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!DahGayseXY 01/16/12(Mon)18:27 No.1492101
File1326756440.jpg-(337 KB, 1920x1200, 1303831692794.jpg)
 Before
I start, there's some theory I'd like to go over that I see many of you
aren't familiar with. Until you've confirmed that you have a good "eye"
for dramatic changes by asking professional photographers and
retouchers what they think of your processing (best way is industry
critique forums), DO NOT MAKE DRAMATIC CHANGES BECAUSE YOU THINK IT
LOOKS GOOD!! You can't trust your perception of the changes. So if you
can't use "let's make this look good" as a mindset for retouching, what
do you do? Think
"how can I improve the COMPOSITION of the image" -
this includes the bulk of the changes such cleaning up visual snags,
distracting values, cropping, sharpening, and d&b
"how can I make the photographer's message more clear"
"how can I improve the illusion of DEPTH in this image?"
"what mood is this image supposed to elicit? How can I use color and contrast to enhance the mood?"
And finally "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" aka "don't make changes just because you can"
I
see so many of the retouches in this thread have really ruined the
image by doing some weird sharpening or other non-necessary stuff, which
is totally normal. I must have ruined hundreds of images before I
started getting critiqued by professionals and learning when to make a
change because "it looks good." The more comfortable you are with
composition, color theory, and art theory in general, the more you can
start to trust your perception of what looks good. I'm still frequently
making horrible decisions in retouching, but luckily I know lots of
other really high end retouchers who help me out by telling me when I
suck. |
