Breakthroughs

I've made a breakthrough with my retouching...

7 days ago I almost quit shooting/retouching because I found Kesler Tran's work. Simply put, it's lightyears above what I'm capable of! So much so, it was extremely discouraging.

6 days ago, I decided to use Kesler's work as an example and learn from it.

5 days ago, I discovered a thread regarding "why high-pass sucks (as a sharpening method)" and spent 2 days reading it. Yes, 2 days reading it. You can read it too, here. I'm on page 7 out of 15.

3 days ago, I started applying those techniques. Not only does it help because I never used to sharpen my images but it also allowed me to process pores/skin 2-3x as fast.

2 days ago, I discovered why my B&W pictures weren't as powerful. See my previous post.

Today I discovered that a B&W gradient can make a powerful desaturated picture. I'll probably post something on this later.

These are the reasons I haven't posted any pictures or made any typical posts regarding the pictures on flickr.