I always say that I am going to publish more often, but before I know it, another month has passed. It's a good thing that no one is actually waiting for me to create anything new. Right? Hey, as I have said before, I am a working professional, and when it gets busy, it gets busy.

Actually, I should not even be posting this right now. I have a 4,000 image deadline due in 2 days, and I doubt I am even half way through. I like being kept busy, but I just hate the way everything else falls to the side, when paying work comes along. All too often, we forget about our needs, and those of the family. And why? Because someone has a problem with simple math skills, and dumps work on you, due way sooner than it should be. I know, I am just complaining to hear myself complain… What else is new?

In This Episode:

• Business Can Be A Challenge
  
• Color Blindness
• Dieting Update
• Life Improvements
• Scattered Thoughts

Podcast – Episode 013

Business Can Be A Challenge

Just when you think you have it all figured out, you realize something did not go as planned. A client is upset about something or other. You forgot about that Auto-Withdrawl that turned into a bounce fee. You know how it goes.

Color Blindness

I have an old post on Color Blindness in Photoshop that was buried on the website for the past year. I thought I would bring it up again, on the podcast this time.

Dieting Update

As it turned out, I met my target goal 2 months early. Go Figure. In this update, I talk about what seemed to help me loose the most. Right now, I am looking at a video of myself from 6 months ago, and it's crazy how I was busting out of a shirt that I would be swimming in these days. In fact, I have already give away 2 sizes worth of clothes because they just don't fit anymore. So, lets keep it that way.

Life Improvements

Re-Evaluating where you are, and where you want to be, are super important. It's also important to figure out how you are going to get there, Join me, as I discuss the various changes I have made to my life, and more importantly, why.

Scattered Thoughts

I am not quite sure what else to call this. Apparently on the night of the recording I was all over the place, not sticking with anything for very long. Various topics include Want vs. Need, WebSite Rebuild, Why Constant Learning Sucks, and No Deadline Means a Day Off. At least, that was roughly what I could make of the 15 minute session. The topcs are good, so I will be revisiting them in a future podcast.

Use the Imagenomics Coupon Code: "ARTOFREOUCHING" for 20% Off their products. So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Review

Adobe Photoshop is used by MANY different industries; Graphic Designers, Video Editors, 3D Rendering, Photographers, and Professional Retoucher. This Adobe Photoshop CS6 Review is from the point of view of the Professional Retoucher. My needs are based solely on taking an image from Camera RAW, to a Printable High Quality Image. I am interested in making the Retouching easier and faster, while not making it Automated. I need to stay in complete control.

As a Professional Retoucher, I have very specific needs. Unfortunately, Adobe continues to make a single product for everyone. As I have said for many years, I desperately wish they created separate product divisions. Personally, I have no need for video editing tools, or 3D rendering. I have no need for Automated this, and Computer controlled that. "Hands Off" Retouching is what Elements is for, the beginner. I want Professional tools that allow me to do Professional Retouching. No more, no less.

In This Episode:

• Adobe Photoshop CS6 Review: First Impressions

Transcript: Podcast – Episode 012

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Review: First Impressions

I am looking for Photoshop CS6 to make my work look better. I look forward to every new version in hope that it comes out with one or two new tools that really adds to my "Wow" factor. Something that I could not have accomplished, without the upgrade. For example, interior architecture was a down right pain in the ass until Photoshop CS5 introduced the Lens Correction Tool. I jumped all over that.

If you know me at all, it should come as no surprise that much of this Adobe Photoshop CS6 Review will to be be a major let down. Nothing new I wanted was in there, and filled with a ton of changes I could not care less about. I have been criticized for my sharp opinions, but I do not plan on changing the way I think about Photoshop CS6, just because more people are viewing this blog daily. "If you haven't pissed someone off today, then you haven't said anything relevant". I live by that quote.

The problem, is that from a Retoucher's perspective, changing the color of the palettes, and moving the tools around, is not adding to my skills. I found nothing that made me jump out of my seat, that grabbed my attention, and made me a believer. Adobe Photoshop CS6 should be passed up as an upgrade for a Professional Retoucher. Design, 3D, and Video got all the love this time around.

Here is my experience with the Photoshop CS6 Upgrade:

1. Icon looks Neon in the Taskbar. Hard to not notice it. I miss the old Icons for all the products, Pre-CS Series. I find them ugly now. While this is subjective, I have always been entertained by the Beta release Splash Artwork over the years. Right now, it's a cat silhouette made of words. Soon, it will be something dull and drab, once again.
2. When Photoshop CS6 opens, the dark interface I do not like. However, i can see the benefit, and will try it. My general impression though, I find the standard light grey easier to read. Something about the dark interface does not appeal to me, but I know if you are sitting in a dark room, and you want minimal interface distractions, then this would be the way to go. In the end, I will likely put it back the way I have been using it for past 20 years.
3. I love the way it (finally) asked to import previous settings. All my palettes jumped right into place, except for the new or replaced ones, but this is to be expected.
4. By selecting the "New in CS6" Workstation, it moves my palettes so I can see what is new this time around. Since I am a photo retoucher, I can completely ignore the Timeline and 3D Palettes. Character, Paragraph and their styles can go, I am not a designer.
5. At this point, Photoshop CS6 locked up on me. I now need to quit and restart. Not a good start, I am afraid. I haven't done anything yet, and already my brand new MacMini is crashing. Joy of Joys.
6. I don't use Bridge, and hate the way they continue to force it down my throat. I will now remove the Mini Bridge Palette. The Custom Brush and Brush Presets look the same as before. I never really used them anyway. As a retoucher, I use a round brush, with various softness. I'm easy.
7. A big change I see is that the Adjustment Palette has been split in two. There is now an Adjustment Palette which has the same group of icons, and a new Properties Palette with the options. At first I was perplexed by it. The basic concept is one that I had thought of before myself, although not quite how I envisioned it to be executed. The Properties Palette changes depending on the layer selected. So, if it is an Adjustment Layer, then you get the Adjustment Options. This is a better solution than the previous versions, as I always hated the way that the icons would disappear when you were on the Adjustment Layer, and only the options would be displayed until I clicked off the layer. This solves that odd interface problem.
8. The Adjustment Palette added a wonderful new icon, that I will never ever use, called Color Lookup. On the surface, it seems to load predesigned color and Tone adjustments. It works along the same theory of 3rd party tools such as Nik Photo Effects. You can select items like Blacklight, Sepia, Foggy Night, etc. It just distorts the color and contrast of the image. I am sure Photographers will play with it, and other 3rd parties will develop for it. But as a retoucher, it's just more clutter.
9. Back to the Properties Palette. As mentioned, if you select an Adjustment Layer, you now have the options displayed in the Property Palette. If you select a Mask, the property window turns into the (now missing from the menu) Mask Palette. It behaves the same as before with access to Density, Feather, and the Mask Edge and Color Range Palettes. I'll say one thing for the Properties Palette, it is cleaning up various cluttered options, and putting them into a single box.
10. After the upgrade, my Actions were not imported. Boo! I wonder how many carefully crafted actions have now been broken?
11. Another great new feature that must be disabled immediately, if not sooner, is the Filtering of Layers option. It seems that you can choose to see just Adjustment Layers, or just Pixel Layers, or just Text Layers, etc. The options keep going with filtering by color, mode, effect, etc. The reason this is a PISS POOR idea, is because people are going to be accidentally having layers hidden, and not even realizing it. This is bad enough for a Photoshop professional, but ameratures are just going to get flat out confused, and otherwise lost. Bad, bad, bad. Not to mention the fact that it now adds more to the cluttered interface that I will need to ignore. I organize my layers into a Grouped Folder Structure. I have no problem finding what I am looking for.
12. Onto the Tool Palette. There is a newly added Perspective Crop Tool. Since this option was already available in Photoshop CS4 and CS5, as part of the Crop Tool itself, making this it's own icon is just more clutter being added, to cater to people who haven't bothered to learn about all the Photoshop Tools in the first place.
13. The Content Aware Move Tool (Not grouped with the Move Tool?!?!) Failed in every attempt I made to use it. More Crap. I hate that Content Aware nonsense. I have never… EVER… had Content Aware do anything useful for me. If the situation is simple enough for this tool to work properly, I could easily do it myself. Go put this tool where it belongs, in Elements. As a Professional Retoucher, I need more control than this will provide.
14. The new HDR Toning takes several existing tools, and puts them into a single dialog box. It combines Exposure, Shadow and Highlights, Vibrance and Curves Tools. This creates several issues for me. One being, another tool I will never use. Additionally, It turns non-destructive Adjustment Layers into a destructive dialog box. For the same reason that I don't like the Shadows and Highlights; once you click "OK", the damage is done.
15. There is a new Type Pull Down Menu. Since Photoshop is not a Text Layout program, I find the addition of this to be a little overkill. However, I know that Graphic Designers will benefit from this addition, so I can not criticize it much.
16. There is a new Oil Paint Filter that is about as useful as the WaterColor filter. I'm not sure why it was left "out in the open" in the filter menu. I would think putting it into a subfolder makes more sense. Again, as a Professional Retoucher, this is not anything I will use.
17. Adaptive Wide Angle Filter looks to be an extension of Lens Filter. While I love the Lens Filter, introduced in CS5, and use it regularly, I'm not sure yet if the Wide Angle adds additional functionality that I would use. Further testing in a real world environment is needed.
18. While I am at it, i notice that the myriad of Artistic Filters have been relegated to the "Filter Gallery", while other filters like Noise and Sharpen are left to remain out in the open. Finally, something to actually clean up the clutter. Thank you.
19. Under Proof Setup, there appears to be a Color Blindness option. Is this really how Color Blind people see colors in the world? How strange. Of course, I have no idea why I need that as a Proofing option, but there you go.
20. Automatic Save Recovery looks like something that could be VERY beneficial. I know that I can work for 40 minutes and suddenly realize I have not saved yet. Assuming this works as promised, this seems to be the single most important addition to Photoshop CS6.
21. Save in Background… does this mean I can keep working while I saves the file? That sure would be a time saver. While most of my stuff saves in 30 seconds to 2 minutes, I have had layered monsters take 20 minutes. I'm just saying, this would add up through the course of a day, at 2-5 minutes each save. If this is not how it works, then it should be added.
22. In the Preferences, I noticed Disable Compression of PSD Files… Why?!? I turn on TIF Compression for everything. Starting with a 16MP Camera, going to a 16-BIt File with dozens of Layers, my files have become amazingly large. Besides, PSD files have a size limit of 2GB. TIFs will support 4GB. You should be using TIF anyway. So, who really cares?
23. Camera RAW 7.0 has some major improvements. In fact, I hated every version up to this one. It now uses the same engine as Lightroom 4.0. Finally, I was able to make sense of the interface, and get some positive results. Unfortunately, you can only do one image at a time. This is, of course, to get you to buy Lightroom 4.0. I recommend Corel Aftershot Pro for Beginners, and Capture One for Professionals. But, that's just me.
24. Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt Shift have been added to the Blur menu. Unnecessarily, they took up space to add 3 additional names, for the same tool. More clutter. However, I do like the new filters. I found that while the options appeared to be limited, they were easy to control. I can, of course, achieve the same results myself manually, however, when things are made easier, and the results are what I expect them to be, then I'm all for that.
25. I am bummed that they omitted the Anti-Lens Shake they were talking about a few months ago. I was really looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong, I expected it to work about as well as the Content Aware garbage, but I'm just saying; I wanted to try it. Ah well.
26. I did find that complex tools like Liquify are in fact faster than previous generations. I never used them, but I know many do.
27. I noticed that the Mac Specs say you need v10.6.8 or v10.7. Well, so much for legacy support. This also omits every Mac that we have in our studio. Why didn't we upgrade to v10.6x? Well, if it's not broken, don't fix it. These are production machines, and we avoid causing un-needed damage, or invest time in OS upgrades.
28. The new Lighting Effects Palette is another that I would never actually use. I guess designers might use it once in a while, but it's mostly it seems to be for 3D people, I would imagine.
29. The updated Patch Tool still needs to be destructive, so this limits it's usefulness. In fact, that alone makes it unusable for me, except in the most rare situations. I avoid the Patch tool; not that I don't like it, I just don't want to work on the same layer as my background. When it comes to cloning around Lens Flares, or other gradients, the Patch tool can not be beat.

Photoshop hit it's retouching peak already. With the addition of the Healing Brush and the Lens Corrections Filter in the past few versions, there is little more I can even think to add. It's all added fluff that will not make me a better retoucher. Here are some suggestions that WILL make me a better retoucher:

1. Still Missing: A Simple White Point Adjustment Palette – The only tool I actually wanted, is still MIA. I hate you. I want one that simply lets me pick a white point with the eye dropper, then temperature and tint. Simple, effective. Guess I need to wait another year and a half to try again.
2. The ability to Disable all the tools, palettes, and pull downs that add to the clutter, that I will never ever use. Maybe they can have a quick option in the Preferences to remove all the tools and pull downs that start with the words Magnetic, Auto, Magic or Quick.
3. Forget about Camera RAW as a separate program, I only get to use while Importing. I want the RAW file to be the very first Layer, with all the Camera RAW options in an Adjustment Layer above it. Yeah, you heard me. Why am I only able to edit that RAW data once? Maybe I want to tweak it later on? I don't see why I shouldn't be able to. Don't forget, the biggest benefit to using a RAW processor, is the ability to have all the various correction options in a single tabbed window, that I can quickly skim across. Photoshop CS6 is made up of various Tools, Palettes, Layers, and whatever else scattered all over the interface. Remember at the beginning, I said I wanted it simpler, not harder, and leave me in control. This would achieve that in a huge way.
4. Rearrange and hide items in the Tool Palette work my Workspace. Half of them I never use, but need to Shift-Key to scroll through the group.
5. Remove old, unsupported file formats. When was the last time someone needed to save as an Amiga IFF or Scitex CT?
6. Better serve each target market as 4 different products, using the same base engine/tools, then turn on/off options based on the industry. Similar to what QuickBooks does.

In conclusion, if anything, you should be spending your money on an updated RAW Processor. In recent years, the RAW processors have been coming along by leaps and bounds. If you do not have the most current versions, you are missing out. I was just asked to go back and pick up some old images, that happened to be edited with older versions of Capture One. I remember the problems I had while working on them, and with todays version, I was able to quickly make adjustments I was not able to do before.

Sadly, as a Professional Retoucher, I have to say that you need to pass on Adobe Photoshop CS6 upgrade. The only viable reason you need to spend on the upgrade, seems to be the Automatic Saving feature, and maybe the updated Camera RAW. Now, I hate to be such a downer. I really wanted to be excited to use the updated version. Unfortunately, Adobe wants to expand to the 3D and Video industry, leaving the Professional Retouchers behind. I can only hope that the next version adds to our capabilities, as it has in the past. In fact, if you look back over the years, you will see all the best features were introduced in the odd numbered versions.

You may download the Photoshop CS6 Demo for yourself, and see how you think the upgrade works for you.

I hope you are able to take my Adobe Photoshop CS6 Review with a grain of salt. I only wish they made a new product that simplified the interface. It has really gotten out of control.

Learn about all the Photoshop Tools and Palettes in a 2 hour tutorial. Use the Coupon Code "PODCAST12" for $5.00 off.

So if you found this podcast helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free Videos, Photoshop Tutorials and Product Reviews.

Digital Fundamentals – Color Space

Difference Between sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB and CMYK

This is a Digital Fundamentals Tutorial that focuses on the basic differences between sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB and CMYK color space. This video is only 12 minutes, and gives a quick overview on how each color space is designed to be used. It also gives a demonstration of how the image color can shift on different priced monitors.

Technically speaking, CMYK and RGB are Color Modes. Adobe RGB and sRGB are Color Spaces, within the RGB Mode. Swop v2 is an example of a Color Space, withing the CMYK Mode.

sRGB – Many cameras take the picture with sRGB Profile Selected by default. Depending on the camera, you may or may not be able to change this setting. Monitors display the internet with sRGB. Visually, it has brighter colors than CMYK. However, it has a smaller gamut than sRGB and ProPhoto, so colors may look less saturated.

Adobe RGB (1998) – While Adobe RGB does have a larger range of colors than sRGB, it tends to display those colors a bit more muted. But, you know, it's all about how you handle the tool, before it can perform it's best for you. For more detailed explanation, please review this article on the difference between sRGB and Adobe RGB.

CMYK – CMYK is actually a Color Mode, rather than a color space. This is the industry standard to 4-color printing in magazines, newspapers, and other types of flyers. It also has the most limited amount of colors it can reproduce, it tends to have much duller colors and can sometimes display banding or morie's within gradients. You should only use CMYK when pring to print on a press. However, it is much easier to make advanced color corrections using CMYK tools, within RGB Color Space, like Selective Color. The reason is that RGB is a subtractive color space, and CMYK is additive color space. For me, it's just easier to understand the relation of colors in CMYK than it is in RGB.

ProPhoto RGB – This color space was developed by Kodak, with an extremely large gamut designed for use with photographs. ProPhoto RGB should be used with 16-bit depth due to the posturization and banding issues that it can create if used with 8-bit depth. While this one has some of the widest ranges of color available, I caution it's use outside of a controlled environment of people who expect to receive a file with this profile attached. Follow the link to learn more detail about ProPhoto RGB.

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This is a video Color Space – sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB and CMYK Tutorial. If you would like to learn more about Photoshop Tools and Palettes from a Professional Retoucher, I offer a 2 hour video explaining what each tool is, and how to use it's palette. If you would just like to watch other online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

Inside and outside of business, I talk about the things you can do to make you stand out from your competition. Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone will allow for growth. Keeping yourself out of your comfort zone will result in constant growth, and daily challenges that prove you are ready for anything.

My Space vs. Facebook, Yahoo vs. Google, and Microsoft vs. Apple. Large companies become settled in their old way of doing things until they are overcome by someone smaller, more flexible, and ready to adapt on a moments notice. No matter how many years you have been doing your thing, you need to be knowledgeable like an old master, yet act like a young startup. Set your goal, quickly make a plan, then act. I do it everyday. Do you?

In This Episode:

• Who is the Best Provider?
• Dieting Progress
• Getting Organized
• Freelance Adjustment
  

Transcript: Podcast – Episode 011

Who is the Best Provider?

Sure, you know that you are the best at what you do. Other people know your really good too, you prove it everyday. And yet, the guy in the next cubicle gets the promotion. Or when you bid on that freelance job, but don't get the job awarded too you. Of course you can say that it's their loss. But, what is it that they have, and you don't?

Dieting Progress

More on my public record of loosing the past 10 years of cookies, cupcakes and Twinkies. (MmMmMmm… Twinkies…)

Getting Organized

Clutter. I hate clutter, Of course, I hate cleaning too. But, finding a balance will not only make things easier to find, but fill your day with the ZEN of a clean office…. Ok, fine. Let's just be honest. The only reason to clean is to get your wife off your back about not doing anything around the house. She always complains about washing the dishes, and conveniently forgets who puts out the trash every week, shovels, mows, and puts the gutter back on the house after the most recent storm. Do you see her doing that? Oh, no, of course not.

Freelance Adjustment

Seven months after becoming a full time freelancer, I talk about all the days I spend on the beach, drinking Mai-Tai's, and watching the half naked woman walk by. I discuss the hours spent listening to my favorite music, and all the fun I had while scuba diving off the coast of Hawaii. Of course, then I realize I have that deadline to do, so I stop looking at random websites, or staring blankly at wall, and get back to retouching. Oh, happy days.

If you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

Corel AfterShot Pro Review

This is a video Corel AfterShot Pro Review. Use Corel Aftershot Coupon Code "ARTCOREL10" for 10% Off – Links.TheArtofRetouching.com/aftershot -  I want to start this review by saying that this product took me by surprise. I was expecting something that was mediocre, and I instantly fell in love with all the powerful features build right into the software. You may be thinking that I am just trying to pitch Corel AfterShot Pro to you, but I am quite serious, I genuinely love this program, and I would use it in my own studio as well. Sadly, I had already spent $600 on a competitor's solution.

Corel AfterShot Pro competantly joins together Image Cataloging Software, with a RAW Processor. This means you can keep track of thousands of images (I have over 20,000 myself), and make quick Color Correction edits without the need for any other software. Everything I could think that I wanted to do, was built right into the software. Check out the video, and the rest of the review below.

This software might be from Corel, but it licenses the RAW Processor from Bibble. If you are unfamiliar with the name, do not be alarmed. I had actually been following the product's development for many years, and I always knew it was destined for something really cool. I am so happy they were able to get this product into the mainstream by partnering with Corel. I was afraid they would have gone out of business due to the tough competition of the RAW Processing market.

The Anti-Noise Engine comes from NoiseNinja. Personally, I love NoiseNinja, and you will come to love it too. In fact, I use it just about everyday here in my studio. I have nothing but good things to say about that program. The fact that it is built right in, is nothing short of awesome.

If you watch the video above, you will be able to see how Corel AfterShot Pro has been able to create a program that allows you to seemlessly work in two completely different types of software. As I mentioned, I use other software in my studio, and the combined price for the RAW Processor and the Image Cataloging retailed at $600. However, Corel AfterShot Pro is actually underpriced. It cost less than $99, which is amazing.

So amazing, it would otherwise make me think it was junk. Not something for professionals. But I have to say, everything I wanted to do, was available right out of the box. Again, watch the video Corel AfterShot Pro review for more information about it works. Then click the link, and maybe even try the demo. Use Corel Aftershot Coupon Code "ARTCOREL10" for 10% Off – Links.TheArtofRetouching.com/aftershot – If you do not have any other solution for your workflow, you will be glad you did.

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I would like to thank Corel for their donation of the serial numbers. This is totally awesome of them, and I am really excited to be welcoming this great new product to the market.

This is a video Corel AfterShot Pro Review. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial – Tools Palette Crash Course Preview

This video is available as a Premium Content purchase.
Running Time: 1 Hour

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tutorial for Beginners or a refresher for old veterans, gives you a working knowledge of all the Photoshop Tools Palette. It's basically a crash course on where everything is, and what it is used for. I created this rapid fire, 1 hour tutorial, that gives you all the key information to get you started.

There is no other product like this on the market that will allow you to learn Adobe Photoshop faster. Just because the information is being thrown at you quickly, that does not mean you will have trouble learning. That's because the material that is being taught for the Tools Palette Tutorial, is being repeated for the Palettes Tutorial. And even then, because all the content is inter-mixed, much of the most important information is being repeated several times.

All of the Photoshop Tools Palette is covered. In the span of an hour, you will see how each of the Photoshop Tools work, quickly, and to the point. I will spend extra time on the Photoshop Tools that mean the most to you as a photographer and retoucher. There is no need to waste your time studying things you will either never use, or are not ready to use that this point in your career.

Photoshop left it's roots long ago. I will help get you on track, and teach you what you need to know for Photo Retouching. This is Part One, of a Two Part series. When you are ready to learn more, the next video will cover all the other palettes, and how they work too. Once you have learned the basic layout of everything, and how they all work together, THEN you can watch the rest of the free videos to learn more about each of these Photoshop Tools in greater detail.

This video is fully edited content, and like our free videos, gets directly to the point, and explains things in a way everyone can understand. While all the topics covered are for Photoshop CS5.5, most of the Tools palette and their options are available in CS4 and CS3, so older versions are covered. Actucally, the Photoshop Tools Palette has changed very little over the years. So while there will be some new tools added, many of them remain the same.

Please follow this link to the Photoshop Tools Palette Tutorial to purchase the full video, and get our Special Bonus Offer.

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial answers the question: How Do I Learn the Photoshop Tools Palette? This tutorial is also valid for older versions of the Creative Suite series, including CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

  Download Preview Video

Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial – Palettes Crash Course Preview

This video is available as a Premium Content purchase.
Running Time: 1 Hour

All of the Photoshop Palettes are covered. In the span of an hour, you will see how each of the Photoshop Palettes work, quickly, and to the point. I will spend extra time on the Photoshop Tools that mean the most to you as a photographer and retoucher. There is no need to waste your time studying things you will either never use, or are not ready to use that this point in your career.

This is our Photoshop Palettes, two part tutorial series that will get you up and running with Adobe Photoshop in less time than any other complete product on the market. When used together, Tools Palette and the Photoshop Palettes Tutorial, will cut through the clutter of complex retouching, and will show you how to finally use Adobe Photoshop. Additionally, we won't make you sit through 10 hours of instructional videos either.

There is no other product like this on the market that will allow you to learn Adobe Photoshop faster. Just because the information is being thrown at you quickly, that does not mean you will have trouble learning. That's because the material that is being taught for the Tools Palette Tutorial, is being repeated for the Photoshop Palettes Tutorial. And even then, because all the content is inter-mixed, much of the most important information is being repeated several times.

Photoshop left it's roots long ago. I will help get you on track, and teach you what you need to know for Photo Retouching. This is Part Two, of a Two Part series. This video contains the Photoshop Palettes Tutorial, and how it works. Once you have learned the basic layout of everything, and how they all work together, THEN you can watch the rest of the free videos to learn more about each of these Photoshop Tools in greater detail.

This video is fully edited content, and like our free videos, gets directly to the point, and explains things in a way everyone can understand. While all the topics covered are for Photoshop CS5.5, most of the Tool palette and their options are available in CS4 and CS3, so older versions are covered. In fact, at it's core, many of the Photoshop Palettes have remained unchanged for many years.

Please follow this link to the Photoshop Palettes Tutorial to purchase the full video, and get a Special Bonus Offer.

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial answers the question: How Do I Learn the Photoshop Palettes? This tutorial is also valid for older versions of the Creative Suite series, including CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

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But seriously. I can't believe I have been working freelance, from home, for the past 6 months. I make a full time salery from retouching, and part time salery from free videos I created last year. The more I think about it, the crazier it seems. Episode #10 of this podcast is a bit more personal than most. I bring you into my studio and show you how I estimate, bill, and collect payments. I tell you how I feel about… well… how I feel. And I go off on someone who calls me Luddite. The Nerve of some people!

In This Episode:

• Billing and Payments
• New Photoshop Beginner's Videos
• Retouching Estimation Tip
• I Like…
• Luddite Rant
• Weight and Pain

Transcript: Podcast – Episode 010

Billing and Payments

Money is lost with invoicing and billing. Time is lost on waiting for payments, long after you sent out the final product. Net30? No way. Find out how I bill my clients, get paid right away, and they thank me for it.

New Photoshop Beginner's Videos

I just released two new, one hour videos! Find out how these tutorials can walk you through most of Photoshops Secrets.

Retouching Estimation Tip

One day I estimated a job. 25 hours later, I found myself banging my head against the table because I didn't think about one very important item! Don't let this happen to you.

I Like…

It seems, that one day, I went off talking about all the things I like. I can be such a positive person like that sometimes.

Luddite Rant

One day someone called me a Luddite. I call those fightin' words! Of course, I had to figure out what the hell a Luddite was first…. but then they set me off! I let most internet comments go by, simply ignored. Find out why this one struck a chord with me.

Weight and Pain

What happens when you go freelance, and sit on your ass all day? I'll give you a hint. It involves long hours of not moving more than two feet.

Use the Imagenomics Coupon Code: "ARTOFREOUCHING" for 20% Off their products. So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

Starting with this episode, I will no longer be having the entire episodes transcribed. Most of you will not likely care. For those that actually prefered to read it, I am sorry. I chose to drop it because it took too long to produce, and cost too much, with very little benefit. I thought I could get some affiliate sales, help people at work enjoy it, or maybe even get some Google love. In the end, none of those things happened.

For now on, I will just be giving a basic show note about the episode and topic, then leave it at that.

In This Episode:

• 4 Months of Freelance Bliss
• My New MacMini
• Fixed Audio Equipment

Show Notes: Podcast – Episode 009

4 Months of Freelance Bliss

I start off by giving an end of year recap, for those that have not been following along for the first 8 episodes. I also point out that this is the first truely new episode I created in about 4-5 months, and a lot has happened to my carrer since I last went behind the microphone. Back in August, I was worried if I could make it without a day job. Now, I am living a life I truely enjoy. No more dreaded Mondays. Yeah!

My New MacMini

I am a born and bred PC guy. I feel like such a traitor. Maybe, but I don't have to reboot my computer every hour on the hour, either. Well, unless I load up Parallels and Windows 7. Then I still need the constant rebooting. Oh, but wait until you hear about how little electricity this thing uses. It's crazy.

Fixed Audio Equipment

Apparently, I have been doing something silly when it came to recording all my audio. Suddenly, everything came out crystal clear, after one small change. So, now that I know, everything will start sounding much more consistant. This episode, and the next one, have parts recorded both ways, so it will likely be obvious to you listening, until I clear out the content I recorded a few weeks ago.

Use the Imagenomics Coupon Code: "ARTOFREOUCHING" for 20% Off their products. So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

Welcome to The Art of Retouching Podcast Episode 008. In this episode, I will be talking about how I reached this point in my career, how I go about pricing a job, and other advice about breaking the nine to five job.

In This Episode:

• How I Got Here
• How to Price a Job
• Breaking the Nine to Five

Transcript: Podcast – Episode 008

How I Got Here

When it comes to being a freelancer it doesn't matter if you are doing design, retouching, photography, whatever. You can't just keep doing it day in and day out for the money. At some point your going to get burned out and not care.

What you need is a passion for what you are doing. Follow the passion and the money will follow. Now I am sure that you have heard that type of thing before, now I don't want to put it into the same category as when you grow up you can be whatever you want to be. I have a four year old son and I'm not telling him that because I think it is a load of buck. When he grows up he's not going to be an astronaut, he's not going to be the president, he's not going to be anything like that because that's the reality of it.

I don't know who in the world would actually grow up and say I want to be the president of the United States of America, I mean come on, the amount of trouble, hassle, problems and there isn't any money that goes with it either. That's just someone that has a passion for the power. That's someone that likes the control. Now I don't want to go off on a tangent about that. I want to stay focused on following a passion.

You have to have a passion for working from your own studio, you have to have a passion for working alone, you have to have a passion for the actual creative outlet that your following.

For example, my history when I was in grammar school, I had no direction, obviously I am a kid. I remember when I hit high school and I was around thirteen, I had started developing an ability for drawing. I'm not saying it was anything good, by the time I was fourteen I had one teacher that encouraged me to do better, where I would draw pictures and he would hang it up over his desk. I don't know why he did that, but he did that for me. I don't remember the guy's name, I don't remember what he looks like. but I remember going into his class and seeing my picture hanging up on the wall behind him. That always gave me encouragement and that allowed me to follow the passion for drawing.

When I went through the next few years of high school I had gone into the art program. Now, they always gave away one class a week. I always pushed for two classes a week. How did I do that? Well, I took my free period that I was given where I am suppose to go study or who knows what I was suppose to do, but I took that free period and I went into the art class so that every single day I made sure I was in that art room, I wasn't actually participating in the particular class. I was just sitting in the back doing my own thing, but again the teachers and councilors and whoever the powers that be they let me do that, that was great.

Then, when I got out of high school, where did I go? I went to an art college, and what did I do? I went and I played hackie sack in the parking lot. I enjoyed going to the drawing classes, I liked the painting classes, not so much english class, didn't like that too much, didn't like the math class, didn't like the art history class, and I didn't like the font class. All those I skipped and I was in the parking lot playing hackie sack. No big surprise that I flunked out. That was because I had a passion for the art and not the academics.

I took a year off in the real world doing real work, real labor. Didn't like it too much, I went back to college, this time I went back for two years associates degree so that knocked two years off of my classes so I wasn't being bogged down with math and english this time I can focus on graphic design because by this point I had realized I wasn't a very good illustrator, I liked to draw but I really wasn't that good at it.

I went through the next two years in graphic design. I did pretty good, went to all the classes. In fact I did the classes and I did the work and I did everything that was suppose to be done. When I was leaving the college, when I was like my last semester, something like that, the way that the, I don't even know how it worked, but it ended in the summertime.

So over the course of the summer I had landed an internship. Now, most people do an internship because they have to for credits or whatever. I didn't need credits, I didn't do it for the credits I did it for my personal experience, for the networking, to get to know people and more importantly I did it for the passion.

The internship that I did was at Marvel Comics, yes, in New York City. I went in and I drew super heroes. Because that was something that I enjoyed doing in that point in my life. It wasn't so much the super hero part of it, to me as I really studied it, I think it was the bright colors, it was the dynamic artistry involved in it and I like the figure drawing, I have always been attracted to the human figure and these were the things that I liked. I had a passion for it and I actually went very much out of my way to introduce myself to the right people to get to know them to be accepted in to the program and to go there and do it.

What ended up happening, I will be honest, when I started it was the most wonderful thing in the world, here I am working at Marvel Comics which was awesome, I loved the experience.

Two months later I remember being out in the fire escape smoking. That's what I did I spent my time smoking. Now to my credit while I was doing my jobs around the building because as an intern I was told to go here get this go there and do that so it was a lot of just up and down the stairs and back and forth type of stuff but I remember being out smoking and then as I am wondering back to the office I would go and say hello to people that I had built a repair with whether it was other artists, other interns, not really so much editors which was probably the more important people to know. I mean I didn't know my fair share.

Obviously your locked up in the office all day with these people so you kind of got to know them. But the question was, What happened to that passion? Two months ago it was the most amazing thing in the world. What happened? Well, the reality of it was, that while it was amazing, that I was able to walk down the hallway and I could hear from the offices where they were talking about how they were going to blow up the world this month or how they were going to take over this country or whatever they were planning.

But two months later I realized that the bottom line of it was, business is business. And they had market share, they had investors, and they had very specific goals that needed to be achieved every single month. It all came down to dollars and cents. It came down to readership, it came down to interest. If they produced crap, nobody cared, nobody bought it and then the book was cancelled, and eventually they ended up loosing your job because if you have enough cancelled books obviously you weren't doing a very good job as an editor.

Now, this of course was back in the early 90s where comic books were prolific. They were everywhere, you could put out absolute garbage and sell it, back then. Come out with three different covers, you sold three times as many books. It was pretty crazy back then, but to me it stopped being this passion, this artistic integrity type of thing that I really enjoyed and really just turned into a whole lot of work. It's really what it was. It wasn't so much drawing the human figure, at that point, I was actually fixing the human figure.

Alot of what I did was in the art department, there's a big comic book secret revealed. One of the biggest problems is that these artists that were drawing comics out in the field, in their homes, whatever they were doing when they were producing these comic books they had a very bad tendency to draw female boobs that were way too large and so one of the biggest things that the art department would do is give them breast reductions and make them a little bit more normal. Which is a stretch, given what they look like in the comic books, but yes they would be humungous and they would reduce it.

Now other things that they would fix were hands. These artists that are paid all these big bucks, they never could draw hands. So it was always the guy making ten bucks an hour that was sitting there correcting the fingers or whatever else.

Another thing I remember was one page the character would be wearing winter clothes and the next page it would be wearing shorts or something like that. And all those types of things would have to be corrected. So it was just a lot of work. And the passion left. And the interest left. And it wasn't right for me.

One of the things that happened to me maybe three years ago maybe four when I was going for a job in a photography studio, the photographer had said to me, you know I said I had a passing interest in photography, that I was just an amateur and I liked to take my own pictures and retouch them and make them pretty.

And he had said to me that by coming on board he is always willing to teach me how to be a photographer. To show me all the equipment and the best way to use it and all that other stuff. And I had said to him, point blank, I said No, I have no interest in that whatsoever. Not, that I wouldn't have liked to have learned.

As I had said to him if you watch Sesame Street on TV and boy am I coming out of left field with that one, but Sesame Street that you watch on TV and you have all these muppets up there and they are all attracting and they all got their fantasy role and whatever.

If you ever go to the set or nowadays they have books at the bookstore about behind the scenes type of things. You know what it is? All it is, is a bunch of people under the stage with their hands up in the air directing these puppets. All they have is their hands up these puppet's asses and they are doing all the talking. That isn't as nearly as magical or entertaining as just watching it on TV.

So the same thing with the photography I didn't want to learn the magic behind the photography. And all the f stops and the apertures and all that stuff I just wanted to take a pretty picture, that was really the bottom line of it and I knew that.

By that point in my life I knew where the passion was. The passion was to take a good picture the passion was not to know the mathematics behind taking the good picture.

So for me when it comes to retouching, I have been retouching for many many many many many years. Early on in my career I was doing pre-press which is alot more mathematical. Yes, no, on, off, left, right type of stuff and less artistically inclined stuff and I was dabbling in retouching and I liked it. The more I did it the more I enjoyed it.

And as the years went on I would gradually learn a little bit more about it. I would ask the people that were doing it professionally, generally in the next room, they were doing the retouching while I was doing the press stuff. I would ask them questions, I would get answers, I would sit down and I would watch them usually because I worked late nights, second or third shift so nobody really cared that I wasn't really working and I would just learn.

I would go home and I would do it and I would practice and over the years I became good at it. This happened to be one of those things where no matter how much I learned about Adobe Photoshop I never lost the passion, that interest in doing it. I have always enjoyed it, and I think that what attracts me to photography as opposed to illustration is that illustration your staring at a blank piece of paper it is just white. I don't like staring at a blank white piece of paper, some people do and some people are good at it, I'm not. I acknowledge that. I learned that along time ago.

I learned that I wasn't good at illustration. I mean other people still ask me why I don't do it I was always so good, No No No I don't think I was good. When it came to photography I don't have to stare at a white piece of paper I can just see something in front of me and push a button then bam there it is. It created itself.

The reason that I like the retouching is because I can take that thing that is already good and I can make it really good. I can make it great. I can create something that is, that I actually saw. I mean I don't want to sound cliche, like I saw that in the scene, but I can embellish it so that a sunset is that most magical sunset ever.

That is the type of thing that I enjoy doing. I also enjoy the fact that people that look at my artwork whatever I happen to be doing they think it is good. I enjoy the praise. I'll be honest, I enjoy the fact that people think I am good at it and more importantly I enjoy the fact that I think I am good at it. Because I think that I am good at it I am going to try harder to learn more. Which is the whole reason that I am doing the whole website thing because in order to teach it I have to learn it. And I am not actually learning it new I am relearning it, I am learning the details that I never learned before. I am really getting into the dirt of Adobe Photoshop.

Which is something that I have stayed away from because I didn't want to know. I was always afraid that I was going to lose the passion. But for whatever reason I am not. I am doing the retouching with Adobe Photoshop has always been something that's interested me and something that I stayed with over the years.

I am not saying that Adobe Photoshop has to be your passion. Whatever it is you need to acknowledge what that passion is, and it is not something that you can just know overnight it takes obviously like I said many many years before you realize that you can continue to do that and continue to enjoy it, doing it over and over again no matter what it is.

And after you have built that passion then it is a matter of figuring out how you can make the money follow that. For me I built the website and I have generated some revenue from it and I figured out ways to make that pay me back.

But the bigger thing is I am going off and starting my own retouching studio and bringing in work that way. And while there is the difficulty with dealing with clients or other people's images and just all the things that go with that, it's work and it is what it is.

If I am able to put up with the garbage on the backend I can sit here quietly at night by myself listening to talk radio or music or whatever I want and I can just zone out and do the retouching that I enjoy doing. And I enjoy doing it because it is an isolated activity that isn't being distracted by other people and other interactions. I am an introvert, I know that I am an introvert. I don't like being in loud wild situations, which is why this is ideal for me.

There are so many things that just kind of clicked right for me. And once I saw that, that's when I was able to jump right in. I knew it three years ago but it took me this long to study harder to become better at it. Three years ago I was really good, I knew I was really good, but it really took the extra three years of focused retouching where that was just about all I did everyday.

And to become really fluent in it where I don't think about what I am doing it just comes naturally to me. Every problem that comes up in the retouching I don't have to figure it out it's just a matter of well do I want to do it this way, that way, well that way works, ok, then I do it, and yeah there's definitely a lot of mechanical type of stuff.

When I open up the image I just kind of do the exact same things over and over again. Like anything else you just have to put up with a lot of garbage in order to get to that good part in the center that you really enjoy.

So what you need to do today is to think about what you really enjoy doing. What did you enjoy doing five years ago? Is it still the same thing? Is this something you can pursue? If you learn everything about it do you think you would be still interested? Or do you think it would be too much information? If it is what you are already doing now, then fantastic.

Unfortunately, most people are doing exactly what they don't want to be doing. I was just speaking with someone the other day. What they had done they use to be in design, they use to do design and then life took them in another direction. However, finances several years later took them back into doing something new that they liked to do or something old that they use to do, which is design. And for simplicity sake they decided to go back into this old design routine and the very first job they had said to me this is why I don't want to do this, this is why I quit the first time, this is why I hate it. And the reason for that is because there is no passion there. Now, maybe this new direction would give passion but it is more work, it's a longer haul. Well, maybe you have to do both for a little while.

Life is a long time, if you start thinking about things in terms of years. Now, however old you are and then double that age, are you too old to start something new then? Well, that is probably when you would get around to doing what you are thinking about doing now. Or, that's when you will be out in the back yard doing gardening because you still don't know what you want to do.

The point is if you have something that you want to do then by all means go out of your way to try to make that happen. I said I worked at Marvel Comics, I didn't work at Marvel Comics because the job fell into my lap. It happened because I got up off my ass, rode into New York City and actually on that particular thing it was suppose to be this big convention, this big comic book convention and I was going to go there and show them all my work and I was going to wow everybody and whatever else I thought when I was twenty one years old.

And what ended up happening something did happen and I think there was a flood in the Jacob Javis Center and the convention was cancelled and so when I got there at the front door they said, oh, this is cancelled it is actually across town. Well what's left of it was across town and so now I had gone all that way and so I will go across town so I took another cab across town and they ended up having it in the basement of a church. I was like very last minute something and they dumped what they had down there. As poor as that was and I remember being very very bummed.

So one of the people that was there was Joe Qusada who would one day become the Editor and Chief of Marvel Comics, I remember that he looked at the work that I produced which at the time was something nobody had ever seen before, it was something very different, very revolutionary, very pro-actitive. He looked at it and he loved what he saw and then he said something like "it couldn't be produced in a mass scale", I don't remember what the hell it was. But I was really bummed about that and at the time he was just an artist.

But the point was I had gone over to another booth table thing that was there for Marvel and I just started talking to somebody there who was the recruiter for their intern program. And they were really just there kind of filling in type of thing, just filling space really. But I started talking to them and I said that I was interested in doing the intern program. Not that I was directly interested in the intern program but I would love to get in the door.

And I had talked to them and they handed me like a business card and said get back to them. So that's what I did, I followed up. Like I said it was where my focus was and it was what I wanted and I was hell bent if I wasn't going to get it. I got into the door and once I got in the door and took advantage of the situation. I got to know different people, went to work in different departments. I mean I was hired to work with one editor but I went out of my way to go find paying work within there which was art corrections and at the time they use to past down the word balloons and I did all that because I wanted to move up higher in a chain of, you know, from free work to paid work because that is what I wanted.

And very unfortunately, I do think it is a very unfortunate thing, it was very quickly it wasn't what I wanted and to this day it probably still isn't what I wanted. We all evolve and we all learn but the only way to find out was to get up off my butt and go and find out so that is what I am trying to encourage you to do is get up off your ass and go find what you want and simply do it. And if that is something that can generate revenue for you then that's great.

And even if it is something as simple as like model cars, glueing together model cars, painting model cars, or something silly like that. Everyone has their own hobbies. How do you make money from that? Well I've got several ideas off the top of my head and I'm not even thinking about it.

But that is just from my own experience in my own life and knowing what I know and what can happen when you want something bad enough. And if that was an interest of mine and that was a passion I would find a way to generate revenue from it and that mainly would happen because I have that passion that drives me. To create the website, to create a web store or whatever.

But the thing is if you don't have a passion for that product and that interest wains then that's where the problem comes in where you just don't want to do it anymore you don't want to deal with the garbage that comes along and then you just don't care and you give up and die inside, slowly.

So don't let that happen to you, your listening to this podcast because you are interested in photo retouching. You are interested in photo retouching and I know this because you have come ot the website and you have found the podcast or you are on itunes and you listen to the podcast or whatever the case is. You found me through my website which is about retouching, so I know that you are interested in that. We are all already on the same page.

What you need to decide is if this is something you want to do as a hobby, a profession or as something that is just a little bit higher up on that personal need. I wake up in the morning and I get excited that I get to do retouching, I like to do retouching when I'm sitting there I'm thinking, hey I am still retouching that is awesome. I have taken this image from what crap it was to what awesome it is. And what even more awesome it is going to be. Because that's what I enjoy doing.

What you need to decide is if that's what you want to do. And if it is then you need to watch the videos that I have created for you. You need to watch videos that others create for you. You need to make the time to do it. And I am guessing that if this is a passing interest, you wouldn't still be listening to me, you wouldn't still be watching these videos.

Because that is the interesting thing that I can see. Looking at these web statistics that there's videos that people watch because they have a specific need. But I can always see the base line number going up as a group because people are going back and watching all the different videos because they want to learn things. I am assuming that you are a part of that group, so if you are and you haven't been to the website please go to www.theartofretouching.com where I give you all these Adobe Photoshop insights on how to use the software, on how to use the different tools, how to manipulate everything and to make it all bend to your will. To help you make the most awesomeness awesome that ever was awesome.

That is unless of course you are just the guy that is working at his desk because he is being paid to work at his desk.

How to Price a Job

I have gone out and I have pulled all these price lists from all different kinds of web pages. The intent was something in the United States on the East Coast but the reality of it was we just kind of went everywhere and found what we found.

In general, most places didn't advertise prices and the places that did advertise prices were very cheap and expensive hack work and that wasn't very helpful. Because if the website looked like garbage then the prices were garbage and the portfolio that they were showing was garbage.

Some of the best portfolios that we saw didn't have prices at all and that made it difficult for us to determine how much we were going to charge for the retouching work that we wanted to do. So, when we did have an idea of what general prices we wanted to charge the problem came in well who were the clients?

I mean we have this idea, this rough range that we found off of the internet but the problem was were those the clients that we really wanted. At thirty dollars an image we really were going to find people that didn't want to spend a lot of money they had a wedding or something they just wanted some quick work, you know, one image, two images, maybe three. And we really didn't want that. We wanted the clients that were going to bring us ten images at once and we'd make our money in bulk.

And we also knew that the work we do is quality so we were really targeting agencies that were going to expect the best, because we can provide the best. And ideally, their the ones that are going to pay the best. It is kind of funny though we did pick up an extension of a client they do other photography with the studio but they wanted us to just do some retouching so we brought them on, and it is funny to me that they came to me to give them an estimation on how long it was going to take to do the job, which I provided.

Then the other person, he inflated the time frame just in case things ran over or whatever so he ended up adding another hour or hour and a half to my initial estimate and then the end client, I think there is actually an agency in between before the end client it's one of those case the money kept flowing down hill I guess. But we gave our time and our price to the agency and they gave the time and price to the end client and they agreed to it.

And what ended up happening was, my partner he ended up putting all this time into giving them the quote, talking on the phone, and emails and then it came back to me time on the phone and emails, I ended up putting some two and a half hours into this, just time talking on the phone and emails and he ended up doing the same plus some because now he is talking directly to the agency and it was more talking involved then there was actual retouching that's the part that I found utterly historical about this whole situation. But anyway, to me it was pretty straight forward here is what they wanted, here is the estimate, here is the price.

To me it was very cut and dry and I don't know what everyone else was doing but they turned it into this big production where if this, then that. Then we're going to have to charge extra for this and they just talked in circles. Meanwhile, they are still talking and thinking about things and I already have all the retouching done and I am ready to go and ready to be paid at this point and they are still discussing well if this then that. And it is just funny because I already had the green light and I did the work and they are still discussing amongst themselves.

So I guess the moral of that story is don't get caught up in the details of, not so much details of the negotiation, because it is always important to make sure that you don't lose money and lose time.

For example, I gave myself whatever it was probably about six hours to do the work and he got us seven and a half hours so he ended up getting us extra money plus extra time that in the end I didn't even use I think I only did about five hours worth of work. So to me it is all profit, with this being all profit this just could have been just so much easier if I didn't let him bring me down into the whole talking part.

I don't like the talking I just like the doing. So I think it just kind of comes down to, if everyone just says this is what we want and this is what we could do then it could have been cheaper all the way across the board. And I could have been on to the next project already. It is what it is.

To his credit he ended up getting us more money, so I guess the lesson to get from that is, don't target yourself as one of these low end people that thinks they are not worth what they probably are if you think you are mediocre then that's the work that you are going to do if you do think you are good, good enough but afraid to ask for the money you should just probably shoot for the sky and ask for the money anyway all they are going to say is no and then you just give them another offer, give them another pitch, maybe they will just come back and negotiate.

A lot of the freelance stuff is about salesmanship I do find a lot of similarities between the freelance and entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurs are creating new products but the ultimate the bottom line of it is, that the entrepreneur is a salesman who solves problems and let's be honest that's what a freelancer does they need to sell themselves that they can solve the problem, whatever that problem may be. So don't be afraid to pad your estimates.

Add an extra ten minutes add an extra half an hour, add an extra hour, it depends on what it is you can probably get away with it and if you do get away with it then that's more money in your pocket. I remember some three years ago when I started my cell phone business I was afraid to charge too much for phones I was only charging like twenty five dollar profit and then I was running myself raggid not making any money it did not take me very long to realize that I dictated what the market would bare because I was the only one out there on Craigslist selling cell phones to the local market so it was very easy for me to say well this is how much I want because I am the only one selling it.

I would put it out there at a higher price and I would see if anyone would bought it and I was always surprised at what people would pay when they wanted something. And if it really didn't sell for awhile then I would eventually drop the price.

Most recently I sold a product two phones in the same week or two that I had for two years I just couldn't get rid of these things over the course of time I just dropped them ten dollars, I dropped them ten dollars, until I finally found somebody that was willing to pay the price for it. Not that you should wait two years but don't just go and looking for thirty dollars when you can probably get fifty for it. That's all I'm saying.

So don't be afraid to put yourself out there and say yes I am very good and this is what I can do for you. As long as you do believe in yourself muster up that courage to present a good solid impression to everyone who looks at your work.

Breaking the Nine to Five

I think I mentioned before that I put together this whole book some fifty page book I did it for myself of my work and then I just started showing people, and one person said to me why are you working here that's when I knew that I was better than what garbage was being handed to me and why I took more of a stand in my life but then again you know it goes back to that whole part of what I said about vacations I am not being paid to be on vacation and even when I was on vacation, it really did irk me at this one, I'm on vacation I'm going to a theme park literally driving in the car I'm fifteen minutes away from the theme park for my kid and my wife is on the laptop in the passenger seat typing what I am dictating to her which ultimately went to the customer about some retouching thing that we were working on and as freelancers you just have to jam this time in here.

That is something else that I can mention when you do finally break away from nine to five type of thing where you just get handed work and you do it and then you go home and then you come back the next day they hand you work and then you go home, as a freelancer and most definitely from this whole weather thing that happened with the storm the electricity is out in half the places, and people are working wherever they can, they're showering wherever they can, that is the extreme, but it became this type of situation where my mental frame of work it mentally it was like on these days I worried about the studio and the retouching work, on these days I was worrying about the website and building the new business, on these hours I'm worried about the cell phones, on these days and on these times I'm being the husband and father because of everything that has happened recently that has just been shattered the past two weeks, actually we are in the third week now where that mentality is gone and I'm much more into a situation where I'm working all the time, everything has just become this big jumble where I'm working either I'm working I'm working all these odd hours on all these odd projects whatever is due first whatever needs to be done first and even this podcast I probably shouldn't be doing it but I just found that I really wanted to talk tonight.

I had some things on my mind I just wanted to get them out that is exactly what I did and sometimes you just need to take a break from what is expected and do something else. Past few days I put in some twenty hours worth of retouching and I am a little burned from it, I just wanted to do something else and so there is this balance that you really have to try and create and as a freelancer you don't necessarily get that option.

Personally, I have liked the fact that I can come down into my office and do work and then when I just say that's enough I can go upstairs to my family and do something different and see my son and then come back down and work again but even my wife she says that it's been almost three weeks now and she's like, I have just had it with you your always in the house you just always around and also now I'm bringing in co-workers and whatever loitering around, parking in the drive way, and whatever else is going on just to try and keep these businesses going. But that's the type of chaos that seems to be generating from not having a consistent times of days that things are suppose to be done because now there is just deadlines and different things need to be done and work just keeps coming in and where I thought I was finally getting caught up I was just dumped two or three more projects that I need to deal with in the next several days.

The beauty of it is, it doesn't matter when I do it, I could have done it tonight, I could do it tomorrow, I could do it tomorrow night, I could do it the day after that it doesn't matter when I do it, as long as I get them done before the actual deadline. And the big thing is to have the personality that is not the wait until the very last minute type I can pretty much say that as a freelancer, if you were the type of person that waited until the end of summer to read your summer reading this is not a business for you. I was never the type of person that would read it in the beginning of the summer either in fact, I think in high school I was the type of person who never read it at all, to be honest. I would just go out and get the cliff notes and oddly enough the questions were never the same questions reading the short version was never anything that they asked me.

But as a side note I remember that there was a book and they had asked me the question was on the billboard what do the eyes represent and the answer was they represented the eyes of god. And I remember thinking, what? It was just a story why do you have to over analyze everything? Just one of my strange things that has always been rattling around in my head ever since I was in high school, because I would always remember they would be talking about these books. Animal Farm, I read that one, I thought it was alright and then they tell me it's about socialism, and I was just like no it was about pigs, now as an adult I get the point but as a kid I didn't care I'm going off on a tangent but point was I always hated how they over analyzed these books and made us over think things when we were kids.

Why couldn't they teach us something useful like auto mechanics, if I'm going to send my kid to school I want him to know how to fix a flat tire which is also goes back to this whole point of this storm with the people just being totally and completely lost, the email wasn't working and then they are coming to someone like me to fix the problem or a mouse isn't working, my mouse isn't working, why doesn't it work because they had to move the computer, well I don't know not that I expect people to know how to fix computer problems it just goes back why don't they teach kids in school some basic computer repair, basic automobile repair, how to do things that are more useful, teach them how to cook.

I remember that there was a school next to us that did teach stuff like that and I just always wondered why my parents never sent me there instead. Although I also remember being in art school and they made us take English and math I think I didn't actually take those classes I was out in the parking lot playing hackie sack at the time, do you remember hackie sack? Yeah, it was big back when I was going. And I just absolutely skip those classes yes I failed those classes and yes I flunked out of that college, but that's neither here nor there.

It is just funny to me that I never went to a single font class, yeah we actually had a class about fonts, I never went I was out playing hackie sack and the part that was humorous to me is that I spent the next twenty years of my career knowing everything about fonts, so I don't know, one of those odd things I am totally rambling at this point.

Anyway, whatever I was talking about earlier… very important… I'm sure; or a complete and utter waste of time. Not sure which it is. Anyway, thanks for listening to another episode and I can't believe that you actually listened to the whole thing. I'm just used to people on youtube just skipping around on the videos I do, and people are just coming and going and leaving. I'm not use to people actually staying til the end. So if you actually stayed until the end and listened to all my pointless rambling then cool and if you haven't gathered from all the talking about storm that happened; that's one big reason I haven't been producing more videos on the website or new content. I've just been busy with the studio doing paid work ,so that is always very important, but if you do want anything specific, certainly send me an email or give me a phone call or whatever.

The email's info@theartofretouching.com and the phone number 203-551-9684. And yes, I do get people that actually ask me to do some things here and there so please feel free. I'm just giving you some quick advise or anything like that make sure you go to wwwTheArtofRetouching.com if you would like more tips and tricks to make you a better photo retoucher.

Thank you for listening to this epsiode of the Art of Retouching's podcast, I really hope that you got something out of it.

Use the Imagenomics Coupon Code: "ARTOFREOUCHING" for 20% Off their products. So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

Welcome to the 7th episode of The Art of Retouching Podcast. This time I will be talking about some of the pros and cons to freelancing. I touch upon why selling physical products is a bottomless pit of time. I go in depth about passive aggressive behavior, both giving, and receiving it. Lastly, I bring up various items that lead to a joyful time as a freelancer, and all the back end paperwork that goes along with it.

In This Episode:

• Some Pros and Cons to Freelance
• Product Sales Suck
• Passive Aggressive Behavior
• Joy and Boredom of Freelancing

Transcript: Podcast – Episode 007

Some Pros and Cons to Freelance

There seem to be a few downsides to having your own studio freelance thing going on. One seems to be way too many computers and monitors and external drives. In my system here, I have a server, it is literally a server computer that is turned down and it does just that: it serves files. If you don’t have a computer that does that, oh, it’s amazing! You should try it some time. I love downloading TV shows and leaving them on there so we can go access those TV shows, like the Xbox on the television set. We just download the TV shows, go upstairs, turn on the Xbox that connects to the network, and we just watch the TV shows. No commercials, nothing, it’s fantastic.

On an extra note, it’s nice just having the music files as well, it’s automatic back ups every night, and whatever the set machine does, it does store the pictures, you know that there always will be an archive, I have all my server related files for the websites and stuff, those are all backed up all the time which is great, so again, if you haven’t, you should definitely consider doing that. For my estimation, having just a box on all the time – I think there are 2 hard drives in it, maybe 3, I don’t know – but I think the cost is approximately 14-15 USD a month, that is what I figured out, what it costs. This machine is older, so it doesn’t have these processor things, so it’s literally just a bare machine that just powers up and runs, but it's worth the investments. So I have that running, then I also have my PC that I had here, so that was running with its monitors, then I put in a Macintosh, that one has 2 monitors.

So basically I got 3 computers, 4 monitors, and these things seem to be on all the time. And I also have a couple of external drives here as well. While they could be internal, it is kind of nice that they are external, I mean, occasionally there is some value in that, but mostly they can be internal, it doesn’t matter. What does matter that they are sucking up electricity as well, with these computers and monitors going all the time. I’m just too afraid to find out what that electric cost is going to be, running all this equipment. And that’s a good chunk of the day, because this is in my own house, so I am the one on the hook being responsible of paying that bill.

The other drawback seems to be the heat. I have an air conditioner in the window, when I have my server and the PC and a monitor, it’s not that bad. The monitor on the server isn’t on, and I’m just working off of my single PC. But when I get this Mac going and the other computer is actually in use, and my sons’s been home from school, because it’s summertime, so he has been here with me, and he’s on a computer, I have 2 computers, and everything is just fired up and running in this small room, the ac is just cranking away, and it just can’t keep up with the amount of heat we are generating. At some point I had a fan blowing on the monitors, just to try and circulate the air around the room.

Now, when I have the air conditioner and the fan going, now I just added more electricity being drawn in order to do this work. These are things you disregard thinking about when you go working for someone else. You are just complaining about the gas that takes to get there. Which is certainly a valid complaint, when you figure the price of gas today. For me, to go to work every day, is approximately 10 dollars of gas. I realize it depends on where you live, the type of transportation, whatever, but for me it’s 10 dollars of gas if I was to go somewhere. So that is obviously a lot less – as I just said for an entire month – than a single machine can run for the whole month. A single machine can run on 15 dollars, so obviously 10 dollars for gas is a lot more than what I’m paying for electricity here. But keeping in mind that I got that air conditioner fired up and the fan going, and everything else, it is just added expenses. And these are the kind of things you have to think about if you are going to be a freelancer doing the stuff on your own. I have been having fun working from home, because I didn’t have that dreaded ‘Monday, I got to go to work again’ syndrome.

Well, that might be true, but I can definitely see this turning into something that stops being as fun as it is, and being a lot more than work, that I don’t want to go down to my own studio, where I otherwise enjoy going to. So what would really suck, if this turns out to be something that I dread doing, because now I really enjoy coming down here, and I don’t even mind the working when it’s time to work. I just need to work out a better schedule for the working, and while I’m on the topic of scheduling, I might touch down on the previous episode, but I definitely needed to get a notebook down here or another excel document system so I can keep track of time. Got the notebook, so I can just jot down my notes and time and things on each individual job as I’m going. And I have an excel document system so I can keep track of time. I got the notebook so I can just jot down my notes and my timing things on each individual job as I’m going. And then I also have an Excel document and I’m going to go back and I can edit and add time to. It sounds like double work but it’s really not that bad. It’s just nice to have one thing with the accurate notes and another thing with very concise notations that is easily accessed and you can just see everything in a nice, linear fashion in an Excel document. But the loose notes are always valuable so I like having both of them around all the time.

Product Sales Suck

It has been a few weeks since I stopped doing the cellphone business and I have to tell you, my stress level has completely dropped. I don’t have nearly the same problems, complaints and hassles that I used to have and one of them was to be completely terrified of my cellphone. Oh, I hated the thing! So whenever it rang, I was like: ‘Oh no, I have to stop whatever I’m doing and deal with something else.’ Even if it was a good thing like a sale, it was still the matter of stopping what I was doing and deal with something else. And it was always just someone else’s problem.

Again, even if it was a good thing, their cellphone broke, so I had to deal with their problem. So this is got to be one warning: not selling products on a one-on-one basis. Setting up a store on the Internet is one thing, doing E-bay, that is kind of annoying, too. I don’t recommend that one either. That’s dealing with a lot of pictures and listings and shipping. Ah, man, I hated the shipping.

When I had to do that, it was just boxes and tape and labels and constantly having to go to the post office where I had postal workers that just didn’t care. It was especially worse when you couldn’t print those labels at home. But I completely digress. I’d like to thank for coming back as I went all these random thoughts on my own experiences of becoming a freelancer. For me it’s really about getting it out there, expressing my thoughts and opinions, even if nobody is listening. However, on your side, you are listening, you are interested, you can gain some insides on this from a different point of view. Maybe you thought about it, maybe you didn’t, but either way, you are entertained.

Passive Aggressive Behavior

This might slightly be an obscure reference to you, but there is a guy named Henry Rollins. He has a band, which is surprisingly named the Rollins Band. It's hard core stuff that I would never ever listen to. It did however have one line from one song and I certainly don’t know what it is, but that one line has been stuck with me for many many years. He says: If you could see the you that I see, when I see you seeing me, you would see yourself so differently.

Basically all he is saying is: take a step back and evaluate yourself. I know that whenever I question my motives and what I’m doing, or how I come across to other people, I try very hard to take that step back to see how they would see me, how they would perceive my actions. Whether they are aggressive or hostile or welcoming or whatever the case is. I try very hard to listen to myself as I’m speaking, for example I go through a day being perfectly normal, until I have to talk to customer service, – it could be any customer service and it could be for any reason whatsoever – but I find that immediately I become frustrated with them because they start asking questions that don’t have anything relevant. Or otherwise start causing me headaches and hassles and aggravations, and I most especially hate people where I’m calling them up because I have a problem and they are asking me for my current information like emails or phone number or whatever. And it’s like: look, I got a problem, ask me the stuff after you solved my problem! Don’t ask me what my email is when you first got me on the phone, I just don’t care, I’ve got other things on my mind. After you made me happy, then ask me if you could update some of your system information. I guarantee you that I will be much more willing to help you, after you have helped me. After all, I was the one who has called you.

Pretty good example is a recent encounter with my bank. I needed to call them up over such nonsense, and the guy who is on the phone, asking me all this personal information, which just infuriated me because I just got off the phone with somebody else who didn’t ask me all those questions. That just tells me it’s just random information. That one guy is going to follow the procedure, the other guy isn’t, one is going to feel the situation, the other one is going to do what is written in the book. So anyway, I got very frustrated with them and I immediately take the defense stands. And I’m trying not to. Because I know that I’m not going to be making any friends by being aggressive. But sometimes those customer service people just absolutely annoy me. But anyway, that’s when I see it the most prominent, when I’m not being the nicest person. So if you find a new life, and not getting what you want or you don’t dare to manipulate people the way you think you want them to be, or dare I say, manipulate people into getting them to do what you want them to do.

I think it’s very important that you take that step back and see what you are doing and how it is being received by others. Because I guarantee you will find that you are really being the nicest person. This is why marriages fail and other relationships fail, because people are not communicating, they are not expressing themselves in a way that others want to receive it. This type of thing goes back to textbook salesmanship. Not those slimy car sales types, and I know it’s just a stereotype, but it’s an aggressive, condescending attitude that other people just don’t need.

I have brought that up in earlier episodes, where I’ve got people that made some comments to me, and rather than firing back another comment, I just try to approach in a way that they are not allowed to be that arrogant as they currently are. Kind of like doing it with a smile on your face, and yet reflecting something else. A very common practice. Would be as if I did something for someone and they say thank you, and you say: you’re welcome. Well, why are you saying: you’re welcome? What does that mean anyway?

It is just one of those insincere platitudes that people ignore on a day-to-day basis. Rather, if you took advantage of the situation and did something like them saying thank you, and you say: I know you would have done the same for me. Now, in that case you have actually taken them out of that stereotype dancer, that they would just ignore, and put them on the spot. You put them into a situation that is settle enough to go into the radar, but very conscious enough that they are going to think about it. ‘Would I have really done that for that person? Hm, I guess I am obligated to now, because he said it. Can you see what really just happened? You turned the table to that person.

So of course now I digressed from my original point or representing yourself to others, but the point of this is that you can either make this as a blow off statement, or you can make it as a statement that stands out as something that people are going to remember. Whether intentionally or unintentionally. But it’s making that conscious choice that is the most important. I know someone, who as soon as customer service answers the phone, he immediately says: I want to speak to a supervisor. That’s being aggressive and that’s being wrong. He hasn’t even begun to give this person an opportunity to solve the problem, he just immediately assumes that this person who answered the phone can’t possibly solve his problem and he demands to speak with a supervisor. He has begun that situation in an aggressive position. He might think that going out on a date while you assumed that the date went well, and the other person won’t call you back. It can be just the slightest, smallest thing that you said or did or reflected that caused them to be put off. So take a look at yourself from someone else’s point of view, or even through a mirror of yourself, and think that you will be happy that you did, because you will be able to learn from your own mistakes, and put yourself into a better position for the future to actually get what you want, to achieve what you want, and to get that success that you desire in your life.

Joy and Boredom of Freelancing

Work itself has been coming in pretty stable lately. The problem seems to be all the back-end stuff. It’s kind of funny. I am allocating an entire day just to sit down and work. Just like I always did, just like everybody else does. Like I’m going to work from this time period to that time period. So let’s say, I’m getting up in the morning, I have a breakfast, I’m sitting down and I start to work let’s just say at 9 o’clock in the morning. I can plan to work until 5 o’clock.

Theoretically, I am getting an entire 8 hour workday. What really does seem to happen is I am keeping the timers going, generally more than one. For example one for the job that I am currently not working on, a second timer might be for background stuff that I’m working on, maybe just email activities and other general office related stuff. But what I’m finding is that in a course of an 8 hour day, the time I am actually working productively on a paying job, I suppose to sending out random emails, backtracking, and other things that are generally billable, I have a much smaller value that I can’t actually charge for, maybe I can, maybe I can’t. But the real suck of the day, seems like this bottomless pin of just background nonsense of sending out invoices, quoting jobs.

I mean, when you quote a job, you’re not being paid for, but it still going to take you half an hour to do a little bit of research, a little bit of planning, type up an email with response, and then actually get the information to the potential customer. That’s a half an hour out of your day it’s going to take. And you do that a couple of times, a couple of things like that. I sent out an invoice today, and that took a half an hour, sent out a quote today, that took a half an hour, background stuff, when you tell the computer to do something and it kind of goes off on its own and you are like: I can get up for a little bit or I can just sit here and do something else.

So the point of the matter is when I realized over the past few days in general, it just seems to be that I’m allocating this big block of time to get the work done, I’m only able to bill for 1-2-3 hours. It’s pretty crazy, I’m finding that only half of my day, let’s say 4 hours is actually billable. The other 4 hours seem to be taken up not only by background emails and stuff like I mentioned, but since I’m working in the office that happens to be in my home, I can go upstairs, I can see my son, I’m seeing my wife, I’m stopping for lunch, yesterday I stopped and I cooked out on the grill for lunch, I mean how often can you do that? And why shouldn’t I? That’s the whole point of doing this as a freelancer. But that 10-15 even 20 minutes of lunch or even allocate 30 minutes for lunch, that was easily blown away by turning on the grill, getting out the food, putting it all together, sitting out in the back yard, I was watching a little TV on a portable device, and I enjoyed myself. Then I put it all back together, then I broke it all down put the dishes in the sink, got back to work an hour-so later.

So what I’m finding is that my day isn’t quite what I had in mind. I can get up in the morning thinking that I’m going to work but that it is so not at all the case. It appears to me that this is much better off with a planned, dedicated timeframe. What I mean is that the past few weeks have been a little more chaotic than I would have expected out of a freelance work environment, I had gone out on a partial vacation, but I was still trying to do work. I had gone work partially in a studio and partially from my office, and it was broken time. It’s more productive time that I don’t have to spend that half an hour to drive to the studio and half an hour back each day, so I’m gaining an hour, where theoretically I can do some of this knock-off stuff. The reality of it is seems to be extending my workday. Meaning that I still have a certain amount of things that have to be concluded and achieved and ended with in order to meet deadlines. However, because of these extended break ups during the day, that’s extending my actual workday. And it is making me very tired. A good example of this would be today, I have worked for like 4 hours and personally, I do not like working 8 hours in one chunk. I don’t like it.

That’s why I don’t want to work a 9-5 type of job, because if I work 9-1 I am so ready to get out of there. What’s that? 10-11-12-1, that’s 4 hours. 4 hours and I’m burned, I don’t care anymore. Whatever I’m working on, I’m done. So I was so excited that today I worked for 4 hours I then spent another half an hour setting up the computer to run by itself in the background, as it processed out files, while I got up at last. And I went out for some 2 hours. I went for a walk with my family, we went to the store, we came back, I picked up where I left off, I did a little bit more work, set up the computer to process some more, and then I had dinner, with the family as well.

After dinner I set my son up to take a bath and then I came downstairs and I worked for a while more and in theory, it was 9 o’clock and I was wrapping up all my work so I could go on to other things that I want to do, but what ended up happening was spending another hour and a half doing background stuff that I’m never going to be paid for. Someone else wanted an extended invoice, so now I have to go back and revisit that, there was a question on files I uploaded to a server, so I had to go back and revisit that, so my workday, even though I haven’t worked for 12 hours, I have been at my desk for 12.5 hours at least. At least I have been here for 12.5 hours. Not physically, actually here, but at the very least mentally I have been here. When I get back I have to work on this, I have to work on that, and that’s just constant stuff. I mean, I’ve been busy in general, however, the time away is being spent with this constant from morning to night work, worrying about meeting deadlines, what has to get down before I go to bed tonight, or get it first thing in the morning.

So by the time it’s time for bed, I’m finishing up my work, hoping I got everything done, I go to bed, when I get up in the morning, I’m thrust right into the situation again. And I’m finding over the past week, at the very least, I haven’t done anything but hard core work. And that would be almost fine, except for the actual billable time is only about 20 hours or something like that. Granted. As a freelancer, you are setting a higher rate than you are as a steady employee, however, the added time, the mental hassle, the anguish, the jumping through hoops in order to meet everybody’s deadline, while working for my own studio, for my own office, it just seems to be a whole lot more than I bargained for. I’m not saying I want to change it and really go back into doing things the more traditional way of working all day, punching out and going home. Some people want that. I can most definitely see value in that. Because I’m working longer hours. Not necessarily more hours but longer hours.

A very good example was 2 days ago. I was supposed to get up and do work. But since there was no dooming deadlines, I just took the whole day off. I just didn’t feel like working. That's right there is the value of being a freelancer. When I was feeling – I don’t want to say sicker but I was just a bit under the weather, I didn’t care and I was just like whatever – so I worked on Sunday the next day, because that was a better fit for my time schedule, my wife has taken my son and they went out so I had the whole day to myself, which sounds great, but now I’m torn mentally where I had the whole day to myself. And I want to work on my own thing, can’t do it, got to work on work. I really like to work on some stuff around the house, but I can’t do it because now I have deadlines that I’m trying to meet. Anyway, it’s just a whole lot more than I ever bargained for and these are definitely things I should have thought about before I found myself in the situation. Again, I’m not looking to change it, I am perfectly content dealing with it, but these are things that are not necessarily planned by me.

I should have thought about a little bit before I put myself into the situation. Once again to straight my point, I was just sent an email about some files I sent. Rather than actually opening the file I sent and looking what was in there, I was presented with a question, asking me what was in there. I mean God forbid, the person actually read the email or opened the file to actually see what was in there. This just reinvests my time, my free time, my big smiley, happy to serve time, for something other than where that time should be allocated. Which is why you absolutely need to overcharge for everything. You need to overestimate your time for everything. I had recently given out a quote of time which was inflated by somebody else to give to the next customer. Well, certainly it was a good thing that they did that, because I went past my time, I went past their time, and now I’m apparently in my free time. Not that I expect this to be a bit time consuming, I’m just happy to have the job, the reality of it is, it’s going to be taking another 5 to 10 percent longer than I originally anticipated. So it’s just very important that you plan accordingly, you budget accordingly, and then you inflate those numbers because inevitably you are going to get burned.

I had recently read an article that had said whatever amount of time that you think you can get for a normal 9-5 paying job, you should take that amount and double it and that’s what you should charge as a freelancer. From my own experience, I think you should at least double it. Sometimes it feels you are giving out a quote that feels it is way too high, but I’ve got to tell you, you really need to do that anyway, because despite the fact that it seems too high, you end up getting burned at the end if you lowball your own price, so it is extremely important that you don’t throw back yourself into the corner, where you are responsible for hours worth of work what you have to give away for free on something that you barely bid on to begin with. Because if someone is not willing to pay the proper amount for that work that’s going to be done, your better off not accepting the job at all. Because you are just going to pull your hair out and waste your time.

Please go to http://www.theartofretouching.com where you can find all the trips and tricks you need to make you a better photo retoucher.

Use the Imagenomics Coupon Code: "ARTOFREOUCHING" for 20% Off their products. So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

You can do way too many things when planning your business strategy. It's easy to get distracted and loose focus on what is most important. From my own experience, after the core goal is established, I find that I come up with so many ideas to reach that goal, that nothing is followed through, clear until the end. I will do so many different things, that nothing is ever fully completed in any useful way. This podcast episode is about staying focused, staying on target, and not letting all the random ideas pull you away from whats really important to succeed.

In This Episode:

• Why Do This?
• Music Matters
• Digital Fundamentals and Photoshop Basics
• Don't Dilute Your Brand
• Conclusion

Transcript: Podcast – Episode 006

Why Do This?

One of the questions is, why do I actually do this? This is something I ask myself. Well, there are definitely people who do listen to the podcasts, however, the reason that I do is something that goes back to the previous episode, which is passion. I have a passion for photo retouching, but I actually also have a passion for audio broadcasting. That seems to be a path I never actually went down. When I was younger I used to listen to a local radio show that was on at 10 o’clock at night.

He would have everything from normal, regular interview shows of local celebrities, to local news topics, and then later on when he had nothing else to do, he would do an open air thing where people could call in and just bring up topics to talk about. And those were the ones that always got me the most excited. Well, not so excited, but I certainly enjoyed them, because the topics would always jump all over the place. It wasn’t an hour of the same topic. This was I believe back in 1996 when I was listening to them so I was definitely a young kid and I remember I loved listening to the radio show and when he would have his open calling, I would call up and would do different personalities. I would take on personalities and I would ask a question, instigate a topic.

I really don’t remember too much about it, but I do remember one particular thing that I have done one night. But I do remember that I did call up and did my thing. I remember that I enjoyed doing that and I really enjoyed every subsequent radio related shows that I would see on TV or in the movies at that time. There was a movie Talk Radio, or there was a movie Pump Up The Volume that I really enjoyed because that was the type of thing that I wanted to do, so I started experimenting with CB radios and different things. And this whole topic is about the things that I never actually got to do, because I do enjoy talking to the microphone and all that, so that’s why I take the time to do the podcast. Primarily for myself because it was something I always wanted to do and technology has finally caught up with me and my interests. It was kind of funny because I wasn’t expecting that I needed all this heavy duty equipment to do this. And all the equipment that it takes for me to produce this was under 300 dollars.

It was really fairly cheap to come up with high quality stuff. It was really just the matter of taking the time to learn, what others use, how they produce it. I tried a couple of things to make it work for myself, mostly I learned on the early video tutorials that I did. Those definitely have some issues.

I probably won’t revisit them, because they are already made. I might edit them down a little bit to get them more to the point, but I won’t recreate them. But I do a lot of learning and experimenting and buying equipment as I went I bought equipment and I got rid of equipment because it wasn’t what I needed. I just brought it back to the store and I tried something else and I just narrowed it down. I only have like 4 pieces of equipment here and I could really do with 3 but I feel safer with the 4th. I won’t go into that because this is not what this podcast is about. What does this all have to do with retouching or freelancing? Absolutely nothing. Doesn’t have to. I don’t know if you recall but I said way back in episode 1, 2, or 3 – I really don’t remember – but what I said, that this was about entertainment. This isn’t about anything in particular. So if you find it boring and don’t care, then you can just stop listening. If you do want to continue to listen then continue listening. I’m just talking about this being why I created this podcast. There is no reason other than I do something that I enjoy doing.

Music Matters

With these clear changes and re-decisions that I am making in my life have been changing things up, I often think that I’m making mistakes. And I probably am. I’m learning as I go. One of the things that does help me as silly as it is. I have a playlist that I used to listen to music. It isn’t just songs that I randomly have in there, or songs that I randomly like, they are actually very specifically chosen. Most of them are encouraging.

Their intention is that while I’m working and not really thinking, I’m just kind of doing while I’m listening to music in the background. What I am listening to are songs that give me the uplifting inspiration to keep going. Again, it sounds a little bit silly, but that constant reconfirmation that I’m doing something right, that I need to go that extra step, in order to achieve what my goal is, and when I’m working those late nights, as I’m recording this it’s 12.20, I should already be in bed, but the very least I should be watching TV or watching a movie, or whatever the case is. But I’m down, here, doing this, because this is what I enjoy doing.

If I was doing retouching or other background work related to the website or something like that, I would be listening to music that encourages me, that gives me the inspiration that I need, to make me feel better about what I’m doing. And even if it’s background music and I never really think about the lyrics, I know that they are having some impact, some influence on me. By far the best song that I have is from Pink Floyd. This one goes back all the way to their early years, it’s called Fearless, and I’m sure I’m going to completely do this an injustice by actually reading the lyrics, so I would most certainly encourage you, go look it up in iTunes or something, and even if you don’t get the Pink Floyd version, it’s been remade several different times, however, my personal favorite is by far Fish which you may not find in iTunes but on the album: Songs from the Mirror, that actually happens to be my favorite version of the song.

So for better or worse, these are the lyrics:

You say the hill's too steep to climb
Climb it.
You say you'd like to see me try Climbing.
You pick the place and I'll choose the time
And I'll climb That hill in my own way
Just wait a while for the right day
As I rise above the tree lines and the clouds I look down, hearing the sound of the things you've said today.
Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd Smiling.
No doubt in your own way
Every day is the right day
You look down, hearing the sound of the faces in the crowd.

I have always just taken that song as very inspirational in that you give me the challenge, and I will take on that challenge, and I will succeed. I'm not saying that I am going to do today, I’m not going to say I’ll do it tomorrow, when it’s right, I’m going to make the move and I’m going to achieve my goals. I can’t say that I’m a fan of those self-affirmations, that you are supposed to look in the mirror and say: I am good, I am great, I’m going to do something special today.

So that’s not me. But I do believe that you do need the background belief that somewhere in your subconscious it’s listening to this… just listening to me. It’s the same thing for you. That I’m telling you, you can do it. And there’s different ways that you can do it. Don’t be listening to everybody else, telling you that you don’t have to, or you can’t. They might as well just sit down and watch some TV. The only way you are going to succeed to take the time and learn more. The only way you are going to learn more, to make the time. That’s the only way you are going to succeed and it’s all hard work.

Two New Classes – Digital Fundamentals and Photoshop Basics

On December 12th, I’m going to be hosting my digital fundamentals class, so if you do have an interest in that, you should definitely sign up before you forget. It only costs 1 dollar to come in, I was going to make it free, but then I figured that I have every other person signing up just for looking for a free class.

This way, for a dollar, I know that at least the people that are coming in actually want to be there and want to learn something. The digital fundamental class is before Photoshop, it’s basically the types of things you need to understand about file handling, the different file formats, jpg, raws, gifs, things like that, pixelization, what’s trapping, megapixels, all different kinds of stuff about scanners, printers, cameras. This is a class I actually have been teaching for a couple of years now, so if you do have an interest in it, certainly go to the website and sign up and just reserve a seat for yourself, that’s going to be December 12th, at 4 pm, Eastern Standard Time.

That is a leading class to my basic Photoshop training that I’m going to start on December 3rd, at 4 pm, EST, and this class is going to take you through all of the basic Photoshop knowledge, usage of the tools, the pallets, what are the different things are for, etc. I know I got a bunch of videos up on the website that you can watch, but those are just kind of randomly placed things, this is actually a starter course that will give you everything in a very linear fashion.

You’ll have homework, you’ll have me as a mentor, so I can help you through specific problems that you are having, we’ll be covering topics not in the videos, and I also hopefully will be able to give you some helpful inspiration, so that you have someone that you can be accountable to, whether it’s me or other members of the group, so if you are finding you are not actually watching the videos, even though you want to, if you sign up for this and you’ll know that you have to be there, otherwise you’ll be out the money.

The cost on that is 299.00, for a 4 week course, it’s very inexpensive, but I’m really just hoping that I can get that information out there and help you be a better photo retoucher. In the past week I released a new on compositing, painting and lighting. Which is basically an hour and 40 minute video, which goes from intermediate to advanced skill level, where I take 2 different images, I composite them together, then I do retouching, I paint in hair, I go high contrast, make it a dull tone image, and basically do something really nice that I was able to put inside my portfolio. So this is another one of my fully edited video tutorials, it’s not any topics specific, but if you want to see how I work on a complicated image in my studio, this might be something that you are interested in.

For the time being, I’m going to have a price on the video, being 9.95, as well as for an older, extended cloning video, which I’ve also dropped the price to 9.95. So you can get them both for the price that used to be 20 dollars for a single cloning video and I’m just kind of hoping that more people will make the purchase and hopefully learn something new.

Don't Dilute Your Brand

You are your brand. You are selling yourself. But don’t dilute that by doing too many different things. You need to focus. And you need to be the best at one thing. Hopefully that is the one thing that you like the best. When you are doing too many different things, it is simply distracting. This seems to be one of the hardest things for me to do. For some reason I believe that I need to go out and I need to do everything. All at once.

I think that what it comes down to is that if I have one thing that I’m really good at, and that one thing goes away, then I have just lost a revenue stream, so I go out of my way to build multiple businesses, and multiple ways to bringing in money. The problem is that it does, it dilutes my mental focus, and it is very distracting. When I’m unable to do one thing and do it well. This can certainly be a good thing, if one thing has a problem, there is still money coming in. But because it’s distracting I can just focus on one thing and do it well. As a side business I do computer repair. It brings in some money on the side, it’s not bad. It’s not what I’m doing full time, and it’s an ok thing to distract me with. It’s nothing that is going to keep me from doing other work.

However, as I mentioned before, I sold cellphones. The cellphones were constantly distraction. I was constantly getting calls, where I had to constantly talk to people. I had to meet people, I had to get in my car, I had to meet them, I had to show them the merchandise. I had to sell the product. And if I sold the product, put the money in my pocket and came home, that would be a good side business. The problem came in where inevitably people were calling me up and saying: this isn’t working, the receive doesn’t work, the buttons don’t work, there’s static, there’s poor reception, honest to god, the list went on and on.

The problem wasn’t that the products were bad, the problem wasn’t that I was selling garbage to people, the problem was the people themselves. They were literally bringing me into their world after the sale and saying something wasn’t working. At 99% of the time I was finding that these problems that they were having were exclusively their own. And I could then take that same product, give it to somebody else and they didn’t have the same problem. Inevitably, they found something else to complain about. I don’t know if they were complaining just to complain, I don’t know if they were complaining because it was in them, I don’t know if they were complaining because they were expecting the most pristine Apple iPhone, that could possibly come off the shelf. I don’t know what they were looking for. What I do know, that these people were coming back to me after the sale complaining about this, complaining about that, complaining about the other thing, then I had to go and meet them again. I had to exchange phones, I had to give them refunds, then I was taking the products back, testing them myself, seeing that I had no problems, put it back in the box, put it back in Craigslist, and make the sale again.

This was happening way too often. Now I have been selling phones for 3 years. The problem is that in the past 3 months, I have had a lot of exchanges and refunds. Previously I had a 16% of refund or exchange rate, which I think is very high. It should really be down to 10%. However, I have been dealing with it and I have been doing it for so long that it seem normal to me. Part of the business. I raised my rates just to cover the costs that seemed to be normal. At some point recently I just realized that it was just too much. I mentioned previously that we had a storm, a big weather, hurricane, storm thing, power was going out in these different towns. Whole towns were out of power for a week. And I had somebody call me up shortly after the storm and they said in a voicemail – I didn’t actually answered the phone, I’m afraid to answer my own phone – and they said that they wanted their money back because they were getting poor reception. That was the core of what they were asking. They wanted the money back because of poor reception. To elaborate a little bit on what they were elaborating on, they actually said, they want a refund, because of the poor reception, with a cellphone power that lost power due to a hurricane. This is how I read into it. In fact that the power is down, is not my problem. I’m not a T-mobile or AT &T representative. I just sell the phone.

And this person found yet another reason to complain. And this person was after a whole strain of complaints. In the past 3 months, I was having a 95% dissatisfied rate. To me that’s way too much. The product was not actually that bad that I was getting a 95% return. But that wasn’t even it, really. I resold every one of those products. The problem came in with those people who just complain. I’m sure that if you are a freelancer, you have your own set of clients who just complain. Clients who complain are complaining either for a good reason, or stupid reason. Let’s just be honest about it: the client is not the customer that is always right. Sometimes the client is just stupid. If you have one person who has a problem, then try and fix the problem. If you have 10 people in a row that are complaining, even if it’s about a variety of things, something is fundamentally wrong.

Now I’m not saying that there was a problem about these phones I was selling, because I don’t think there was. I was selling it over to the next guy and he was going away happy. I think the problem is expectation. When you are presenting a quote to a client, you need to set that expectation properly. They need to know what they are going to get for the money. And if they have an expectation above and beyond that then there will be an added charge. You need to communicate that to the client, upfront. There can’t be a question later that causes a problem. That’s why it’s ideal if you have a form letter that you have pre-written, that you pre-thought about, that you made sure is absolutely right, and when they enquiry about the job, you can copy it, and paste it. They can read it, and then they will know what to expect. Now, in my particular case, after 3 years of doing it, I think I pretty much just gave up. For more than 3 years I was selling cellphones, I went through good periods, I went through bad periods.

Overall I have made money, so it was very hard for me to walk away, but damn, I did. Now here is another point for you. I spent 3 years of my life, pouring a lot of time and a whole lot of money into this business, online and offline. I built a brand, I built referrals, but at the end of the day I acknowledged that something was wrong. I could possibly fix it, but I don’t it was worth it. That’s where the ability to go to the next level comes in. I know there was a problem, I spent 3 years fixing problems, this continues to be a problem. I had problems with poor products, poor sale, bills from other vendors that I do business with, I literally spent 3+ year building an entire business, solving problems and making this work. I reached the point last week when I just didn’t want to deal with it any more.

I realized – I don’t even want to say I realized – I have always known it, it brought in money, I made sales, but the problem was that I was spending a lot of money putting back into the website, putting back into advertising, and all the other stuff that goes with it. I’m not saying I was breaking even, I was making money, otherwise I would have not continued doing it, but with the amount of literal garbage I was dealing with, I just had it. Maybe it was just me reaching a breaking point, maybe it was just me finally throwing away my ego and saying it didn’t work, but it didn’t. I’m done, I hate saying this but I’m done. By the time you are listening to this, it’s probably well old news. Certainly I have given up on this and sometimes you need to do that, sometimes you need to say, this just isn’t working for me. And that’s your current job, maybe your job isn’t working for you. And it takes you to take the balls to admit that to yourself, to say it out loud, and to make the changes that are necessary to quit. Now, if it’s your own business, or if you’re a freelancer, you can’t just quit. But you need to be able to adopt to the situation and see what’s broken and how can I fix it. My decision to shut down the company was just literally out of frustration. It took a lot of my mental focus. I don’t want to do that anymore. I would rather focus on retouching. And maybe retouching is the wrong thing for me, I don’t know. Who knows? I would have rather kept the phone thing going and then move into the retouching and then freelancing. But the reality was, which is back to the whole point of this, that my retouching was being hurt by the distraction of the cellphones. And it sucks.

Because cellphones brought in money. And if I made the sale and I was over with it, I would have made the money hand fast. Honest to god. The problem is that it was just constant garbage. People weren’t happy with the stupidest things. Not only was the person that said that they had poor reception, after a hurricane, when the power is out in half the state, but also I had another customer, who said he didn’t want the phone anymore because his fingers were too big. How in the world is that my problem?? Maybe if you have a bought a product that you know, you expect to work, and refunds and all that, you can understand. I have been doing this for so long and I heard every stupid complaint under this sun, like the guy with the big fingers, and I was immediately replace the phone and do my thing, and it’s just like, ahh, I don’t want to do that anymore. So for you, I’m not saying to you to shut down your business, it’s really a matter of find what’s broken and fix it.

If you are having problems, if you are having client complaints, if you redoing work, if it’s anything vaguely like that, you need to find the core of the problem. Maybe you need to automate things to a point where you come up with problems and solutions and write them down. And I do that, write them down and present them before the sale is made, to the customer. This way there is no question, or other anomaly that they can find to complain about. This way it’s just written down, it’s clear, it’s out in the open. And that’s the most important thing I think to give your clients. If you don’t know what you actually need to say to the customer at the front end, then you can do exactly what I did. Which was do a Google search, or a FAQ on retouching and just start reading through what other people have encountered, take notes about what their questions were, how they answered it, and then you can put together your own document that explains everything.

Reword it obviously, because different situations for different clients, but this just gives you a starting point. I did the exact same thing. I didn’t know what to say because I just started to build the business, with clients I don’t know anything about, but I just did a research, I put something together and put it up on the website that I am building. A job that we have recently working on, we are trying to anticipate the problems, and we brought it up in emails to the client on the front end. We brought it up again while we were working on it. The core problems that we were anticipating and then experiencing. And at this point the client still hasn’t acknowledged that specific problem that we were having. At some point they will probably, tomorrow, but we covered our base and we said what we wanted to say, and got it out there in the open. And you should not be afraid to do that, too.

Put things out in the open and just get them out there, let people know about it that this is good, better and different. People always appreciate the more open and honest relationships that they have with the suppliers, vendors and whatever. And if you can do that, rather than hiding things and keeping them secret, then you are much better off down the road. I worked for many companies that kept things as this big secret, and they didn’t want to tell the clients or whatever, and that just always ended up in problems. They were always backtracking and lying and making up excuses. I hated the excuses. Like with the phone business thing. It was a lot of making up excuses, like because of this and because of that, and just blowing it off and the reality of it was just wrong. And I hated that.

So just be try and be open with your clients and build that report. Every client that you have may not want the bad news, but they appreciate the bad news preferably ahead of time rather than it already passed and already happened.

Conclusion

To end this on a more positive note, I’m glad that you were joining me on this journey of self discovery, where I’m just kind of venting myself and talking about whatever comes to mind, whether be the past or the future or the present, and you are learning something from this, and you are hopefully growing and not making the same mistakes that I did. I acknowledge I mostly talking off my head at this point, because as you have been following along, I did it open and it was a lot of editing that was involved, and I wrote everything down, and I was very ‘read’, it sounded like I was reading it all. And then I started doing this more open thought process thing where I just kind of got my topic and I’m running with it. And I’m hoping it comes out ok.

So in general, I’m doing this because I enjoy doing this, which is back to the earlier point, why I’m actually doing this, because it’s the type of thing I always wanted to do. And it’s not a podcast about retouching, but because I always wanted my open radio show, like the one I used to listen to when I was a kid. Where I can just kind of talk off my head and whatever came out came out, and if anyone wants to listen, that’s perfectly fine by me. And if no one wants to listen, then no one wants to listen, and you are not listening to this. But you are listening to this, so there is got to be at least one person that gives a crap about what I have to say. And if you do care about what I have to say, I assume that you are into photo retouching and if you are into photo retouching, please go to http://www.theartofretouching.com where you can pick up more tricks and tips on how to become a better photo retoucher.

But I’m sure you already know about that otherwise you wouldn’t be listening to me now. And if you are wondering how much of a passion this is for me, this is actually the 3rd podcast that I have recorded in a row. That is correct, I have recorded podcast number 4, number 5 and number 6, all in the same night.

I’m very tired and my throat hurts. But I started doing this tonight because I had a lot to say – I didn’t think I had quite so much to say – but apparently I did and I just spit it all out and now I’m tired and I’m going to bed. Thank you for joining me, and I will talk to you next time.

Use the Imagenomics Coupon Code: "ARTOFREOUCHING" for 20% Off their products. So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

In this 5th episode of The Art of Retouching Podcast, we will be talking about Getting Organized. I talk about good software, and bad habits. I offer some suggestions that can help keep your work on schedule, and avoid missed billing opportunities. I also discuss specific areas of retouching that are overworked and create a completely fake looking image. Later, I give some information about how to sign up for a Two and a Half Hour Digital Imaging Class for only $1.00. Yes, a dollar. No strings attached. I also give information on the new Beginner and Intermediate Photoshop Classes that will be coming up.

In This Episode:

• Getting Organized
• Retouching Overkill
• $1.00 Digital Imaging Class
• Beginner and Intermediate Photoshop Classes

Transcript:
Podcast – Episode 005

Getting Organized

Anyway, to get into things, I just wanted to start by talking about being organized. As I mentioned in a previous episode, I had disrupted my workflow because of a recent storm that we had, so I have extra computers in here and I’m taking on extra work. I am a little bit confused, as far as taking notes and making sure that everything is taken care of. This is why I’m taking notes so everyone gets paid and everyone gets billed as they supposed to.

I started working the same way as I always do, which was with sticky notes. Not the little ones, I can’t stand those things, but I actually have several pads of these larger sticky note things, and it allows me to get out quick pieces of information, I can stick them off to the side when I need to reference it later, I can. If I ever want to consolidate that information, I can just write a new sticky note, it might sound as extra work, but with things that are important to me, for example a To-Do list – I have a big To-Do list, 20 to 50 things – anyway, I write them all down, I cross them off as I go, and then when the list becomes really dirty or scratched off or whatever, I start rewriting a new one. And that just allows me to decide if I’m going to bother to write something down, because a week later it might not be that important or it’s already done or something, so I can just leave it off.

Basically, it’s just a mental intent that something still needs to be done because it was important enough for me to write it down again. So the point of this, is that I just started keeping these sticky notes for job information. I just write the job name, and how long I started working on a per image basis, and the same sticky starts getting more time? I’m working with this or with that, and then that’s a different job, I pull out another sticky note, attach it to the table, and basically after a couple of days working like this, I was just left with a whole bunch of sticky notes. They are full of important information, useful information, how long I worked on an image so we know how much to bill for and all that kind of stuff, and it is important to have, but writing them down on a sticky note and sticking them on the desk is not the most efficient way to work.

I needed to come up with a new way to organize my work, because when I start a new business, I must be much more organized, because the way to make money is to have a very standardized workflow, to know how things are done, I have to present an organized pricelist, based on that this is what you want, this is what is going to cost. This way there are no surprises for people. Automating things is the most useful way of succeed in business. If this happens, you automatically do that. There is no question, there is no thinking. Having canned email responses is also very important.

Anyway, I needed to come up with a workflow that works with retouching, that would allow me to properly track the jobs, that is not going to be left clattered around my desk,or on the computer as well. I’m working on different machines and that is definitely adding to the confusion of my life, so I really need to button this up and focus on what I’m doing. It is very important to keep job notes before and during the work, so they can be referenced after, they can just be entered into a generic price and billed out to the person that needs to pay you.

Sticky notes = bad, Excel document = good.

We used to use for “everything” tracking, was “Now Up To Date” Software. It was a calendar program that would let you keep track of meetings, appointments, jobs, schedules, things like that. It also had tasks, to do and stuff like that.

It also had a separate program called “Now Contact”, which allowed you to put in all your contact information like different clients, email addresses, phone numbers, keep notes about each individual person. So this was an all-in-one software, but the problem with it was that they went out of business sometime back and we didn’t know what else to use.

I did a lot of exhausting searches, and basically a lot in this category was broken. It was a lot of piece-meal, like you could use a Google Calendar, then you had to use another 3rd party software in order to make Google Calendar talk with the Macintosh Calendar. Nothing was seamless. Then you have iPhone apps, etc, a lot of back and forth and none of it really worked particularly well.

I did eventually came across a software called Daylite from MarketCircle. What that software does, is the exact same thing. The whole thing is a self-contained program, it lets you jump between different tabs, and with these tabs it would have a calendar view, where you can keep all off your scheduled appointments and stuff, it had a contact view that would list all your contact information in categories. It also has extended features that just kept going into categories that we had no particular need for.

The software wasn’t all that cheap, it was about $ 150 per seat, as well as a $ 150 for an iPhone application that will automatically sync with the server. But as you can see, what I just said, made it very useful because everything was a seamless, synchronized system. And basically what it will do, is if you made an update to a task, or add a new calendar entry or something, that information propagates over to this iPhone application so you can take it with you and if you want a contact information for somebody, you would take that information and add that to the phone. So it’s all very seamless.

There’s things to like about the software and things not to like about the software, I mean some of the downsides to it is that its core is an older system, so it’s missing some features that we would like for it to do, but they continually update it and they do add new features to it, they keep going but they don’t fix the older broken things. I think in my opinion, there’s definitely things they should take a moment to go back to it, but are you going to do? I have pointed it all out to them, in person, as a matter of fact, I have met them once at a trade show, but nothing was ever done with it.

Anyway, we do use that for job tracking, we have individuals that have specifics to-do lists, jobs, scheduling and we are able to keep track of the ins and outs of our photography studio/retouching studio. All this information just was quite seamlessly was brought over from that now up-to-date software. We just told that this is the old database and we are making a new database and it imported everything. It wasn’t 100%, we still had to go through all this old legacy stuff and it was a good time, but it ran and did an excellent job to update.

So if there is anybody out there that is actually looking for this type of software, I would definitely recommend this Daylite software, it does an excellent job, and it is from a company called Market Circle.

Just to end my thought on this particular topic, what I ended up doing after working in my office for about 2 weeks after all this extra work to keep myself organized, I ended up getting a simple notepad, and inside of the notepad I would just put larger pieces of information I need to keep track of. It’s not organized by any stretch of information, but at least I have more room to work and put things down and I can just turn a page.

I do still use the sticky notes, I keep track of my minutes and hours that I’m working on a particular job, and then there are certain jobs that require a finesse of what time was spent on an image basis, but basically I just created an Excel document which kept track of the job name, the amount of time I worked in round one, the amount of time I worked in round two, how much time I spent on emails or phone calls and a single column that added all the stuff up into hours and minutes that I have actually worked. It wasn’t crazy, I mean everyone can figure out how to do that, but it just took a little bit of time to work out something that I can reference and keep an update, a log that would keep track of that information for me. So I can translate that information from these sticky notes over to that larger Excel document that is keeping track of things better for me.

Personally I’m just kind of hooked on these larger sticky notes. I don’t like having sticky notes everywhere, so I do use a sticky note program on my computer, I keep track of these sticky notes on my PC and I use a program called Notezilla, and I think it was like $30 but it was well worth the money. I bought this years ago and it allows me to keep sticky notes, long term sticky notes. Basically it’s just categorized information so when I’m ready to go back and reference something, that information is easily available to me.

I also use Microsoft OneNote, which is part of the Office package, and I use that on my tablet PC. Not tablet with your fingers, but the old tablet PC where the screen would swivel and then close, and you pull out a pen and write on the screen. I’m still a big fan of those, I think they are a little bit on the heavy side, based off of the current technologies with these thin iPads and other Google portable devices.

If I could get one of these finger tablets with a pen, that would be totally awesome. That is something that I want to look into, because I do write a lot. And that is one of the things that I find, in my new tablet what I am missing out on. All I seem to do is watch TV that I download, or I use the Internet for quick references. I don’t really use it for what I use a regular tablet for.

Like I was saying, I like to use OneNote where I have different folders and I keep track of hand written information, where I can type the information in, so these are just the variety of different ways that I keep track of different information. I used to be crazy with sticky notes everywhere and when I became so overloaded I have gone to Notezilla, which allows me to keep all that information segregated and hidden until I need it and I can access what I am looking for. Same thing with OneNote: I can forget about information until I actually need it, I can go back to these different notebooks and pages, and pull up these old notes that I have and reference them. Since most of them are typed already, I can just copy and paste.

One of the benefits of OneNote is that you can actually do searches on your handwriting because it has character recognition. It’s pretty good software, I have been impressed with that for many-many years ever since it came out. And as software versions, this has gotten better at the handwriting recognition, searches and other ways of the old elements. It is very similar to Evernote, we can copy and paste information and keep track of things and drop in pictures and stuff like that.

Basically I just gave you a whole bunch of software options, to keep track of all this information that otherwise leaves us completely buried under paper in a supposedly paperless society.

Retouching Overkill

When is it too much retouching? That is an interesting topic. This came up a few weeks ago, with that whole Julia Roberts topic, when it didn’t even look like Julia Roberts any more, it looked like some porcelain doll or something, because it was so retouched, it was just junk, really. So it was just too much. Personally I feel that getting rid of facial blemishes and brightening eyes and fixing hair, things like that are all very important. Even adding some artificial shadows, giving it a nice look, it all looks fantastic, it’s just at some point, where the pores go away and it just becomes this blurred gunk – I don’t even know how to put it, it’s just like when I see it, it looks so bad. And these people are thinking that it looks good.

No, I’m not talking about professional retouchers, they always seem to know when to stop, it’s just these 3rd World countries or something where they are doing this stuff, it just looks bad, comes off bad, and they just don’t know where to stop. This issue comes up with amateurs as well, where it is just being shown to do too much. Once you start retouching, you just keep retouching, retouching, retouching, it’s all too much!

My motto is that “I have done the best job, when you can’t tell that I have done anything at all.” And that’s true. If you take so many pictures or a portrait, all I do is make them have glowing eyes, not like bad glowing eyes, but happy, glowing eyes, bright eyes. The teeth: bright, white, but they are not bright white. There has to be that grounding and realism, that is always important to me, and that’s the way I do my retouching and which is how I always teach my retouching.

To me I think that is all very important, and when is it too much? I don’t know… it’s always a judgment call, but the point of a professional retoucher that may look like they go overboard, but that’s a stylistic intent, and that is different than just doing too much and making it look bad. A lot of times that type of over-retouching comesin if someone zoomed all the way in, like when you have a single eye covering the entire 24 inch monitor and they are just going away with the tiniest brush possible. That never ends well, it just doesn’t.

When I work, I back off. I was always taught, and I’m not saying this is best, not to zoom in more than 400%. Obviously that is just a very rough estimate; you can always find reasons why you have to zoom in more than 400%. But the only point is, just take it as a whole. When you are working on something, work on it as an overall, and yes, you have to zoom in to get into the final details, but then back out, don’t be afraid to come back and revaluate where you are. Did that change work? Did it not work? These things are important. If you want to do this successfully, it is very important to going in and coming out, don’t just get locked into that zoomed in part because you will just overwork it. Guaranteed you will overwork it and when you come out, that person just has a great white eye. You could just fill the whole thing with white and it would look the same.

So definitely pull things back and when at all possible, work on a separate layer for a limited area. You don’t want 2 million layers, but work on something that adjust your opacity, I do that often, if I’m whitening somebody’s eyes and I over whitened them, then just pull it back a little bit. How I work, that seems to work for me. Same thing with the teeth. I go a little bit too far, then I pull it back, as a global move. Whether it be the whole image, whatever I’m working on, or just that particular layer.

More recently, I have been doing some architectures stuff and I’m breaking up these rooms, like the pictures where someone is standing in the living room and they are taking a picture of the kitchen, which then goes out to the back patio. So I’m using my masking and my layering in order to break it up by room. The foreground room should be darker because I want the eye – your eye, the viewer’s eye – to go into the next room which is brighter, so you can see the detail in there, which then goes outside which looks – I’m not going to say the brightest – but the point is it is not just a flat image, there is some layering going on and density. That is achieved by being able to manipulate the opacity of different layers or adjustment layers or retouching layers and just having that flexibility afterwards is when it is important because working on the layer, I do it and I think it looks ok, I save the file and I close it, and then when I show my partner what I have done, he has that free objective eye. If not myself, when I’m looking at it later, and say: Ah, you know what would help? If I did this and I did that and it would give this a more balanced look. But you need the flexibility to do that if you start working completely on a whole new layer or doing retouching or the spotting and cloning or whatever on a single layer, then everything sticks together and you can’t break things apart and it just becomes a tougher way to work. When doing in pieces and someone says: Hey, can you just fix that? You can just go right to that layer, change is made.

Definitely watch some of my video tutorials on how I do work, I don’t know any particular video off hand, but there are some of those more advanced ones where I start working on different layers and things and then you can see how I break things apart, so you don’t get locked into making changes being more trouble than they worth.

$1.00 Digital Imaging Class

The Art of Retouching Website is about to have it's first year anniversary. To celebrate, I would like to offer all my Website Visitors, Podcast listeners, iTunes and YouTube subscribers a special offer. I am going to be kicking off a series of all new classes aimed at teaching everyone about Digital Imaging, Adobe Photoshop, and Professional Retouching.

This first Digital Imaging Class will be about 2.5 hours long, and includes everything you need to understand the basics of working with images before putting them under the digital blade. This presentation will be heavy on the mechanical prepress aspect of what images are, and best practices of handling them.

This will be a beginners guide to everything you need to know BEFORE you start to work with Photoshop. This will also stand as a semi-professional refresher course, to ensure you have a solid foundation for everything about preparing files for printing. Way too many tutorials start with Photoshop, and that is just simply the wrong approach. 

You may know that you want a 300 DPI Image, but WHY? No…wait… was that PPI? I know that company said they wanted 300 dpi, but another said 240 dpi. But, this silly camera says 72 DPI?!? Ugh… what's the difference? Well. don't worry about it, I'll explain it all for you.

You will be prepared to understand how to get files from the camera (JPG, RAW), through production (Photoshop and inDesign), and out to print (inkjet, digital printing, or printing press). This course is not Photoshop specific. Rather, It will give you enough information on how to best make educated decisions. One of the worst things to happen, is to spend hours working on image retouching, only to find out it will not print as intended. That is a major downer, to think that you need to start over again, after you already put all that work into it.

And the cost for 2 hours of my time? $1.00. Seriously.

Why in the world would I do that?!? Because I know the value of $1.00.

$1.00 Gets your attention. (I have it, don't I?)

$1.00 Gives me an audience, testimonials, and allows me a chance to connect with you, one on one.

I win, you win. Nothing more to it than that. Only the first 100 will be able to join me, so be sure to visit the webpage and sign up. This Digital Imaging Class is currently scheduled for Saturday, November 12th, 2011, at 4pm EST.

Beginner and Intermediate Photoshop Classes

I am also going to be starting a Beginner's Basic Photoshop Training Class on December 3rd, 2011. After reviewing the statistics for videos watched, I have decided that it would be best if I started with Basic Photoshop, for 4 weeks. Then, in December, I will start an intermediate class. As of right now, I do not think I will be doing an Advanced class. It's not that I can't teach it, but there does not seem to be enough interest in the content. If I had to guess, Advanced users are out here doing their thing, and not directly interested in learning more. I know I wasn’t. At least, that was the case until I actually started learning all this stuff again. That’s when i realized I didn’t know everything. I learned by creating these videos. Honestly, that is one of my driving reasons for creating this website. It keeps me learning.

On November 1st, I am going to be starting with my basic class. It is going to be offered at ONE price point. The first will be at $300, for the four week class. This is an absolute steal for the content that will be provided. However, I follow someone in a completely unrelated field, and he holds his A-Z course at a price point of $800. I think that is crazy. Mainly because I could not afford it if I wanted to. At $300, I would seriously consider it. So, that is going to be the first price; $300 for a 4 week course that runs through November.

The second price point will be $499 for the same course. The difference is going to be the inclusion of your very own copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5.5. So, yes, by taking this course, you will receive your very own, fully licensed copy of the software at the $199 Student Discount. I hope that grabs your attention. You can have a fully legal copy of Abobe Photoshop, and the basic training, at the super low price (gawd, I hate saying it that way) of only $499.

Please Note: I was told I could offer this, then I was told I could not. It appears that you really need to be part of a Department of Education accredited University or school to actually quality for this. Sorry, I tried.

In December, I will start teaching an Intermediate Level class. This will pick up where the basic class ends, and then begins taking your training to the next level. This is where many of the website videos are being watched. The middle level, where people are not basic, but not advanced. This is the hungry group. They want to learn . Everything they can, apparently. this will run through the month of December. (Ick, I hate December. It's too cold.)

So now, let address the obvious. I have many videos on the website. What can you expect that is not covered in the videos already online?

Well, several things, really. The first obvious one, is that you are gaining a mentor. These would not be general videos, but targeted to your specific needs. Ask questions, get answers. You can bring pictures to class, and get professional and personal help on things that are important to you. Next, I will be covering topics not in the videos.

The videos on the website are randomly created. There is no beginning, middle and end. There is no goal. The purpose of this class is to give you that goal. The purpose is to give you someone to be accountable to, whether it will be me or other members of the group. If you find yourself kind of watching videos or not even watching videos at all, but you want to, you just haven’t found the time or made the time or whatever, then this is the type of situation you need to be in that is going to give you the accountability to keep going. Show up for the class every week, do the assignments, because of the end of the month, you are going to be so much better at photo retouching. And if you follow through to the intermediate class, then you are just going to be awesome.

But like I keep saying in this podcast, the only way you are going to do it, it’s to do it.

Yes, it costs several hundred dollars. I get that. And I totally understand that not everyone has the money. That is why I kept the price point lower. Also, because this is the first class that I am doing. If I do this again, I guarantee that I am going to be raising the price. The only way that I can keep it low, is because I know you go to the website, I know you subscribe at iTunes, you watch on YouTube, whatever the story is, whatever your story is, I know you want to learn this stuff and the only way you are going to learn is to watch the videos. And if you have not been watching the videos, then maybe you need to be in a class situation. Where you can ask the questions, you can have that one on one direct contact. Where you can provide your own images, and you can get back answers about those images.

If you are interested, please go to the Basic Photoshop Training Class page and sign up, I’m sure that you will be glad that you did.

So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

It's been a month since the last episode. Not to mention the complete lack of tutorials. What can I say? I have been busy, and I guess that's a good thing. One night I went off, and recorded episodes 4-8 all at once. I'm not sure what possessed me, but I am thrilled because creating the content requires me to be in the right mindset. I do have to cut this introduction short though, I have a ton of work I need to do tonight. Of course, I've been saying that for 3 weeks now.

In This Episode:

• Hurricanes Mean No Electricity
• Mac vs. PC Revised
• Portfolios and Presentations

Transcript:

Podcast – Episode 004

Hurricanes Mean No Electricity

Since this podcast is actually international, I’m sure that many of my listeners didn’t even realize that here in the United States on the east coast we had a pretty bad hurricane that went up all the way from the bottom of the USA up to the top. I don’t know where it started I don’t know where it ended, but I know where I am, we got hit pretty hard by this thing.

Overall it really sucked because it really goes to show how uncivilized we would become once our luxuries are taken away from us. We became totally and completely incompetent. Where I live, a lot of what happened was that trees went down, really big trees, big, heavy trees. Some of them came down in open fields, many of them came down on top of powerlines and telephone lines, so essentially what happened was many areas lost power. Entire towns a week later still don’t have electricity. I’m not talking about one or two houses, I mean everything. Entire lives have been thrown upside down, because we have no electricity, which means many people don’t have water, very few people actually had generators or other pieces of equipment that would help them survive.

So it’s really kind of silly, as I have been watching this go on. Now personally, I was actually lucky, we only lost 45 minutes of power in my house, but this has caused all kinds of turmoil for other people. And we wanted to go out for dinner, apparently all these places didn’t have food, because the electricity went out and food went bad. Restaurants were closed. In fact, we drove around 3-4-5 towns and only one restaurant was left open. And that was the fast food chain, Wendy’s. I don’t know why they were open, but they had power and it was interesting to me that this one parking lot that had Autozone for cars, Home Depot for building equipment and Wendy’s for food and this entire parking lot was packed with people and just was getting the few things they needed, because everything else was closed. Supermarkets were closed and everything.

And as time was going on, a lot of things happened that people just didn’t know how to function with. People didn’t have water because the waterplants were down, because they couldn’t do any processing of water because there was no electricity and in general their back up system kind of ran out of water. This is eventually what happened. And even people on well water and whatever else just ran out of water so they couldn’t bath, couldn’t flush the toilet, couldn’t do any of the basic things.

And what happened was that people started going out – not so much neighbors, because they were on the same boat. When neighboring towns actually did have power, they could keep going so people were showering at random people’s houses, and whatever. And for me, my bosses wife came over and she was working here yesterday in my studio and then today, my boss would come here and he was working in the studio, too. And it’s just weird. It’s just a weird situation when everyone is doing this stuff. And in their case, they are freelancers, he is a photographer and she is a designer. And she was trying to get this advertisement piece out and the way of she was doing it was off of an iMac, you know, a normal stand up, desktop iMac and she was working off of a power inverter from the photographer who has this little portable power unit for the flash. So she was plugging it in the computer and working these short bursts to actually get this design thing she was actually committed to, done.

And when she came over she was at the tail end of it but she still needed some regular electricity and then the email wasn’t working, phone systems were down and all kinds of troubles. And when I got out of this, nobody was ready for this kind of power outage, cell phones were working but only in certain areas, and this really disrupted business.

My wife is a regular employee, so while she couldn’t work, they continued to pay her, even though she wasn’t able to perform her duties the way she normally would.

Meanwhile, while I couldn’t perform my duties because I was actually bailing water at my parents house, I wasn’t being paid. And now maybe you can see why I am talking about this. Because when I’m not working on this stuff as a freelancer, I’m not getting paid. And that’s how these other two were working. Because if they didn’t do the work, they weren’t getting paid. And in their case they would also end up losing clients and whatever else if they didn’t perform. So they were scrambling around trying to do this stuff.

This is really the dark side to freelancing. And this is what actually has happened to me the previous week, where I had added this topic. In that case, what I was going to talk about was vacation time. I have taken a week off of vacation and we ended up not being able to do the vacation that we planned, because my car had broken down and I had to spend some 750 dollars or something to fix the car. And then it took up the money we were going to use for this vacation time.

So by paying for the car that was a surprise and I couldn’t go on vacation which meant that I had to stay in work to generate more revenue to pay for it. So after the vacation time, this storm hit and it just kind of struck me that it doesn’t matter what is going on, as a freelancer you still have to continue to work, generate work, and produce the work.

I ended up bringing the studio computer here into my office which because there was no power there either. I ended up having to bring all this equipment to my office here so I could at least continue to work. I guess that the point of this that you have to have some sort of backup plan and that includes those Battery Backup UPS units because electricity can go off and if you don’t have that battery back up, your computer is just off. And that ended up happening to me and I lost 10 minutes of work. I was lucky that I saved those 10 minutes earlier, I was working on something before the storm had actually hit and we just had wind outside, nothing was really going out and we just lost power and I lost work when that happened.

If I had a power back up here which I don’t, then I would not have lost what I was doing. And later apparently I lost about half an hour, I was doing masking. Not the power, or anything I could have done preventing it, but Photoshop had crashed, so I lost half an hour of masking I was doing. Generally, when I’m masking I don’t save often because you got to go, got to save the mask, etc., so I don’t bother to do that. But you know what, this is one of the cases when save often. But I can guarantee you, when that storm was hitting, I was working and saving every 10 seconds. I was getting a little bit crazy with that.

Mac vs. PC Revised

This presents a Segway here for me, as I’m working here because things in my life have been a little bit jumbled. I do have a PC and a Mac sitting here. I have a PC that has a main role in my office and then I also have a Mac here that has a main role in the studio. So I have two different computers at two different locations. And I bring this up because recently I just mentioned in an earlier episode that it didn’t matter if you worked on a PC or a Mac, as long as you could migrate files back and forth, you’re ok. Well, that is technically true, and I’m not exactly back-paddling of that comment, I can’t say this having the Mac and the PC in the studio at the same time I never had 2 fully working, ready to go workhorses at the same location at the same time. Usually I have a junky one next to a good one, or something like that.

But anyway, two power horses next to each other and I got to tell you, this Mac is just so much easier to use. Copying files back and forth is faster, and just even the keyboard, you have to figure out why that is, but the keyboard is always the more comfortable to me and using Photoshop is more comfortable on a Macintosh than it is on a PC. I have no idea why I have been juggling both systems for 27 years. All I can say is that the Mac is definitely an easier system to use. And I think that if you can pick one off of eBay as a used or refurbished unit or something, that is definitely worth the investment.

I think I’m finally going to break down and do that because it’s just so much easier. I guess it came down to copying files onto a flash drive, because one system doesn’t really belong here so it’s not really talking with everything else, the way that it would it was all configured properly, and I just couldn’t be bothered, because it’s going to be gone soon. So just copying everything off to a flash drive, it’s been going really quick on the Mac and really slowly on the PC. And this is a fresh installation. I just recently put on Windows7 64 bit. I’m really not that impressed.

I have been running Windows7 in the past year, plus as a fresh installation, that’s the other thing I can say, that this Windows thing, constantly reinstalling it, the last time I had a complete melt down, everything kind of went wrong with it. Meanwhile this Macintosh, I have never reinstalled the operating system and it was 3 and a half years. This machine just went plugging away. I have always been working the way it needs to work.

So definitely go with the way Macintosh has, it’s what I kind of have to say, because even I think I’m going to break down and get myself a Macintosh, because I looked at eBay and it’s not even that expensive, it’s a full tower, but an older model, you don’t need to get the brand new one, you know, why? Realistically, you get an older one, it may not be as fast, but it’s still fast enough to get the job done. And the cost was under 500 dollars. So I think I’m definitely going to do that. And than I also finally have these 2 monitors next to me, one is a Dell, one is a NEC Monitor. The Dell one is a generic, off the shelf type of 24 inch monitor, and the NEC is a color calibrated, fancy monitor.

Is there a huge difference between them? No, not really. This Dell one is actually brighter and I think actually this is just a matter of color calibration that we do on the NEC. But I’m sure is I put my mind to it I could get this Dell do a very similar color results. Do I think I need to spend a thousand dollars on a monitor? No. When I get the same NEC monitor? It’s a nice monitor, I can pick up a used one or a refurbished one from eBay. And again, you can put together the whole system for under a thousand dollars, I think that’s worth the investment.

Portfolios and Presentations

I have been working on a portfolio so I’m grabbing some old pieces and new pieces and it’s very easy to get boggeddown putting up 36 media pieces of work, just to show more and more work, because you think that you constantly have to show that you can do this, you can do that, you can do the other thing and you got to show everything under the sun. From my own art school history way back when I was putting together a portfolio, we were always told that you should always put 5 of your best pieces per category, and limit the categories. So I believe I only had maybe 15 pieces total in my old portfolio, years and years and years ago, back when I was in school.

As I’m working on this portfolio now, for this online gallery, it is too difficult for me to limit it to a 5 per category, because I just really want to keep adding everything that I have ever done, but they always say, always leave them wanting more. So I’m really thinking of what kind of work people are going to be interested in when they come and view my portfolio. I mean let’s say I’m out at a convention or other networking situation where I’m going to hand out my business card to people, what type of work am I trying to attract? It is very important to focus.

I don’t want to come across as a naturalist, someone who does animals and trees and sunsets and things, when I really want to do portraits. At the same time, I don’t want to put myself up as I only want to do portraits, if I want to do architecture. So it is really important to focus on what you are good at, what you enjoy doing, and then present that work and go for that target audience. Because if you go out there and advertise that you could do anything and everything, then you are really watering down your effectiveness, so one of the key thing is what I am trying to do with this portfolio, is presenting it in a way that someone who is interested in the portraits, can look at just the portraits.

For someone who is just interested in wedding photography, then they can just go to a very short, quick, 5 images wedding photography. If they can’t decide whether they like my work or not in 5 images, then they are going to be too difficult to work with in the long term anyway. You really want to work with someone who really knows what they are talking about and just know what they like. I know as soon as I see something, I am either hooked or I am not. I tend to make very snap decisions, and overall I find if something attracts me after the first one, I’m probably going to like the fifth one. Maybe something in the middle didn’t necessarily worked for me, but overall if I didn’t like the first one and the second one, I’m not going to like the fourth and the fifth.

Giving them 10 more options just doesn’t do any good to anybody whatsoever. So when it comes to putting together a portfolio, put together the most important, impressionistic piece that is going to get someone’s first impression. You want to limit the categories, while still putting a range of skill into the work.

For example, you don’t want to put together a portraits category and then do 5 of the exact same portraits. That’s kind of a bad idea, too. You want to put together 5 portraits, one might be a close up, one might be just up to the shoulders, another one maybe to the waist, one might be a full figure, and even if you think that’s just putting it a bit to the stretch, going from just a face to a full body, then certainly you can break it up, but don’t just give the face. Mix it up, whether it’s in studio, or outside in some natural setting, just kind of mix it up a little bit. You don’t want to hit people with the same retouching over and over again. You want to mix it up.

When it comes to retouching, you want to put in things that are complicated, and skill driven, something that not just anybody can do, but also keep in mind that the people you are showing this work to, aren’t necessarily retouchers themselves. You can do something very simple and they will be impressed by it. But at the same time you have to have some complicated things in there, like composites, like putting different people at different settings, and kind of mix it up so people can see a range of your work within this narrow niche that you are trying to present yourself in.

Basically all I’m saying is that don’t just put up all this work, put some work into what you are trying to put together and what you want to present. And once you get the framework of it down of what you know you want to show, you might not have enough pieces for that, so you will to put the time in for creating new stuff. I personally have been working on several new pieces, very specifically targeted, so I can include those in the portfolio.

I just have been very distracted with a lot of work lately and none of that stuff can be shown in the portfolio, because of the copyrights and stuff like that. So it becomes difficult for a photo retoucher to put together a portfolio of good, solid work, when they don’t own the rights to any of this stuff. I find the best way is to do this, is just to create your own stuff. Hire models on my own, family members or whatever, I just carry a camera with me all the time, that’s what I’m doing now, so hopefully I can grab a good shot that I can work with later.

Now, to talk about photo retouching portfolios specifically, you need to know the type of work you are going for in order to know what you are going to put into a portfolio book. It can be a physical book or it can be an online presentation. But you need to know what is the person going to be looking for, as I mentioned earlier. If you know that you are going to go to wedding studios to try and show your work, you need to show them that you can do photo retouching. And one of the big things that are going to be coming of asking you about these pieces is, how long did it take you? You know, that is very-very important. Because this may be the best piece they have ever seen, completely flawless. But if it took you 16 hours to do it, and the budget is 1 hour or 2 hours, then it doesn’t do anybody any good. So you need to know how long that niche market is going to spend on a particular piece.

For example: wedding photography. Who is going to take these pieces? Who is going to be the bride? The bride is going to end up buying all these pieces, so you are trying to stay within a budget, unless you get lucky and it’s a higher class wedding but usually these are brides that have already spent all their money by this time, so hitting them up with another $100-200-300 dollars for one image, is not necessarily something they are going to be too quick to do. You need to be able to quickly turn around an image.

Meanwhile, if your target is an advertising agency or some other type of adwork that has these big pockets of budgets, that don’t mind spending 500 dollars on an image, then you can show them the higher end work. But you’re need to be able to segregate it such way, that the ad agencies don’t look at the junk work, which is essentially fast work. And you don’t want the people reviewing the fast work, to be seeing these high end images and thinking that is what they are going to get. So if you can somehow segregate that within a portfolio, that you are presenting the people with, that’s fantastic. Perhaps, separate portfolios. This is one of the things that we have been trying to get around with. Having one portfolio for one audience and building a whole other website for another target audience. It is extra work and something we ultimately decided not to do, but still, it is something worth considering. If you go look on the internet, and do searches for photo retouches which is definitely something I have been doing, you can see a huge range of skill levels. You see people who are looking to do 5 dollars an image, there’s people that are doing 30 dollars an image, and $50 dollars an image.

What you really have to do is read the fine print. Because the people doing $5 dollar per image, are literally doing hack work and their portfolio shows hack work. The people that are doing $30-40 dollar work is really just entry level. That is for them, to load the file up onto their computer and kind of do a simple change. They are making their money by putting time into these images and time is money. So what I am really finding is, that the better the work is, the more it’s going to cost.

Putting up a portfolio on a website that shows us amazing work and then saying $30 dollars per image, is garbage. Because they are ending up getting people at the tail end of this. And it is kind of like going to a mechanic and expecting to spend $300 and then you are spending $700. You are going to end up getting customers that are dissatisfied. So always make sure that the expectation is set.

I’m sure I’m going to be pulling up this portfolio topic again at a later point in time, yes, I have been talking about that 10 plus minutes here, about portfolios, and there is a lot more to say, and I’m just kind of thinking about this as it is in my current state, so I put more thought into it and do a real write-up about this particular topic next time.

Use the Imagenomics Coupon Code: "ARTOFREOUCHING" for 20% Off their products.

So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

Imagenomic Portraiture Review

This is a video Imagenomic Portraiture Review. It will also work as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture. It will work with 8-bit and 16-bit images, in the RGB color space. It is also available for Macintosh and PC.

You can use the Imagenomic Portraiture Coupon Code "ARTOFRETOUCHING" for 20% off this, and any other product you purchase from the Imagenomic website.

When it comes to portraits, there are many different skill levels. Some people like to retouch for fun, but they may not have the technical skills needed for professional level work. Other people may be able to produce professional level work, but they dont usually have the time to start from scratch every single time they need to do retouching. When time is money, the faster you can reach a baseline image, the faster you can get to the detail work.

Portraiture solves both these situations, quickly, and easily.  I go into details about how this software can effectively soften skin inside of a portrait within minutes, in this video Imagenomic Portraiture Review. It can make your images look fantastic. Everyone will think you did all the work yourself, even if you know you took a shortcut. Why spend an extra hour on something you can do in 5 minutes?

Download Video

This is a video Imagenomic Portraiture Review. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

 "I have to tell you that I found it totally inspiring and great! There are so many things in it that I share thoughts and agree with, it was just great listening to you telling the exact same things that are my concerns! So thanks, keep it up! – Erika"

I am so glad that I am stating to find a rhythm for the show, and that it is worth everyone's time. I hope you enjoy the show. It's a long one.

In This Episode:

• Last Weeks Episode Typo
• Excessive Retouching
• Weekly Quote
• Trolling
• Moving Forward

Transcript:

Podcast – Episode 003

Welcome back to the Art of Retouching 3rd Podcast. I wasn’t sure if enough people would bother to listen but I can tell based on the statistics that people are actually listening. So I guess I will continue on.  One day last week I was listening to both the podcasts, one after another and basically I thought that the 1st episode had too much smattering involved and I spent all this time editing it out and in the 2nd episode I pre-wrote everything and when I listened to it, it came out like I was reading it. And was trying not to sound that way but apparently I did unfortunately. After listening to both podcasts I just realized the best way to do this just to pick a topic and talk about it, because it just sounded a lot more fluid and more like a conversation like you’re listening to someone talking.

So I’m going to be trying to do that this week again, I’m just going to have my topics that I’m going to go over and I’ll just be talking out loud to myself and hopefully you’ll get some interest out of it.

I just wanted to mention that last weeks episode, #2, was that I did make a mistake when posting this. I had missed a digit. It was supposed to say 002, and I left it 001. So about 100-150 of you had downloaded the same episode twice.

So I do apologize. On the back end, a lot of code and links need to get changed from and previous episodes, and I simply missed a number, but it was a crucial one. I had gotten up the next day, and I saw that no one downloaded the second episode, but the first episode had spiked. That was clearly my mistake.

So, I just wanted to let you know that if you didn’t get it, that it does exist, so you should go back and manually download it, as it has more retouching related stuff than the first episode did, and this third episode does.

Excessive Retouching

The big news in retouching this week seems to be UK’s ban of the Julia Roberts ad. Apparently there is a company called Lancome, for Paris, I have no idea who they are, but appears to be a make-up related product, and they have Julia Roberts advertising the product. So basically she is just sitting there and somebody did the usual retouching.

The thing is, that the UK’s advertising standards authority apparently decided that this was misleading to the public and decided to ban all these ads. And the reason for this is because if you actually look at the picture which you can find at links/theartofretouching.com/roberts, it appears to be a standard beauty-glamour type of thing and there is no real darks in it, which just drives me nuts, basically her whole face is blown out to white, this is just one of those another beauty glamour shots, but because it’s overly make-up, and she doesn’t have one laugh line, one pore left in her face, they actually have something to say about it, and I say it’s just about time. I’ve always been strong about the fact that I’m not a big fan of the beauty and glamour retouching, because I think it’s been taken way to an extreme.

I do think it’s nice, I think women need to be pretty and all that, but this is one of those cases where it’s a total overkill and it really just looks like a wipe, like a white egg, and then you just have these oversized eyes, funny looking nose, and the really goofy lips that she has. And I think that part of the problem is that doesn’t even look like a straight face because she’s just pulling at her face or something and leaning on it, but anyway, it just looks really bad from a retoucher standpoint. And I’m glad to see that somebody, some authority somewhere is saying that this is isn’t right. 

Anyway, back to the point, basically it doesn’t look like a real person, the make-up is not going to do this and even though the digital manipulation techniques have become the norm, you really can’t do this. And based on what I’m looking at, I do agree. Of course, everybody has this sort of thing, even Maybelline, but I think it just goes back to the point of how much they’re actually doing on this image and really pushing what is acceptable.

Weekly Quote

So I am probably the only person left on the planet that never actually watched Harry Potter, never read a Harry Potter, no nothing about Harry Potter. Basically when the movie came out in 2001, I didn’t care about an 11 year old boy, it just wasn’t my thing. But one of the odd things was that this is a unique movie series and they came out every single year and basically you watch this boy growing up and I just think it’s neat itself.

You have the 3 kids, the main characters and in real life you just watch them grow older. And what I find interesting is that the movies have grown darker and the better special effects has been going on. So actually I thought that I was missing out on something, even though the story wasn’t what I was wanted, I was interested more in the special effects and stuff like that. So I decided to give it a shot.

I was watching the first movie and there is a character in the movie – one of the teachers – and he said something and I was trying to paraphrase it or rework it or do something else with it to apply to my own website or my brand or whatever. But I think in this case it is so well written that I thought I was just going to tell you about it so I was just going to use it as a direct quote and then elaborate on it. In this case he was – in the movie – gone to his first class and then comes one of the teachers.

The teacher said the following: “I do not expect many of you to appreciate the value in creating a solid foundation on which to build upon. However, for the select few who possess the predisposition, I can tell you, I can teach you how to make everything you touch, a work of art. I can tell you how to create the porcelain skin, composite the perfect skies, or even extract the beauty in death. Then again, some of you come with such a great sense of self-awareness and amazing skills, that you don’t even need to pay attention. Hmm, perhaps I should be learning from you.”

When I actually heard that in the movie, I stopped and rewinded and wrote it down, because that is so how I feel when doing this stuff. Because here I am, I put myself out there, and I’m teaching these tutorials, and what I’m teaching, are very solid skills. I’m teaching how to use the tools, and I’m teaching how to use them in a professional environment. And the artistic side of it will come with your own style and flair as you get better at it. But I firmly believe that you need a good, solid foundation in which to do it.

Trolling

However, there are always people that always got something to say. I actually brought this up in last week’s episode. And don’t get me wrong, I mean people that aren’t sending me emails or anything, they aren’t telling me these things, I just know this is how people think. And it’s fine that they’re not emailing me, that’s good, great, fantastic, I don’t need to hear about it. If you don’t like what I have to teach, then go away.

Obviously you’re still listening to this, you’re still go to the video website, you still learn so you are my audience. You are the people that I am talking to, and I don’t need to cater to them. The how-to videos out there, it’s crazy. I was asked about why Adobe Photoshop’s default method of opening and creating a new image is by using 8-bit color. I was asked the question and I really didn’t know the answer.

Why is it, that the Photoshop default is 8-bit color? Yes, you can say that’s it’s 16-bit color and it will remember that, and so I was curious. I posted on retouch pro a very simple question and I expected just a little bit of a conversation, maybe some people said maybe this or maybe that, but it actually turned into one of the usual bloodbath. There are just so many people out there that got something to say. One guy said something that he thought it was in his world fact, which is cool, opinions are great. And then the next guy comes along and says: no, you’re wrong. And then someone else comes along and agrees with the other guy, and the other guy just went back and forth with all these people and I just gave up reading the thing. It totally left the point of my initial question. One of the first guys made a comment about how I have used the wrong terminology. Well, sorry pal, I didn’t realize that I had to get it perfect for you.

So I’m just bringing this up because you had been in the industry where people are very cut pro. Everyone has to be better than the next guy. And the same thing happens in culinary – with food. Now, I have nothing to do with culinary, I have nothing to do with food, my wife has. And she would come home and tell me how this student had been better than that had, and this gets me so frustrated just how people are. I mean, everyone can have an opinion. There is more than one way to make a client happy, which is really what it’s about, right? It’s just about making the client happy,   and moving on to the next job. And when you go to a forum like that, you ask a question, it’s ok to get different opinions, but they just went off. And it wasn’t even like the conversation accelerated as it went on, no, it was like: I’m right, you’re wrong… What was that all about? I don’t understand. So that’s why I don’t even like going over there and making any posts. Because then it makes me feel like I’m the dumb ass. I went through grammar school and high school feeling like a dumb ass. As an adult, I don’t need that in my life.

I put in my time, I’m good at what I do, and I know I am. I don’t have to be the best. I just have to be good enough for the smile on my face to keep bringing in the clients. And that is really the bottom line of it. There’s always going to be someone out there that knows more than you. I previously mentioned that I had purchased a tutorial from another professional retoucher. I’m not mentioning who it is, because I haven’t really gotten fully through it and I don’t want to put myself out there like that just yet until I had a chance to fully review and digest all that information. But I gotta tell you, I have been doing this for over 20 years, and this person really made me stand up and think and look and pull out a notebook and start writing notes. And honestly, it was just the introduction. We haven’t even gotten into anything yet. It was like the first chapter. I watch all kinds of other professional videos, I watch the …..com, Total Training, and all that stuff, but those for beginners. Maybe I pick up something that I didn’t know and I can find useful after a 2 or 3 hour video. But this one has my absolute attention, and I’m totally focused on it, I’m watching it, learning it, taking notes, and this person is apparently is filling out all the gaps that I didn’t know.

Of course, I don’t know everything. I mean Photoshop and retouching and color series are a huge topic. And even though I have been doing this in my entire career, there is always so much more to learn. It’s one of those things you might as well just give up if you expect to know everything, because you can’t, you really can’t. I even watched one of those Photoshop tips and tricks type of things from Kelby, and they do all kinds of stuff, I don’t know anything about, but you know what, I don’t need to know all that stuff. I don’t need to know how to do all the things that they show. I watch it for my own self education.

But overall it doesn’t really matter. It’s not going to help me do what I do, what I am paid to do. It’s really what the bottom line of it is. And since I’m not a designer, drawer or anything like that, I only have to pay attention to it because basically I need to be focused on the important things, and getting the job looking right and printing right, and that’s where my focus is. And that is why I am interested in this particular video series because this person is essentially all over the place, he is talking about this, and talking about that, and talking about the other thing, and it’s like: wow, this is great! It isn’t just sitting here and cloning, or sitting here and talking about one tool, or another tool, or how did you do this or that. It’s just a lot of theory, you know, a lot of things you should know, could know, but maybe you do, maybe you don’t. It’s like a cliff notes of retouching. Pretty cool. And I’m sure I will share it with you in the near future.

Moving Forward

I have been watching this video tutorial from my back patio I have owned for several years but I never went out there. I always come down and work in my office. At the beginning of this Summer I had finally bothered to buy a patio set that was just totally and completely worth every penny. In this case I go out there with my morning coffee, eat my breakfast, take the laptop outside, plug it in, and watch a couple of chapters of the video. And it’s great, because I got the birds chirping, squirrels up on the trees, my son’s at school and nobody’s bothering me, it’s great. And this is my ultimate goal, really, to be a freelancer who can make his own hours and work his own time, and for me, going out there and having a nice, quiet breakfast and learning something, making my way in, doing some work before my son comes home and I get to spend the afternoon with him, and then when he goes to bed I come back down to my office and do some more work. And overall I think that this is absolutely perfect.

I bought a house 8 years ago, in an effort to create a lifestyle for myself. However, I spend all that time fixing it, tinkering, ignoring and otherwise just living there. I spent all that time looking out the window to the back yard wishing I could spend the time out there doing that I wanted to. But who has the time?

This year, it has been goal of self improvement.  As the summer began, I finally bought that patio set for my back yard. I connected one of those outdoor electrical boxes to the side of the house (Stupid design). I also hooked up an old wireless router that I am using to bridge the connection to easily reach the back of the house.

I had decided that if I didn't make the intentional changes to create the life I wanted, no one was going to. So how did all that time and money work out for me? This morning I got up, took a shower, made a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. I poured my milk, grabbed my laptop, and I am now outside, enjoying the birds giving their morning hellos. I have that golden sunshine bouncing off the grass and trees. And since the sun has not yet began to burn the air, it is warm with a gentle breeze blowing.

So, was all this possible because I connected a wireless connection, or bought a patio set? No, they were just single steps towards the end goal, which was driven by my desire to live a life of a freelancer. I took the larger, insurmountable task, and broke it down into parts, back when it was the middle of the worst winter our country had seen in many, many years. I knew I didn't want to be living the way I was, anymore. I didn’t want to live in the cold, I didn’t want to do shoveling, I didn’t want to be dealing with any of that any more. Sorry to all you Russians out there, who had nothing but snow and cold.  What I really wanted to do,  chose to amplify, the parts of my life that were most ideal. So I was in the middle of that terrible winter, and I was building the website.  It all started, with building the website. Slowly, as I had free time. I looked at ways that I could make money from it, then began focusing on that. As other sources of income started coming in, because I went looking for them, I started dropping the amount of time I needed to spend working for someone else. Now, I am at the point that I am building an updated, professional looking portfolio.

I remember back about 6-7 years ago, I had created a book of my photography and retouching, then went to one of those online digital places to have it printed. When I started showing it around, just for fun, someone said to me "This is fantastic. Why are you here?" Funny, I never last those four words go. It was a valid question. Sadly, I spent the next few years trying to find an answer to that. The answer was that I was raised to be an employee. My wife was raised to be an employee. I didn't know anyone who was an entrepreneur. A self-starter, independently motivated person.

I needed to stop worrying if I was good enough. I needed to stop wondering how I could maintain clients. I had to stop thinking about how I would even find clients. Life tends to work itself out like that, once you set your mind right. Mainly, it's just that you stop looking at all the hindrances, all the things that stop you from moving forward, and start noticing the opportunities, that is the biggest trick.  Then once you see those opportunities, you get up off your lazy, comfortable ass, and go grab it. I’m only talking to you like this because I spent 15 years working in …… I got out of college, I was hired by a pre-press, and I was doing printing ever since. I was expected to do the math right every time, I was expected to put the film right every time, I was expected to retouch right every time. And it had to be right and it had to be fast. Even today, it has to be right and has to be fast. I don’t want to live my life that way anymore. I just don’t.

I don’t need to be beaten on for eight hours every day, making some other guy rich. And it’s not even that he’s rich. He’s not buying a Porsche or something. He’s left with his monthly payments. While I’m the one sitting on the phone making his clients happy. And then when I do make the client happy, I hang up the phone, he tells me I did it wrong. Look, I don’t want to be preaching to the choir. You all know what it’s like. I know you do, because you are still listening to me talking about it. I have been talking since 20 minutes now, about something that had nothing to do with retouching. Seriously. But it doesn’t need to be about retouching. It’s just about being a freelancer. This is what we all want to do. I’ll be honest. When I was doing this for 5 years, it was the late 90s. And at that point in my life, everything was falling apart on me. I wanted to start a pre-press house.

Why not? I told myself. I’ve got the computer, I’ve got the printer, I got a scanner, I have been spending all these years working, saving all the money, so I can go out buying electronic toys, so I can do this stuff at home. Not for work, but because I enjoyed it, I had passion for it. And I was 5 years into it. Then I spent the next 15 years telling myself I couldn’t do it, because I didn’t have a big enough printer. I didn’t have a fast enough computer. I didn’t have the ability to print plates. I didn’t have enough knowledge about color, I didn’t have enough retouching ability. I mean, there was always one excuse after another. And the reality of it is: nothing of that matters! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Go join a meet-up group, go meet some people. Even if retouching is just a hobby and you’re a professional photographer, that’s great. Go, meet some clients. Go, meet some people that are going to bring work in, that will allow you to take the pictures that you want, then you can spend the time retouching and making them look nice.

As I said, with episode one, I didn’t know what this podcast was going to be turning to. But I think, I’m very clear, over the past 3 episodes that what it’s really about is being a freelancer and creating the life that you want. As I said a little bit earlier, the biggest trick to this to notice the opportunities when they present themselves to you. And after you notice it, you need to act on it. Today I sat in a meeting with that photographer that I was telling you about in the previous episodes. And this is the second meeting that we had, the first one we had was all the background business and stuff. The second one was all about the website, about the artwork, about the presentation. And it got me so excited, because this was so more interesting than the other business related nonsense that we had to go through to get to this point.

So anyway, I hope you found this podcast inspiring, to get you up off your ass and get you do something, meet somebody, watch a tutorial, go do whatever you got to do to make yourself happy. And don’t think of it as the happy part is sitting out on the beach, think about it one step at the time. Even if you have to go and make a mind-map. If you don’t know what a mind-map is, go and look it up. And start at the end to work your way backwards. For me, I started with sitting on the beach, doing nothing. And how can I do that? And I started my mindmap going backwards from there. In order to do that, sitting on the beach was just meta-physical. It was just a thought, an idea. It doesn’t mean that you have to sit on the beach and do nothing, it was just an idea that I had to sit there and do nothing. And yet: my house was being taken care of, how does that happen? Who’s cleaning it? Who’s mowing the lawn? Ok, once I knew that, how was I getting the money to pay that? And I just worked my way all the way back. And I broke this entire process up into pieces. And at that point I was finally able to see the whole picture, where my end goal was, what I needed to do to achieve that goal.

So anyway, I wasted enough both our times on this episode, I just want to remind you that if you are still paying attention then I do have private classes if you are interested go to the website, there is a thing up the top about signing up for classes, send me an email, and then we can work on whatever you need specifically, that will help you achieve your own goal. You just need to make that first step, that first effort, that first contact. Even if you are just looking for a mentor, someone who can help you, someone who can push you, someone who can keep you accountable. Send me that email and I will do what I can for you. If you are listening just on iTunes, Zoone, or one of those other Blackberry services, do the RSS feed, and please remember that the videos that are out there on YouTube and all that other stuff on all those other websites are only half of what we actually have available on the website. www.theartofretouching.com , so make sure you check out the actual website. If there is anything that you are interested in, please sign up as a member.

And this last bit may come off as a total plug, but I just did a video for Pick the Colors – iCorrect Editlab Pro6,  – man, that is a mouthful! – anyway, if you are interested in it, you can go to the: links.theartofretouching.com/editlab where you can find a little bit more about this plugin. I’m not going to lie to you and say that it’s for retouchers, because it really isn’t. If you are a retoucher, this isn’t something you are interested in, this is actually for print-houses, for wedding photography, for headshots, schools, things where you need fast turnaround, because the software has a batch function in it, so you can queue up all those images and just start batch processing on an image by image basis, meaning that they don’t have to be 100% identical.

It’s going to look at each image based on the image’s own exposure and color and whatnot, but what is really great about it is that it’s fast, it has all the main features that are already in Photoshop, like levels and stuff and what makes it really good is that you don’t have to make all these adjustment layers and everything, you can literally just go from one tab to the next and it’s done. It also has a single do button. Just push it, and it does exactly what you wanted to do. It automatically color corrects, fixes the exposure and everything, it does a really good job. And I’m not just saying that, I really was impressed and I actually did try the last version, back in November. I went back to the publisher picked the color and we had a whole discussion about it where it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do. And then what came out at the other end is version 6 and was super fantastic.

I know it’s not necessarily a product that you know anything about, but please take a look at it and if anything that I said sounds like something that you need out of a retouching plug-in, and additionally it’s not even just a plug-in, it’s a stand alone product if you need it to be, so you don’t even need Photoshop, you can work in Lightroom or aperture, or whatever program you use, and then you can have this is part of your raw workflow, and already get these images right, so if you editing a hundred images, this program will definitely improve your workflow and quality. And again, it was links.theartofretouching.com/editlab. I do have a video review on the website as well, if you want to go check that out, you can see what it does and how well it does it.

Use the PictoColor EditLab Coupon Code: "ART11" for 11% Off the entire order. Yeah, that's 10%, kicked up a notch.

So I think I finally wrap up this episode. I think I did everything I need to pitch, the only thing I didn’t mention is that if you like what you hear, please give us a thumbs up on iTunes and YouTube and the new GooglePlus – by the way, I was banned from GooglePlus – I was one of the early adapters, I signed up for it, I got in, it’s already locked out, you can’t get in, and then they banned me. I emailed them, made whatever changes they wanted, and I got back in. So anyway, give us a thumbs up, and even on iTunes, leave a little review, on YouTube leave a review, so wherever you are listening to this podcast, or watching our tutorials, please give us that positive review and I hope others find us as well.

So if you found this podcast inspiring and the video tutorials helpful, please go to http://www.TheArtofRetouching.com and sign up as a member and you can watch more free videos and tutorials.

Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial – Difference Between RAW and JPG Images

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tutorial covers the difference between using a RAW file format, and a JPG, or JPEG, file format. If you know the difference, you can easily skip this video. There are no secret surprises or revelations here. However, if you do not know the strengths and weaknesses of each, then by all means, watch and learn.

This Photoshop Tutorial is an overview of the RAW file format. No real detail is covered. Rather, this is a dip your feet in, and see why it is the choice of professional retouchers and photographers.

In short, JPG, or otherwise known as JPEG, is a lossy compression format. This means, that in order to keep the file size as small as possible, pixel data and other information is literally thrown away. Basically, if you have two very close shades of blue pixels next to each other, it will make one pixel the same as the other, and discard the extra information. The less information, the smaller file size.

RAW format, however, retains every little detail in such a way, that a file can be easily manipulated with a RAW processing program such as Adobe Photoshop's built in converter, Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, or Phase One's Capture One.

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This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial answers the question: What is the difference between RAW and JPEG Images?? This tutorial is also valid for older versions of the Creative Suite series, including CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

PictoColor iCorrect EditLab Pro 6 Review

This is a video PictoColor iCorrect Editlab Pro 6 Review. It's Friday at 4:35pm.Your boss says that he wants you to get this group of images ready for a print proof on Monday morning. Ugh… you want to go home. Now what do you do? Go through several different adjustment layers in Adobe Photoshop… for each image?

Nope. You open up Pictocolor iCorrect EditLab 6 and apply the SmartColor Feature. Bam, your going home on time.

Use the PictoColor EditLab Coupon Code: "ART11" for 11% Off the entire order. Yeah, that's 10%, kicked up a notch.

Actually, if your boss doesn't even want to buy Adobe Photoshop, you can tell him that iCorrect EditLab Pro is also available as a stand alone application for JPEG & TIFF batch processing. No need for that extra $600 investment, to get the same results. You can even work with 16-Bit images on a 64-Bit Processor. All the code is designed for optimal, professional use. No need to deal with any old legacy stuff.

The program is made up with four distinct tabs:

	Color Balance: Remove color casts and balance the whites by simply clicking on any neutral colors. You can even manually adjust the color balance with sliders.
	Tonal Range: Full control over the tonal range by setting the white point, black point and midpoint of your images using an eye dropper, slider, or automatic SmartColor technology.
	Brightness/Contrast/Saturation: Control the brightness, contrast and saturation of by individually targeting highlights and shadows using sliders or the automatic SmartColor technology.
	Hue-Selective Edits: With hue-selective edits, you can automatically correct repetitive colors, like your standard backdrops, skin tones, or water. Additionally, you can convert to black and white or sepia.

One benefit of Pictocolor iCorrect EditLab Pro is ProcessQ. This completely redesigned image queue that allows you to easily view, sort and manage your color corrections for efficient, time-saving workflows. Pictocolor's website boasts "We color corrected 15, 3MB+ images with similar color issues in 2 minutes and 4 seconds" and I can certainly tell you, it's quite possible.

With the automatic adjustments from the SmartColor technology, you can be done in to time, with frustration-free, professional quality results. Pictocolor iCorrect EditLab Pro is an essential program for the serious photographer.This simplified approach to selective color correction and color editing allows you to spend your time doing what you do best, behind the camera.

Use the PictoColor EditLab Coupon Code: "ART11" for 11% Off the entire order.

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This is a video PictoColor iCorrect EditLab Pro 6 Review. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

I fixed the link problem, for anyone who noticed.

Welcome everyone, to the second episode of The Art of Retouching's audio podcast. I have been taking notes for 2 weeks, and I am so ready to get going on today's show.

In This Episode:

• Employee to Freelancer
• Macintosh Vs. PC
• Getting Out There
• Harder Than I Thought
• Robot Art
• Getting Ahead

Transcript:

Employee to Freelancer

While technically, I have been a freelancer for several years, half my income has been from a single photographer. In an effort to get away from the standard employee schedule, I am working on a portfolio to go out and find more freelance opportunities. I had my assistants collect the names of all the local photographers within 30 miles of the studio. Then I had them collect all the advertising agencies, magazines and modeling companies in Connecticut and Boston. Of course, the obvious question is: Why CT and Boston? Well, I live in CT, and there are several targets near the New York border. I chose Boston instead of New York for obvious reason of too much competition in New York. I would rather be a big fish in a small pond, than a small fish in the big pond.

Last year, I read an article about Boston Photographers. The short of it, was that the opportunities were good, and less competition. Besides, my wife would move back in a heartbeat if I gave her the chance. I could see it for myself too. I lived there about 10 years ago when they were still tearing up the city with that Big Dig mess.Someone described it as open heart surgery, while jogging. Yeah, I could vouch for that. I hated all the traffic, that just isnt there anymore. There was also a growing number of violent acts back then. So, it was time to move.

I spent the next few years doing the corporate thing. Going from one service beuru to the next. I hated being on that merry-go-round (round-a-bout for you brit's), never knowing whether that was the day I needed to work for 12 hours as a slave, or 12 minutes and be fired. My wife thought I was incompetent. I knew my bosses were the incompetent ones. She just never wanted to hear about it. She only saw me out of a job, not how many customers they kept loosing because of poor business. Since I was always one of the highest paid employees, I was usually the first to go.

Four years ago, I finally realized that after 20 years of 40-60 hour work weeks, it just was not for me. This was just before the big economic downturn. I had purchased a house to flip it, but as I was remodeling it, the value began to slip. I ended up renting it out, and started making quite a lot of money on it. In fact, that first year, I think I made more than if I was to have sold it. It was a good deal.

At that point, I was laid off (although, why they even employed me in the first place, is beyond me, I never did anything).I spend a few months wandering around, trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do. I was finally faced with a cold hard fact, that I had known about for years; the printing industry was dying. It was finally time to change my career, and do what i really wanted to do. The only problem was, I didnt know what I wanted to do. Computer Repair? Photo Retouching? What I really knew was, if I was going to build a business, I did not want to be limited by location. For printing, certain States had a ton of work, like Florida (for cheap labor), Texas (for location), or New York (for magazines). Sadly, I knew I wanted to live in the Caribbean. Not much work for printers in there. So, I needed to do something else.

I knew of 2 people that became millionaires by selling cellular phones, so this seemed like a good idea to me. I guess it was, because I still own my own independent cell phone business. Please note, I did not say store. A store implies I like to sit around all day, locked behind a counter, hoping I can make enough to pay the bills.

Instead, I built a website, www.Portable-Fun.com It is an online, and craigslist business. Four years later, I am still doing it, so I guess it was a pretty good idea.

Three years ago I applied for a job with a Photographer, and I am still there as well. He goes out and takes pictures, and brings them back for me to make pretty. He won't directly admit it, but it's because of the color correction and retouching detail, that really puts his work ahead of the competition. I go to photographer websites, and just know that some quality retouching could take their stuff from good, to great. That's where I come in.

The photographer and I decided to start up The Art of Retouching last October. The thing is, he fell into the holidays like so many do, and dropped the project. In the meantime, I built the website you see today. While he is still "thinking" about retouching, I built an entire business around Free Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorials. That is the difference between thinkers and doers. If you are "thinking" about doing something, stop thinking, and just do it. Geez, what do you have to loose? Put yourself out there. What does it matter? You will figure it out. More on that whole topic another day…

Back to the story… a few weeks ago I remodeled my office, so that I could purge out the cell phone business from my active life, and focus on the retouching. I emptied out half the room, painted the walls, and rebuilt my desk (it was 8 years old, chipping, bending, and ready to go bye-bye). Did I need to do this to function? No, of course not. Everything worked fine. But like I said, sometimes you just need to purge your life, and get ready for something new. Since I could not just quit my cell phones business, I moved cell phones to the other side of the room, and gave myself a clean slate. It was a lot of work, but gave me a week and a half away from the norm, kept my hands busy, and let me start a fresh new business.

Last week, I went out and bought myself a new point and shoot camera. A Nikon S8100. Standard pocket sized, it outputs 12MP, 10x optical zoom (awesome!), HDR, image stability and low noise. A far cry from my 5 year old point and shoot, I will tell you that. Of course I wanted a big assed DSLR, but don't think I could get a single lens for the same $250 I paid. I have a 4 year old boy, so in life, there are trade-offs.

I also signed up for a Meetup.com Group last week, and joined other photographers in a Maternity Photo Shoot. I walked in, and the head photographer looked at my hands, then my chest, then my face. "Where is your camera?" he asked. "Right here" I said, holding up a hand sized camera. "I am not a photographer, I am a retoucher. I am not here to take a perfect picture. I am here to take a mediocre picture, and make it great." He paused for a moment thinking about what I had said. "Fair enough." was his reply. This began a three hour session of meeting a few local photographers, who were ALL looking for a local retoucher.

As it turned out, they would either do it themselves, or sent the work out to be done somewhere far away. They wanted someone nearby, so that they could art direct in real time, or hand off large amounts of data to. You know those wedding people, taking 1000 images at 25MB each.

In the group, I met a wedding photographer, a portrait photographer, and a corporate photographer. Three different styles of work, each interested in my services. So, clearly I could start a business doing what I loved to spend my time doing. All I needed to do was go to where the work was. Crazy. Simple. Effective.

So, what can you take away from my story? First, you need to know what you enjoy doing. Then you need to figure out how you can make money by doing it. Lastly, you need to just do it. I hate being a motivator. It's really not my thing. I'm just saying that I have tried dozens of different things in my life. I was never afraid to try.

Once, while on unemployment, I spent what little money I had, on buying about a dozen keyboards. Why? Because I kept cutting them up with my dremel, trying to create something the world had never seen before, in computer gaming. Was it bad idea? For me it was. Cost me hundreds. For Belkin, a year later they called their direct rip-off the Nostromo. My lesson from that? Don't create new products that I can't afford to defend in court.

Macintosh vs. PC

A question that I faced for years, is if using Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 on PC is better or worse, than working on a Macintosh. My personal experience, is that as long as you have a really old Mac for compatibility with industry standards, then no, it does not matter.

Using a PC for Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 is not professional suicide. Half my audience is on PC's.

Here is an example; I would rather buy a crazy powerful PC that I built myself for $1500, and use a 10 year old Mac just to read and write disks from the customer. Keep in mind, Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 is not desktop publishing, which is a completely different beast. Expecting a PC to use fonts from a Mac is going to cause more headaches than it's worth. While I have not tried to bring inDesign or Quark files back and forth for many years, I would assume the same problems exist in compatibility. But for Adobe Photoshop CS5.5, as long as you are color calibrated, and can read a Mac disk, you should be good to go.

In my testing, the monitor is the most important part. So if you are going to invest, it should be on a quality monitor. Even if you color calibrate a high end monitor, and a low end monitor, they never seem to look the same. Sadly, between a good monitor and color calibration kit, you are looking at over $1500. But sometimes, you just need to invest in your business if you want to do it professionally.

If you do want to go with a Macintosh, you can always get an iMac for $1,200. It's only 21", but the base hardware will do the job. If you know a teacher or student, you can get discounts, so you should definately look into that first.

Getting Out There

Once I put my mind to something, it is pretty easy to get started. Keeping that momentum going is always the hardest part. The best way to do that, is to surround yourself with people who you aspire to be like.

That is why looking for a Meetup Group or similar is important. The issue with putting yourself out there, though, is being ready for the personal attack. Remember what it was like in  high school? Half the people have something negative to say. It is difficult to put yourself out there when people are whispering about you. Just remember that if you have not pissed off someone today, then you haven't said anything.

I mean, you don't think everyone who has come to this website has signed up as a member, do you? No, of course not. I am just passed the point of worrying about it. I am too busy focusing on the people who actually do enjoy what I have to offer. Surround yourself with positive, and you will get positive. Surround yourself with negative, and.. well… you get the idea.

Harder Than I Thought

I actually fooled myself into thinking that if I was to create an Audio Podcast, I would be able to keep a few notes, record for 20 minutes, and post it done.

I guess not, this is time consuming. I found that if I just talked from scattered notes, I would Um and Ah way too much while I thought about what I had to say. In the end, I had to go back and edit it all out anyway. Please understand, it was every 5 seconds. Even I could not listen to it. Then I had to have a transcriptionist retype it all anyway. Too much work. This time, I just typed it myself before hand. Much easier to get my thoughts across.

But doing this whole video and audio thing is a ton more work than I ever expected. With all this content being free, it just seems silly to spend this much time on it. Thankfully, the Affiliates and advertising on the site generates revenue for me. So, that's good news. I can keep on doing this. I feel better, as I know how few websites focus on a solid foundation before teaching all kinds of Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tricks.

When I watch or listen to stuff for learning purposes, it just seems like I have to wade through hours worth of stuff before I come across that little gold nugget. I sure hope that I am providing a better use of your time by learning, and not drooling on your desk with a blank stare on your face.

To get off on a slight tangent about audio podcasts, it's kind of funny to me how many shows I listen to, that are able to talk for 30 minutes, and not actually say anything. It drives me nuts. Only because to title a show about something, then go off for fifteen minutes about their personal life. Is that what I am doing here? Not directly, as I am not promising anything with this show. If you want to learn something specific, please go watch a tutorial. This is just entertainment.

But, here was my point (as if I really have one); I listened to a show today where the woman said to watch out for the people promising you the sky in their training seminars. She was talking about those Online Networking things where they promise you will wake up in the morning rich if you sign up for their course. She said that they may just be all talk, and not actually successful at what they do. I just thought it was funny timing, because I just found a show yesterday, where the guy had a DAILY podcast about online marketing, and that I should buy his course.

All I could think about was how much time he must have on his hands to create a daily Podcast. I know how much work is involved in my semi-weekly stuff. He must not actually do anything else, but sell this course. So, you should definately do your research before buying any courses. I know in the retouching area, there are several products, and they all cost over $100 dollars. So, you should read some reviews on blogs about it, before buying. Honest testimonials are always the best. Earlier this week I paid about $150 for a video from a famous retoucher. I liked the index list of topics, I liked the video trailer, and most importantly, other retouchers really liked it.

Robot Art

I came across a retoucher who turned the people in his portrait photographs into robots. I know, it doesn't sound like a work of art, but it sure is impressive. The artist actually does a variety of different things. Definately worth checking it out at links.theartofretouching.com/robotart and also links.theartofretouching.com/robotart2

Getting Ahead

Finally, one night I did what I said I was going to do, and I created a bunch of videos to work on as time allows. This was so much more efficient to sit down once than to spend several sittings picking out topics. Now that the hard work is done, I just need to edit the content as I have free time. Since I have starting to get back into the rythem, I was able to createa few new videos, this audio, and several articles that you may not have even seen. I either do them for Google Search reasons, or other websites.

The general point is, I have finally gotten back up to speed with several topics, and not spending my time doing bills, pushing papers, or other office work I hate. Since I fought through it the past few weeks, now I only have a few things on my to-do list. I feel much more like a freelancer, making my own schedule, than every waking moment being spent on working. I hate working. I much prefer playing. In fact, I think I will go outside and spend the rest of the day playing with my son. That seems like a much better way of spending my day.

If you found this Podcast to be inspiring, please go to www.TheArtofRetouching.com, and watch an Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial Video. When it's finished, go outside and play. You will be glad you did.

Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial – Spotting Images

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tutorial describes what spotting images means, and how to do it. In short, spotting simply means that you are going to remove any extra dust spots, or other very quick dirt removal. While it usually means dust from the camera lens, it could also mean quickly removing any other sort of blemishes from the picture, like lint on clothing or freckles. Again, the real key is that it is quick, and usually takes less than 10 minutes, and less than 5 minutes is even better.

Ideally, this would be the very first thing done to an image, before any other sort of retouching is done. All you need to do is create a new layer, select one of the cloning tools, and begin removing anything that doesn't belong. Spotting Images should be done for every picture you start working on.

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This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial answers the question: What is Spotting? This tutorial is also valid for older versions of the Creative Suite series, including CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

An audio podcast about Adobe Photoshop? Seriously? Yup! Would someone really want to listen to my podcast? Why not? I always have a ton of things to say, this seems to be a better place for most of my random thoughts than the beginning of the tutorials. This way, if your interested on more behind the scenes stuff, then this would be the place to find it.

In This Episode:

• Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Released
• TimeLapse Retouching Video
• Sponsorship
• iTunes, Blackberry, and Zune… Oh My!
• Corporate Take Over of the Internet
• A Call to Action
• Live One-on-One WebCast
• Wrap Up

Transcript:

Hi, my name is John and I would like to welcome you to the Art of Retouching’s first podcast.

We have done many tutorial videos but I really wanted to work on an audio podcast so you can get to know me a little bit more, and about the brand, and hopefully get a little bit more of a connection, other than just watching tutorial videos. I know that in my personal life, I like to  listen to podcasts – mostly about business and marketing – and I listen to it during the drive from my house to the studio, where I do all my retouching all day, every day. With this being the first podcast I don’t have any real structure to it yet, I’m just kind of winging it, but the big thing is to put yourself out there, and present something, and get it made. Otherwise you’ll just be sitting around and not actually doing anything at all.

So I don’t know how boring this first episode will be, but I hope it will get more interesting and more targeted as time goes on. So, if you can bare it with me, it would excellent.

I would like to start off by welcoming the Retouch-Pro visitors, and new subscribers, as well as other people that found me off the internet. Today seems to have been an amazing spike in traffic on the website. Yesterday, I had some free time, and I wrote a couple of posts on Retouch Pro and a whole bunch of traffic came my way. Then on top of those people, several other of them signed up for membership. I don’t know what Google did, but today my search stuff went off the roof. I would like to thank everybody that actually did come in. So that’s awesome.

Right now I am making this podcast because the website is down, and I am waiting for files to be uploaded. Technically, it is still up, and you can still access videos and everything, but there is a problem at the back end, where I had installed the plug in for the WordPress, and it absolutely broke the website. I’m trying to figure out what on the earth is causing it. Basically all the users can actually see everything, the same as always, but at the back end I can’t make any new posts. So I actually have all this content just sitting here., I have a blog post, I have another video, so while I was just sitting here waiting for all these files upload to the website again, I figured I’d finally make the time to do this first audio that I had ready to go for some time now.

I would like to thank everybody who comes back week after week to watch my video tutorials. A small army of you are watching videos that come from an RSS Feed that is being distributed through iTunes, Zune, or even directly from our own website. This is a test show, which I wanted to try out. As of this second, I have no specific format, guests, or topics. At this point, it's really just more about my ramblings of various Photoshop, or retouching news. It will not be edited down like the tutorials now are. So, you can expect the more humanizing ums, ahs, and other stumbling.

Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Released

So, if I have not completely lost you yet, I would like to move onto our first news story, which is about the newly announced, and released Adobe Photoshop CS5.5, due to arrive Mid May. Now, I’m sure many of you are curious about what is new in Adobe Photoshop CS5.5. Well, I’ll tell you right now… absolutely nothing. To be honest, I can’t tell the difference, as it doesn’t affect me in the retouching side of things, as far as I can tell. Technically, it’s not even 5.5, it’s really called 5.1. It’s really just a point update. So it’s nothing that you really need to go out and buy, it’s nothing that you need to worry about.

In the studio, I’m still using CS3 I believe. It lacks some of the features that I teach about in my Photoshop videos, but obviously, it is perfectly usable and I don’t worry too much about it. It would be nice to upgrade, but why spend the money in order to fix something that really isn’t broken? 

I’ve been a big fan, and I’ve been using Photoshop since 2.5 I think. So I definitely have seen the incarnations. I do remember that in version 8, they introduced a bunch of really interesting upgrades. After that, a lot of stuff they have been doing is just fluff, incorporating more web stuff and more 3D stuff, and more stuff I never really used. But occasionally there is a tool that I have picked up and started using or whatever, but for most products, I can get along just fine using the older versions.

Anyway, the new version of Photoshop is out, and overall it is nothing that you need to overly concern yourself with, because it looks, acts and behaves exactly the same. If you would like to learn more about this topic, you can go to links.theartofretouching.com/cs55 And that points out to an article that we have, and will give more information on the whole CS series upgrade.

TimeLapse Retouching Video

I came across a video today that I thought you might find some interesting. You can find it at links.theartofretouching.com/timelapse Basically, someone had created a video of them doing retouching, and they did it in a timelapse, and it took them 2 and a half hours, but they recorded everything, sped it up and it’s an 11 minute video. Just in general, it was something neat to watch this person working. My personal comments on it – I did skip around, I didn’t really pay too much attention to it, other than it was neat enough to mention, but the guy had the tiniest brush in the world, and he was going point by point. I realize that everyone had his own style, but I never work with a brush that’s so small.

It was just crazy, I understand what he was doing and all that, but to me, time is money and spending 2 and a half hours cloning out every pore on the persons face is just a complete waste of time. But this is just my opinion and I know that everybody has his own opinion on that topic.

Sponsorship

If there is anybody out there that would like to sponsor this show, or the tutorials that we work on, please let me know, as we might have a similar target audience, and we can help each other out so that would be awesome.

iTunes, Blackberry, and Zune… Oh My!

Let's talk a little bit about Apple's quest for world domination. I am amazed at how many of you download the tutorial videos for your ipods, iPads and iPhones. I'll be honest, if it wasn’t for iTunes, barely anyone would even know our website even existed. Overall, this is crazy to me, when you consider how much I need to dumb down the technical side of the video distribution, just to get it to work on Apple's iTunes platform. It’s crazy, I just have to crunch the video and the audio, just to get it on there, because otherwise it won’t even take it.

Due to the password protection we use on the website, the growing amount of content is not being sent through this various iTunes, Zune and Blackberry systems. I have had direct conversations with the software creator, for now there is no way for us to get that content into the existing RSS feed.

Now, sure, I could just loose the protection and send the videos to you, but I will be honest. I am trying to direct as much of the traffic to our website that I can at, www.TheArtofRetouching.com

It is safe for you to sign up as a member, and if you do, you not only have the access to our free content, but also to the higher quality videos that iTune,s or the other portable devices, will allow.

If you actually do want to use that lower quality content, just to take it with you, it’s cool, because each of our posts have a simple download link and you can just download it for yourself. You can always do iTunes or whatever, and if you are listening to this from iTunes, I strongly hope that maybe you would go into iTunes and give us a thumbs up and leave us a positive review, because that will help other people to find our videos. Right now, we are found in iTunes, but if we can get some positive feedback, that will boost us up in rankings, and that would be totally awesome.

I don’t know about this particular podcast, but if you do like our videos or tutorials, that would be really awesome if you did that for us. The more comments that the show receives, the more our ranks goes up, the more people will be able to find our show. Let’s be honest: if you search for the keyword Photoshop, 25 or 30 of those shows are filled with old content from more than 2 years ago. Help others find the good stuff, and you can do that by giving us the thumbs up.

Corporate Take Over of the Internet

It may not directly matter to you, but without the revenue stream coming in from people visiting our affiliate links or buying our extended video tutorial on cloning, we would have a very difficult time producing more quality targeted videos. I’m not sure that you have noticed, but our stuff is not trick of the week type. It’s content that can help hundreds of people around the world gain sound advice about using Adobe Photoshop.

I suppose though, Apple has been a huge contributor on how the Internet has evolved, something that does scare me though; is the way how in 5-10 years, the Internet will become more than a gateway to the corporate hubs of the social space.

iTunes, Facebook and Twitter: so how many people are actually these systems? Unless I sign up and become part of their machine, I will be overrun. If I really want to push the thought, how long it will take before the global governments become completely run by these corporations, which are mostly originating in America?

Consider how many products whether they are tangible or conceptual, are actually owned by the same 5 or 10 major companies? You may not notice, but Walt Disney Company owns ABC Broadcast Television, Pixar, Marvel Comics and all of their licensing, trademark, and intellectual properties. Then there are several smaller businesses, like Buena Vista Distribution, that are tiny blips on the map. Please note, that I have not even mentioned the 11 theme parks that are around the world.

But back to the point; if the Catholic Church were able to control everything from half a world away, for hundreds of years, there is no reason why Apple, IBM or AT&T can’t control everything. Did you know, that Donald Trump is running for president of the United States next term? Things to think about. If Steve Jobs wanted to, he could run, and he would have a really good chance of winning. I know that I would vote for him, he is my hero.

A Call to Action

I’m sorry about all this cause-to-action, I just had so many different things that I wanted to put out there. So if there is anything that you are able to do to help us, that would be awesome.

Anything you are willing to do to help us, would be awesome. It could sending an email comment to info@theartofretouching.com or commenting on our iTunes, YouTube, Zune or Blackberry Channels, buying our video, buying from an affiliate link, or even asking a simple question. We even have a 24/7 voicemail line if you would like to give us a call, and leave a comment.

As we are considering a weekly spin off chat show, similar to this one, that is more free form and less tutorial specific, voice comments would be awesome, too. We can be reached at 203-551-9684. And again, if you know of any companies that would be willing to sponsor the show or video tutorials, please have them contact us. We are a target show with a growing audience, so if this is your niche, let’s talk.

Live One-on-One WebCast

One other thing before I go, I just wanted to let you know that I have very seriously been trying to work on adding some live retouching shows, where I will be giving a presentation, as well as answering questions, and working on your photographs to try and solve any problems that you might have. So, if this is something that you would be interested in, please send us that email or phone call and let us know that this is something that you are interested in doing.

The first one that we are doing will be offered to Members Only, so if you would like to get that email if that is available, be sure to sign up. It’s really easy, all you have to do is give your first name and your email address. Then we will be able to send you that information when we will have something more concrete going on.

Wrap Up

And it’s not that I don’t want to do it, I really want to do this kind of stuff, because I love generating new content. The problem is that I constantly have these back-end problems that I need to deal with. Between the server, WordPress, the membership software, and all this other stuff that was wrong on a daily basis; not to mention actually trying to run a retouching studio, it’s not always easy for me to find time to create these videos for you.

And it’s not always easy for me, as I’m trying to spend some time with my family as well. So if at any time you find that the website is down or not working, or you haven’t seen any updates in a while or whatever, don’t be worried that I went away, the website is definitely is here to stay, I don’t always have the time to dedicate to the free content that I want to.  It’s just one of those things, that if it’s free, then it comes when it comes.

I’m really trying to stay on schedule of 2 videos every week, but many times I don’t even get one video every week. So I just haven’t been able to get any created and then just sitting there and waiting to go.

Anyway, that’s just me, kind of rambling on. I hope next time I will have something little bit more concrete to talk about. I do hope you come back again. If you have anything to say better, or different, send me an email, or give us a phone call, and I will try to adapt the shows better to meet those needs of what you have said.

Thanks for listening and I hope to hear from you.

Oh, and if haven’t gotten to the real action yet, please go to www.TheArtofRetouching.com which has many more trips and tricks to make you a better retoucher.  

Portrait Professional 10 Review

This is a video Portrait Professional 10 Review. You simply can not go to a Photoshop related website without seeing ads for Portrait Professional 10. To the point of Ad Nauseum, these obnoxious ads are everywhere. When I signed up for Adsense, to put some revenue onto my website, www.theartofretouching.com, the first ad delivered to me was for this software. I immediately blocked the ad from showing on my website. This is because there was no way I was going to advertise it, before testing it myself. This is my Portrait Professional 10 Review.

I will help speed this review along, by saying that I am a professional portrait retoucher, and I was simply amazed at what this program can do. The ads that you see everywhere are hurting sales, not helping. I want you to know, that in the hands of an amature, or professional, Portrait Professional 10 impressed me. I am not an affiliate for this product. I tried, but they blew me off. But, I still liked the software enough anyway, to recommend the product.

The software itself is a stand alone. No Adobe Photoshop needed. There are many people who want to do photo retouching, but do not want to pay hundreds for photoshop, or learn all the hard stuff involved with becoming proficient with it. My intention was to review this from the point of view of an amature, but I have to say, it's an excellent starting point for professionals as well. With the same controlled lighting, Photo Studios can easily use this program to knock out one image after another with the same subtle moves to give the photography an unexpectedly, clean result.

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This is a video Portrait Professional 10 Review. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial – How to Color Correct Using Variations for Beginners

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tutorial is on how to use variations to make color correction to photographs for beginners. Once you begin, you are presented with several copies of of your image, each being shown with slight variations in color and value. All you need to do is select which version of the image you like more.

Using Variations Photoshop CS5.5 is a very simplistic way to make color corrections. My initial response when doing this tutorial was that it should be removed from Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 because it was not a professional tool. However, while I still believe that, after speaking with others, it seems that some people do really need to look at the different options available to them, before making a decision on which way to make that color correction.

For those people, I would actually recommend they move away from variations, and being in a professional, but still simple to use interface software like onOne PhotoTune. I have an  onOne PhotoTune Review available if you would like to learn more about the software. It has an amateur and a professional variant, but still uses the same overall color correction method like Photoshop CS5 Variations.

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Learning to use Photoshop CS5 Variations is a stepping stone on your way to learning color correction. There are many different ways to do it, but most are very complicated to learn, and years to master. Variations is is the tool to use if yu are just getting started as a budding  photo editing retoucher.

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial answers the question: How to make color corrections for beginners by using Variations? This tutorial is also valid for older versions of the Creative Suite series, including CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial – What is the Difference Between Vibrance and Saturation?

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tutorial is on the difference between editing images with Vibrance and Saturation. The default results are quite different, but if you follow my advice, you will see that vibrance can be duplicated with the saturation palette, and that vibrance is no competition for age old tool.

Basically, Vibrance has only two options, vibrance and saturation. Which is just funny to me, that it needs to add the 20 year old tool, just to make itself useful. But, like I said, follow my advice, and you will see that saturation is really the only true option for Adobe Photoshop. Because the vibrance palette is weak with only one real option, your color control is almost non-existant. Since the Saturation palette has a ton more options, I strongly recommend staying with that. I will be having a followup video going into depth about why that is the preferred tool.

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This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial answers the question: What is the difference between Vibrance and Saturation Tool Palettes? This tutorial is also valid for older versions of the Creative Suite series, including CS4 and CS5. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.

Digital Fundamentals Tutorial – What is the Difference Between 8-Bit and 16-Bit Resolution Images?

This Digital Fundamentals tutorial is on the difference between editing images in 8-bit color and 16-bit bit depth. While it should be obvious that 16-bit color is twice as good as the 8-bit color, it just doesn't seem that way to the naked eye. This is because humans can only see less than 10 million colors. Since 8-bit already exceeds 16 million colors, why in the world do we need to work in a color space that moves us into trillions of colors? Visually, they both look the same, why use the higher resolution?

This very quick Digital Fundamentals tutorial is only a few minutes long, but guarantees you will never work in the 8-bit bit depth again! With two adjustments using the levels tool, you will see that using the 16-bit bit depth is the only way to go, if you want to achieve the best resolution possible.

Once you have watched the tutorial, I am sure you will be convinced. Then what should you do to properly make an 8-bit to 16-bit conversion? Well, thats easy. just go up to the pull down menu and select Image – Mode – 16-Bits/channel. Suddenly, you are whisked away to the wonders of color perfection. But, wait, you ask… what about that part, just below, that says 32-Bits/channel? Why talk about 16-bit when we can clearly select 32-bit and bask in all its glory? Well, settle down there, sparky. One thing at a time. I mean, if 16-bit is already trillions of colors, and can save the example in the video tutorial, isnt 32-bit just complete overkill? I sure think it is. But then again, who am I?

To continue with our color space conversion, once we have made the 8-bit image, a 16-bit image, then we can make all of our Adjustment Layers and save our layered PSD or TIF file. When we want to send the file off to the prepress house, or magazine printer, simply go back to Image – Mode – 8-Bits/channel and save the flattened file for them. At this point, all the color changes are done, so no need to have all that extra data. It was only needed to avoid banding or other color corruption before the CMYK conversion.

So then, why do cameras still work in 8-bit bit depth? This is because 8-bit bit depth is old school, and the only one supported by JPGs. If a camera takes a picture, it is good with 8-bit. It does not need to (or can not) make the extra jump to 16-bit. Don't forget, we can only see a fraction of the 8-bit bit depth anyway. The issue comes in when we, the retouchers, start messing with things, and accidentally cause the banding. The camera did a good job, the first time around.

Questions and Answers

• Why use 16-Bit in Photoshop?
  To Avoid Banding.
   
• Which is better, 16-Bit or 32-Bit Depth?
  Obviously, 32-Bit will hold more colors. However, it is this author's professional opinion that 32-Bit Depth is overkill, and leave you with huge files with little benefit.
   
• Should CMYK be 8-Bit, 16-Bit or 32-Bit Depth?
  You can work in 16-Bit, but since CMYK is the last step before sending the image to a printing press, it may as well be 8-Bit.
   
• Why does Photoshop default to 8-Bit Depth, when 16-Bit is better?
  The best reason is that several of the Filters, and 3rd Party Plug-Ins only work in 8-Bit. The better question is "Why isn't there a Preference to Default to 16-Bit Depth?"
   
• When should I use 8-Bit Depth Images?
  There are a few times when 8-Bit is needed; JPGs can only be 8-Bit, when you need to deliver samples to your client, several Filters are only 8-bit, and when you need to convert a file to CMYK for a printing press. These are just examples off the top of my head, I am sure there would be some more.

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This Digital Fundamentals Tutorial answers the question: What is the difference between 8-bit and 16-bit, bit depth? This tutorial is also valid for older versions of the Creative Suite series, including CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS6. If you would like to learn more about Photo Enhancement from a Professional Retoucher, I offer consulting one-on-one classes. Please contact me today, and I will be able to add you to the schedule too. If you would just like to watch online videos, The Art of Retouching Studio offers many Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners and Advanced users.