I’m a huge fan of very long and in-depth educational videos on YouTube. People keep going on about how “5-7 minutes is the ideal length!”. Well, no, not for me it isn’t. I love watching long videos. And this is a good one. Presented by retoucher Conny Wallstrom, this hour and a quarter long video teaches you everything you would ever need to know about how frequency separation works.
When I first heard about frequency separation, it was about 7 years ago. And I saw a similar length video back then. It was wonderful. It opened my eyes up to the possibilities of what frequency separation could do. Photoshop’s had one or two new versions since then, though. New tools have been added to its arsenal and the technique has evolved a little (although the principle is still the same).
Conny’s video differs a little from most other frequency separation videos, though, as it’s not so much as a how-to as a how-it-works. It’s certainly not a retouching tutorial. Conny starts with the very basics of the technique, right down to exactly the high and low frequency parts of an image are, to explain how and why it works. So, it’s quite technical, but it’s explained in an easy to understand way. Through the video, you’ll see Conny occasionally go to the Retouching Toolkit Photoshop panel to help speed up the process. Conny’s the author of the Retouching Toolkit, and while it’s not required for frequency separation, it certainly helps to speed things up. If you’ve been struggling with frequency separation or trying to understand how or why it works, it’s well worth watching Conny’s video. Like I said, though, it’s an hour and a quarter long. So, you’ll probably want to grab a coffee, stick it up on the big screen, sit back and put your feet up.
