{"id":502,"date":"2011-02-18T11:30:30","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T16:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aaronvargaphotography.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/18\/review-heather-lahtinens-advanced-photoshop-workshop\/"},"modified":"2014-05-08T12:05:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T16:05:24","slug":"review-heather-lahtinens-advanced-photoshop-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaronvargaphotography.com\/blog\/for-photographers\/review-heather-lahtinens-advanced-photoshop-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Heather Lahtinen’s Advanced Photoshop Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently attended Heather Lahtinen\u2019s<\/a> Advanced Photoshop workshop<\/a>.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t visited Heather\u2019s site<\/a> or blog<\/a> yet, do it\u2026she\u2019s awesome, and she\u2019s as friendly and professional as she is talented.\u00a0 I thought it might be useful to write a review on the workshop for other photographers thinking of attending, and even though Leeann Marie<\/a> already did a great job, I wanted to give my perspective too.<\/p>\n

The one-day workshop was held at Heather\u2019s beautiful home, and focused on advanced Photoshop techniques and best practices.\u00a0 It was a small group (I think 5 of us total) which I personally prefer, as it allows more of your questions to get answered and allows the content to be a little more tailored to what you\u2019re looking for.\u00a0 We covered a lot of topics, including layers, masking, portrait and skin retouching, body sculpting, and the use of actions and various shortcuts to streamline your workflow.<\/p>\n

One of the big takeaways for me was how Heather approached skin retouching, and specifically dodging and burning.\u00a0 Although Photoshop provides dedicated dodge and burn tools, they must be used directly on the image layer, which results in \u201cdestructive\u201d editing, which just means you\u2019re editing the image itself.\u00a0 Heather showed us that you can do the same thing (and do it even better) through the use of adjustment layers and masking.\u00a0 By doing it this way you have all of your adjustments on separate layers that don\u2019t affect the image layer itself, and since they\u2019re separate layers, you can mask away and fine-tune those adjustments later.\u00a0 Heather showed a bunch of other retouching techniques too, and we built a very<\/em> useful action that quickly sets us up for retouching other photos.\u00a0 We also dove into the warp tool and liquify\/spherize filters, which were new to me and are simply fantastic for body sculpting.<\/p>\n

Actions were a big focus of the day too, and we built a handful of really useful actions that will come in handy including the retouching action I mentioned above, an awesome action that reduces redness in skin tones (which I\u2019ll be using A LOT), and various creative actions for black & whites, vintage-y effects, etc.\u00a0 I was also introduced to droplets, which I had never heard of but will be using all the time.<\/p>\n

Although I learned a ton and was shown better and faster ways of doing things, I felt like much of the content was a review of what I already knew.\u00a0 Because I\u2019ve done a lot of photo-editing and website design before, I was fortunate enough to have had a decent amount of Photoshop experience prior to this workshop, so I already had a good grasp on some of the basics that were covered. For example, I already knew most of the keyboard shortcuts and terminology, and have worked with layers, masks, and adjustment layers before.\u00a0 That said, I was doing a lot of things the hard way, so it was good to see quicker and better ways of doing certain things, and I did <\/em>learn a lot of new stuff.\u00a0 If I had one critique of the workshop, I\u2019d say that it could\u2019ve probably moved at a quicker pace, but I do understand that the other students may not have had the prior experience, and from the instructor\u2019s perspective I probably wouldn\u2019t have gone much faster either.\u00a0 Heather also offers private one-on-one consultations<\/a> which in retrospect may have been a better fit.<\/p>\n

My vote?\u00a0 Definitely recommended<\/strong>.\u00a0 Heather truly is a master of her craft and is a fantastic instructor.\u00a0 No matter what your skill level is, you\u2019re guaranteed to walk away with a better understanding of Photoshop and great ways to increase your efficiency with the tool.<\/p>\n

Aaron Varga Photography is a top Pittsburgh wedding photography studio serving downtown Pittsburgh and all surrounding areas. We specialize in creating modern, glamorous, and timeless photographs and providing an unmatched photography experience. Contact us<\/a> for information and availability for your wedding or engagement session!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently attended Heather Lahtinen\u2019s Advanced Photoshop workshop.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t visited Heather\u2019s site or blog yet, do it\u2026she\u2019s awesome, and she\u2019s as friendly and professional as she is talented.\u00a0 I thought it might be useful to write a review on the workshop for other photographers thinking of attending, and even though Leeann Marie already...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pp_embeds":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[398],"tags":[27,28],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-photographers","tag-photography","tag-photoshop"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Heather Lahtinen's Advanced Photoshop Workshop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Review: Heather Lahtinen's Advanced Photoshop Workshop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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