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Jeff,
I think it's important to be trained at some point to see from life. Keeping sketchbooks, doing self portraits, having family members pose, open studios, whatever. There has to be some of that experience in the brain storage in order to view a photograph and UNDERSTAND what it would have looked like in person. I don't believe one has to work exclusively from life.
I also am a firm believer in this: If I want to know how a painted hand will look like, I find a painted hand I like. I don't go to the photos. I briefly look at the real hand if its there, but I need to see a PAINTED hand to learn from.
Paintings that breathe life are all about selective decisions, not painstaking copying.
My humble opinions
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