It is always interesting to see a good photographer doing his work. My dear friend Michael Breitung did a good job covering his workflow in his From Start 2 Finish Video Tutorial with an interesting and tricky motif.

Normally you will get little retouching tidbits with different photos from different photographers. This video tutorial is following a different teaching approach as you are used to see on the internet. Michael Breitung has chosen his From Start 2 Finish motif well. He is covering most of the interesting parts in terms of landscape retouching in one photo.

This workshop is not called From Start 2 Finish without a reason. He goes through all important aspects of producing a great landscape photo from the Giant’s Causeway.

He talks about the challenge of taking a photo in the field getting the most out of what nature reveals.

Lightroom and Photoshop – From Start 2 Finish

After that he explains his workflow in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Michael gives us deep insights in his Lightroom retouching workflow. His thoughts on sharpness, lens correction are worth a look.

His stacking workflow is only interesting if you have a low quality lens. 🙂

No, just kidding, it is important to know all possibilities of retouching. Because one day you will need them to make the right decisions in the field.

Masking and Blending – From Start 2 Finish

I guess the understanding of luminance masks is required when he talks about masking and blending in Photoshop.

His Photoshop workflow is top-notch. Take your time to get through all of his workflow steps. Of course a basic understanding about Photoshop is necessary to keep in touch with his pace. This is not a basic Photoshop training. This is advanced stuff for ambitious landscape photographers. Although it could work fine for beginners if they are willing to work on their knowledge that is missing to work with all this brushes, masks, layers and blending modes.

Color and Finishing – From Start 2 Finish

His thoughts of color corrections are very interesting. Normally I work on all of my colors in the field using filter. I guess I will rethink my workflow in terms of color correction in photoshop the next months. Last but not least you can learn all important things on getting a great print.

Summary – From Start 2 Finish

Michael Breitung talks about possibilities in Lightroom and Photoshop. I won’t make the same decisions in my workflow like he showcased in this tutorial. Guess I could get similar results only with Lightroom and the adjustment brush.

But he helps me understanding why I am doing my personal decisions. And he helps me getting a better overview on the possibilities in retouching.

I found his approach very structured and technical. Normally I am not thinking so much in terms of retouching. The vision in the field and the end results seems too far away through all of the retouching steps for me and my landscape photos. But this Start2Finish tutorial is about learning possibilities in retouching. I am sure Michael Breitung won‘t do all this steps on every photo he is publishing. You can take what you need to make your workflow more efficient and thoughtful. And therefor we have to say thank Michael Breitung and pay the small fee of 13,- € for this highly recommended video tutorial From Start2Finish. Believe me (I have seen a lot of tutorials): This is a Must-Download for serious landscape photographers that are interested in developing their craft.

Really, really, really professional landscape photographer may find the videos interesting too. I always learn a lot through seeing how other photographers work.

Beginners may see what they are missing in working with photoshop. There is no reason not to buy this video tutorial, you should work on your basic knowledge in terms of Lightroom and Photoshop anyway. Go through it and see what you have to learn about brushes, masks, layers and blendings.