I read a great article today in Lifehacker which I wanted to share.  The topic is retouching for realism.  The basic points they make are

1. don’t rush the retouching process
2. always make your edits undoable

Both extremely good ideas when retouching.  I try to do as much work as I can in Lightroom in part because I know that everything I do can be undone whenever I change my mind.  The rest I do in photoshop with adjustment layers and layer masks, both which can be undone as well.

As far as rushing is concerned, I agree that it should be a slow, deliberate process although I think as you get better over time you also speed up your retouching time without sacrificing quality.  This isn’t exactly rushing it as much as it is using your time more efficiently.

Photoshop is not a verb. It is a noun. It is the means to an end, not the end itself. – Vincent Versace

I would add a third point:  The more I retouch the more I learn that the key to success is doing as less as possible to a picture.  Once you get an idea of the basic problems your pictures are going to have (i.e. exposure, color tone, blemishes, etc.) and you have chosen your preferred methods of eliminating these issues, it’s important not to go out of your way to “enhance” them further.  It’s a constant temptation when you learn a new skill to apply it to every situation but that is exactly how you get pictures that look like this:

You may be tempted to take ten years off someone's face but remember, your subject may not have been born yet.

  I want to put a ding in the universe.                            - Steve Jobs

Happy new year!  I just spent a week traveling and I got to meet Sid and her husband.  It turns out both of them are former Apple employees like myself so we bonded over war stories of abused Macs and unruly customers.  Sid also showed me a great web site called Cinematic Titanic where you can get an audio commentary track to accompany many current movies done by the Mystery Science Theater crew.  I watched Indiana Jones 4 on the plane.  If not for the commentary it would be a completely unwatchable movie but with it was fantastic.

Sid’s set will be going up in the next few months at Suicide Girls.  Also check out Antigone’s set What I Got which will be released on the 16th.