In this video, I commentate everything I'm thinking, planning, and doing while retouching an image from my recent set of images captured with Holly.
With this particular video I go into great detail about my thought patterns while retouching. I found that while this slowed me down, it made me much more deliberate and considerate of what I was doing at the time.
If I verbalised a modification or manipulation I was planning, or envisioning in my head, I would complete it, where, if I weren't talking about it, saying it outloud, I would've given up, or approached the problem in a lazier way, potentially leading to a poorer outcome overall.
The glorious thing about Photoshop is that you can constantly learn and improve almost everything you do. There's no limit to the way in which individual components of the software can interact with one another, and after using it for such a long period of time, I honestly thing there is no genuine competitor in terms of the flexibility and power that Photoshop places at your finger tips.
I consider myself quite advanced in Photoshop, with a strong mastery of the majority of the tools within the software, but there are many, many others who absolutely blow me away with the sorts of things they can do with the very same set of tools.
The final image:
The original image, straight out of camera:
I hope you enjoyed this insight into my retouching process and thought pattern.
Let me know if you liked this, instead of a standard before / after shot - I also love the fact that through recording the act of my retouching, this can not only be used as an educational tool for others, but also for future clients, to help position the value of quality retouching and the "high prices" photographers are often criticised for charging.
There's so much hidden work that goes into a well considered and modified image beyond going somewhere and snapping a picture of someone standing in a particular costume at a particular place and time.
Thanks for reading (and even more thanks for watching!)