The Essentials of Retouching Your Subject
Class Description
In this class you will learn the basics of photo retouching for skin, eyes, teeth, hair, and other issues, and also preparing an image for retouching by correcting in-camera issues. The goal is for students to be able to process and optimize their own images.Saturday morning, through hands-on demonstrations and step-by-step instruction, basic techniques will be covered and many other tools of the trade: the Wacom tablet, understanding cloning and healing tools, customizing brushes, creating layers, using adjustment layers, masking, blending modes, and many more.
We then take time for a lunch provided by the Photo Center, followed by working together as a group on demo images from start to finish, using a best-practices workflow. This includes assessing the image, determining which tools and techniques can best accomplish the most natural-looking results, learning more tips and tricks, and evaluating the final result.
At the end of the day, students try out the techniques at home on their own images and return with the results for discussion on Sunday. Stock images to use are available for anyone who prefers not to share their own images in class.
Being able to critique one’s own work is a crucial part of good retouching, so throughout the course we will evaluate examples of successful or unsuccessful retouching work in the public domain.
Topics Covered:
- Retouching a raw image versus a jpg image - why raw is preferred
- How to assess an image, including which standards to use
- Basic techniques
- Color and exposure correction
- Removing color casts
- Contrast
- Skin: Removing unwanted blemishes, reducing wrinkles and dark circles, skin smoothing
- Eyes: adding contrast, removing eye veins, darkening eyelashes, shaping eyebrows
- Whitening teeth
- Contouring: dodging and burning
- Slenderizing the subject
- Hair: Adding highlights, repairing dark roots
- Different retouches for men and women
- How to use a basic Wacom tablet
- How to evaluate a retouch and developing your ‘eye’
Class Requirements
1) Experience with the Develop module in Lightroom 5 AND Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6. We will only briefly review the how-to’s of layers, actions, cloning, healing, and blending modes in class.
2) Wacom tablet (if you do not have one, you may borrow one of ours for the class. Most of the techniques can be done using a mouse, but that will be more challenging.)
3) Small flash drive (aka “jump drive”, “thumb drive”)
Class Schedule
Date |
Start Time |
End Time |
Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, January 17th, 2015 | 10:00 AM | 4:00 PM | Digital Learning Center |
| Sunday, January 18th, 2015 | 10:00 AM | 4:00 PM | Digital Learning Center |
Additional Class Information
Class Images:
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About the Instructor
Corinne (CJ) Standish:
CJ studied drawing and photography at Art Institute Minnesota and photography and digital imaging at MCTC colleges. She has been retouching using Photoshop since 2005 and has fashion and portrait retouching clients in the US, Europe and Russia. She continually participates in retouching workshops to stay abreast of the latest techniques and software developments. CJ is also a portrait, event, and performance photographer.
Register for this Class
The cost of the "The Essentials of Retouching Your Subject" class is: $295.00
Learn more about our membership and be eligible to receive a 10% on all MPC classes.
Please Note: This class is currently full. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on a waiting list and advised of the next scheduled class. In the meantime you might consider our One on One personalized education options with our trained professionals.
