@DesertFox - nope, wasn't attacking you and thanks for the kind words. I agree, the odd obsession with presets is, well... odd to me. Then again, it seems to mirror "real-world" trends - people always looking for a shortcut instead of learning the nuts and bolts. But that does mean it's an easy way to get likes here lol I do enjoy collecting courses providing a variety of perspectives on the same or similar topics from reputable photographers. I mostly disregard 85% of the course and try hone in on what they do differently to see if anything makes more sense in my workflow than something else, or if there's some technique that I've missed throughout the years. For instance, I'll download a recent "blend-if tutorial" even if it's a vastly inferior method to luminosity masking (though easier) just in case there's an application I haven't thought of. I've even bought courses from the creator after "previewing" them here because I liked their content so much (it's also saved me from purchasing a couple REALLY underwhelming courses). But bottom line is I almost never watch a full course anymore. That said, it is very easy to collect much more than you can keep up with lol - I certainly have a backlog I have to go through.
Your statement / reply hits the nail on the head for me as well - still feeling the reverberation . . . My problem is I can't skim a tutorial with the meaningful purpose to acquire a sole nugget of info from it - I'll need to review the whole thing and then do the meta-anaylsis in the ol' noggin' as it relates to my present process (and best methodology in approaching the problem). Then hopefully write-down in a Moleskin what I'm doing for a particular topic - net result is always trying to trim off time to perform a function and yield comparable (if not better results) . . . it's a slower process personally for me. And I've sat next to people working on a comparable project - observe a process and ask - What did ya do there? Going both ways (I'll ask them too) - But it does eventually underscore the end-product of truly being an original - even though several industry-identifired process have been used (with minor tweaks)
