I've found a good flash works wonders in low light situations, unfortunately mine was busted while in Afghanistan. But, with my new D700 I can crank up the ISO and still get nice shots. It was a major upgrade over my D70S. A fast lens can also help a lot in those low light situations. After typing all this, i just realized i misread the whole post; oh well, I'm still posting this drivle.

D700 Superior at low light ;)

I'm not even a photographer or have a camera, but this is one hell of a write up! Repped http://serve.mysmiley.net/cool/cool0020.gif

Thank you!

Good stuff, Clint. :tup:

Thanks captain stevo

darker is before, the lightened one is after...

Nice tutorials here

I would like to add one thing..someone said they wanted to get Photoshop ..well that is a very expensive program ...if they get Photoshop Elements they can do all the things the average person needs to do at a fraction of the cost..

Its not just me saying this but Mark Galer who has written several books on this and does testing for Adobe told me this. You can pick up his books at most book stores full of very good suggestions..

Also I notice you are in fashion photography..ever use Portrait Professional...? it is an absolutely incredible program for portrait enhancements..takes an ordinary woman and makes her look fantastic! And the studio edition has a photoshop full version and elements plug in...and its cheap!

I tried to upload some examples but for some reason I cant do it!! :( Got some kind of error message..

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 48820353 bytes) in /home/ak47/public_html/includes/class_image.php on line 2401

If you can figure this out I will post the photos..

Nice work here, i'm sure i saw someone who did photo work say there was a plugin or filter you can use that helps with removing the appearance of light dirt on paintwork??

I've only got CS, but hoping i can do something with it.

I would never EVER recommend portrait professional. That should be opposite portrait unprofessional with a sad face.

I will not expend on my retouching skills because there is so much, retouching itself is an art form. You are absolutely right that adobe elements will do it but... If you are in the slightest interested in photography it's worth it. My friend and Author professor Katrin Eismanns book "restoration and retouching" is hands down one of the best books. Even though it's only for photoshop cs2 you can still apply her technique also when you buy the book she is accessible. You can mention me if you get the book and have additional questions or email me.


Blurring of the skin, unless spatial frequency techniques and I would only advise if you know the proper integers.

Nice however remember not to blow out your highlights so the front tone down just a bit. Don't be afraid to be selective :-) but good job

I was having trouble with that. T that area up front was getting bad to. I try and later everything. I'll mask the layer and then use the gradient however I need it to get a decent effect but I really was having trouble with the front of the car.

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Heres my go. two layers.

Why would you not recommend portrait professional? What is it you can do in Photoshop that Portrait cannot do, especially when it becomes part of Photoshop as a plug in?
My experience has been that you can do exactly the same things in Portrait professional that you can in Photoshop but the entire process is much much easier and faster..

If you have the basic understanding of retouching that something "quick", never is "good". I'm not going to argue I do all my retouching manually. All the retouchers would laugh. It removes pore and detail structure from face yielding fake plastic skin. Detail is crucial.


ThePhotographer