 2:56 am, Mike Caffrey said:
HI Erika, thank you very much for your comments… I’m flattered that such a seasoned Photoshop user finds something useful in one of my videos! I can go back about 13 years and remember version 4 (I even have my original mac with it still installed, sat in the loft!) Other perspectives of course are always welcome (or should be) and in listening to them we all can learn something. Thank you once again…
July 14, 2012 at 8:17 am, Bill W. said:
First – thanks for passing along the technique. I’ve seen a variant of this elsewhere, but it was much more complicated to set up. Although I know you like to tweak certain elements as you go along (blur, for ex), I set this up as an action; it takes one click to set up the work!
Anyway, I found this very informative and I appreciate that you took the time to produce and publish it. Especially, liked that you pointed out the changes recommended for 16bit files
What I find interesting about some of the recent ‘critiques’ is that A. They imply that they themselves are bearers of truth and yet do not use the opportunity to make a collaborative learning experience happen here – choosing instead to work out their personal issues in public, and B. they leave no allowance for personal taste in what is a highly subjective medium. This tells me that they are insecure in their own work. In a way, I feel sorry for these guys – focused so intently on tearing others down and refusing, apparently, to offer to help others using their own vast experience and skills. If a critique is not offered without a specific recommendation for improvement, it’s a rubbish critique and should be discarded out of hand.
My only critique (and it is a very minor one) has already been stated elsewhere – I was a little impatient at the beginning waiting for you to get to the topic (frequency separation). 🙂 Certainly not a fatal flaw. As an instructional designer, I would have made some comments about properly setting up the photo as a required step in the retouch workflow (in much the same way you referred back to the Camera Raw vid) and then gone immediately into the frequency separation process. Perhaps create a graphic that shows an end to end workflow and where the frequency separation retouch process exists in that flow.Then get right to the topic. But this, too, is a matter of opinion, so take it for what it’s worth.
Other than that, I found this video very helpful; thank you so much for your work. Anyone who takes the time to share their knowledge with others deserves high praise!
July 15, 2012 at 2:43 am, Mike Caffrey said:
Hi Bill and thanks for your comments. I hadn’t thought about setting up an action for this but now you have me thinking! It might be possible to combine both and create an action with dialogue boxes to allow me my tweaks…
I share your thoughts on the negativity shown by some of the earlier posters here, I welcome all comments but still at times I struggle to understand their motives! No matter how negative or cutting I always respond and will continue to do so. As you say, it would be better if they would at least share a little of the knowledge they possess in addition to pointing out where they believe I am wrong. (I’m presuming here that they have knowledge beyond mine and so know better than I). We work in an industry of egos I guess…
I like your suggestion about a workflow graphic! I accept that I took a bit too long to get to topic and have tried to address that in the current tutorial, it’s better I think but still needs work. I usually create the tutorials on the fly, perhaps I ought to be working with a loose script and timeline too.
I’m really happy that you found the tutorial useful and hope that there’s something in the other videos that will be of interest to you as well.
Thanks again for the positive words…
Mike
July 13, 2012 at 5:33 am, Mike Caffrey said:
I’m going to reply to both of your comments separately, this one briefly, the other in more depth. People’s tastes vary, I’m obviously not suited to yours but I think you’d have to agree upon reflection that your comments really don’t say anything about me or my work other then state your personal opinion, they do on the other hand, speak volumes about you. (I refer here also to your other post).
July 12, 2012 at 7:49 pm, Dave Simpson said:
Thank you for taking the time to do this for us I got several things from it. You do go on a little to much about why you do something which made my mind wander as I got it in one sentence and you go on for a paragraph or two. Its probably my TV news background wanting to edit you and keep it brief. But thanks again for lots of useful info I can try and incorporate into my workflow.
July 13, 2012 at 5:16 am, Mike Caffrey said:
Hi Dave and thanks for your comments. I do go on a bit I agree… it’s an old classroom habit! Repeat repeat repeat! I’ll try and keep it to a minimum in future videos. I’m glad you found a few useful things amongst my ramblings and really appreciate your support…
July 10, 2012 at 5:23 pm, EN2E said:
Great video, I will work this into my retouching. Thanks
July 11, 2012 at 2:04 am, Mike Caffrey said:
Thank you! I’m really happy you find it useful and hope that future tutorials will be of benefit to you also.
July 09, 2012 at 10:25 am, Mike Caffrey said:
I’d like to say a thank you to everyone who has watched the tutorials so far. Thanks also to those who have commented, both here and privately. While I may not agree with everything that’s said, I do take it all in and will try to incorporate all of them at some point in the future.
July 09, 2012 at 1:19 am, Phil Mcclellan said:
I don’t understand why people watch the video if they already know everything there is to know about retouching. I think the video was great! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I didn’t know you can hold “ALT” to revert instead of cancel BTW–Good tips along the way.
July 09, 2012 at 10:22 am, Mike Caffrey said:
Hi Phil and thanks for your comments… I’m happy that there are people out there such as yourself who find the tutorials useful, makes it worthwhile for me to spend the time making them.
July 08, 2012 at 1:32 am, Koray said:
Description says the process separates color from the detail which is not true.
July 08, 2012 at 2:48 am, Mike Caffrey said:
As I state in the tutorials, I do not claim to be an expert. I retouch and edit images, that’s my job, I also teach. As you have knowledge that I do not, why not share it so that others watching the video will benefit from having the correct information 🙂
July 07, 2012 at 6:02 pm, $#*! Our Jaclyn Says said:
Adding: Why did you choose a photo that you say will not actually show off the effect you’re teaching (37min)?
July 08, 2012 at 2:22 am, Mike Caffrey said:
I chose this image because overall, it had what I was looking for in an image to demonstrate the techniques I had in mind. It’s not perfect for every technique I admit. As was mentioned in a comment on the previous video, I ought to have used different images throughout the series. I’ll be taking that on board and switching to different image when needed in future, but as I’m committed to using this one for the series, I will come back to it throughout.
July 07, 2012 at 5:07 pm, $#*! Our Jaclyn Says said:
Please stay on topic. If it’s high-freq sep, don’t go into histograms, levels, and other things. For one, it’s too much especially for a newbie. Second, for a non-newbie, it’s unneeded.
July 08, 2012 at 2:17 am, Mike Caffrey said:
Your comments are appreciated, thanks for posting.
Before I post these videos I try them out by getting people I know, of varying ability, to view them (mostly newbies in the case of these tutorials), none of them have reported that there was too much info or that they were confused by me going off topic. While frequency separation is the main area of this video, it does cover other points too, as will the following videos in the series. It’s impossible to create something like this that will cover everything in a way that pleases everyone, I’ll keep your comments in mind for future tutorials though. Thank you
July 07, 2012 at 7:41 am, Ruben said:
Thanks for posting this tutorial. It is quite helpful for those of us who are new to PS.
July 07, 2012 at 7:59 am, Mike Caffrey said:
Hi Ruben and thanks for watching and commenting… The series is aimed at those who are just starting out so I do hope that the rest prove to be useful to you as well. Depending on the success of this first series I’ll be planning a more advanced set to follow on from this.
July 06, 2012 at 6:22 pm, Koray said:
So…I was hoping that the thread that made this all public and Sean Baker would get a credit of some sort…That didnt happen, plus you picked the most uninspiring image to work on and you keep calling this a retouching tutorial.
At least give credit to the people you learned these from.
July 07, 2012 at 12:44 am, Mike Caffrey said:
If there’s something technically wrong with what I do then I expect comments correcting me, I welcome those. If I miss something, enlighten me. This is your second comment like this. It’s just complaint for the sake of complaint. I didn’t learn from Sean Baker, if you don’t like the image, why watch? I stated in video one I’d use it throughout, and pray tell, what do you call retouching? I’m happy to discuss all of these things with you or anyone else, but I won’t continue to respond to people who just want to have an anonymous rant without substance.
Thank you for commenting.
July 08, 2012 at 5:48 pm, Nathan Foster said:
That’s model mayhem for you… Jealous, insecure, foolishness. Great tutorial. Thank you for sharing it.
July 09, 2012 at 10:19 am, Mike Caffrey said:
Thanks Nathan, really happy to hear that you liked it, I hope it was of some use to you and that you enjoy future tutorials too!