myles_formby1

<p>Hey Tom thanks that was very helpful. Just one question, you said : "Deluxe version would have a grid right above the camera" What do you mean by grid? Not sure what this means. Thanks.</p>

<p>I've been studying their technique for a while and made a discovery on one of their behind the scene's videos. They often use large banks of fluorescent tubes mixed with strobes/hot lights. The fluoros give the shot their distinctive greenish tinge. From what I can see they keep their lighting relatively simple, lots of high contrast hot lights. I also saw them shoot a Gucci campaign with Jennifer Lopez also using fluorescents in a large softbox just near the camera with the sun behind, then 2 relectors camera right and left. But do a google search of Mert and Marcus and you will find some good behind the scenes videos. Hope that helped!</p>

<p>Also, it's good to push the hightlights on the shoulder etc even more, because when you add toning later (curves etc) you are going to lose some of those highlights.<br>

I dodged the image even more around the highlights and added a curve. Show you what I mean.</p>

<p><img src="http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j386/milo1234567/00TZRW-141241584.jpg" alt="" width="533" height="800" /></p>

<p>Your highlights are good. A lot of fashion work is done even with the highlights blown out a bit, it tends to give a good polish to the skin. You can even try pushing it even further, blowing it more, then blending it all in photoshop. </p>

<p>Not sure if you are even still following this thread. If you are, the two best resources on the net are any of Chris Orwig's tutorials on Lynda.com (portrait retouching etc). His tutorials cover pretty much all the concepts needed in professional retouching, cleaning up, reconstruction, enhancing, and contouring with dodging and burning. <br>

Another very good one is the High End Industry Retouching Techniques, just google it. This series is very good for understanding dodging and burning, is a little more thorough on dodging and burning than Chris Orwig's tutorials. Personally, I think the instructor pushes his images a little far, they end up looking a bit fake, but the principles are sound, and you can scale back the level of retouching shown to your personal taste. They also have a new series out which I haven't seen yet. <br>

Just remember to get very good at retouching, there are no short cuts, you must spend long hours watching the tutorials and practice practice practice on your own images.<br>

I hope this helps, good luck.</p>