Photoshop Restoration and Retouching (Macintosh Library) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's disappointing when a photo of a loved one is marred by "red eye" or the wrong exposure, or when a cherished picture from long ago cracks and fades. Luckily, Katrin Eismann seems to know every trick available in Photoshop for making photographs--film or digital--look just how you want them to, whether that means restoring what has been lost, fixing incorrect exposures, erasing dust and scratches, or even recreating reality. (Who wouldn't want to lose a few wrinkles?) Eismann has the artistic eye to appreciate good photography, the technical savvy to be able to offer numerous solutions to any given problem, and the writing and teaching skills to walk readers clearly through these solutions.

The book assumes readers have a working knowledge of Photoshop. It does not go through the basics or cover complex selections or masking, although it does quickly explain essentials like shortcuts, context-sensitive menus, quick image-navigation tricks, the varieties of layers, and smart file management--all issues that expedite workflow and distinguish regular and power users. The book even outlines what it takes to set up shop as a professional retoucher, discussing equipment, studio arrangement, and working with clients and contracts.

The author strongly advises reading the book from start to finish, and she's structured the projects so that they build upon each other. The book is divided into three sections: correcting tone, exposure, and color; restoration, repairing, and rebuilding; and portrait and glamour retouching. Each page is filled with plenty of before-and-after images, along with screen shots of palettes and dialog boxes.

This book makes tackling each of your photo's flaws look easy--it seems like even the worst photo can be saved. Also, by the end, readers will have an appreciation for those who do retouching for a living--it takes planning, a good eye, consistency, and a lot of organization, or you're just flailing away with adjustment layers. You can get a look at a sample tutorial and chapter on the companion Web site, digitalretouch.org, which also includes all project images and other resources. --Angelynn Grant

From Library Journal

Everyone has old photographs stored in a shoebox or album. Storing them electronically allows for the preservation and, in some cases, the enhancement of these irreplaceable mementos. Both of these works feature a new angle on Adobe Photoshop training by focusing on retouching. Although the majority of techniques discussed here are found in every other Photoshop book (e.g., Carla Rose's SAMS Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop 6 in 24 Hours, Computer Media, LJ 4/1/01), both authors do a good job of walking readers through the process. Kiteley's volume is an e-book available for Macintosh and PC. It comes only as a CD-ROM in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat to read (a free download from the Adobe site). Eismann's book is an attractive, paper equivalent of Kiteley's work, covering almost exactly the same techniques. Pass on both if you already have a Photoshop title; if not, I prefer the presentation of Eismann's volume.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789723182
• ISBN-13: 978-0789723185
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #392,742 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth every dime spent, quite possibly the best retouch book, July 24, 2001

By	M. Saunders (Hermitage, TN United States) - See all my reviews

As I ventured into further and further depths into the wonderfully deep world of Photoshop, there came a need to improve my retouching technique. So I purchased both this book and also Scott Kelbys "Photo Retouching Secrets" at the same time. I gotta say, while I have gotten a few useful and neat tricks out of Kelbys book, I feel that Eismanns book is the far better piece of work for what I was looking for. My view on this comes down to the fact that I prefer to have a book that teaches me some ideas, and makes me think, versus just a book that presents a laundry list of quick tricks and tips. Same thing for the "wow" books.. while they are "fun", they aren't on my required reading list for Photoshop books... they really don't get you involved in problem solving or technical kind of learning experience that I feel is necessary to master this (Photoshop) program. So, you, the reader, have to decide what you are looking for. If you want just a quick and dirty set of tips to retouch photos and you consider yourself a beginner to light intermediate, then Kelbys book might be better. (Kelbys book is far from bad, I'm just stating a strong preference for this one instead)

However, if you seriously want to get inside the head of a great retoucher, and learn more powerful techniques, definitely check out this (Eismanns) book. Another plus to this book is Katrin never tosses you an attitude about her views. She credits other people when she has learned from them. In this regard she is about as far away from someone like the incredibly brilliant but occasionally arrogant Dan Margulis of "Photoshop 6/Classic Guide to Color Correction" fame.

The only weaknesses in the book (and the reason I deduct a star) are a less than stellar coverage of density, contrast and color correction. (however, this topic is covered quite well in the aforementioned Margulis book or the Photoshop Artistry book by Haynes/Crumpler)

This shortcoming, however, is balanced out with incredibly good portrait and glamour retouching sections as well as good discussions on restoration techniques. Seriously recommended.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Photoshop book around, January 28, 2002

By	W. Todd Dominey (Decatur, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've used Photoshop for a number of years, but until now have never purchased a Photoshop how-to book. The reason was simple -- most of the Photoshop "Bibles" or "Definitive Guides" you see are filled with, let's be truthful about this, junk. They'll teach you how to create gleaming, 3-D text with marbelized textures and silly gee-whiz visual effects, but barely scratch the surface teaching what Photoshop was invented for -- photo retouching and restoration.

I've been manipulating photographs for years in Photoshop, but in just a few pages of Eismann's book I realized there was much more to learn. Eismann's clear tone, direction, and oceans of screenshots showing photos in many stages between "before" and "after," make this book the only Photoshop book really worth owning.

The techniques presented inside are smart, timeless, and will help you take your photography to a whole new level. And let's also be clear about who will benefit from this book -- just about anyone who works with images, from professional graphic designers all the way down to digital camera hobbyists. As a matter of fact, she often refers to digital cameras, and provides a plethora of techniques to consider when working with this specialized medium.

The book does not come with a CD-ROM, but Eismann does provide a web site where you can download all of the images (in their raw, untouched state) used in the book so you can work alongside it.

The book is printed on crisp, bright white paper that holds the detail of the photographs quite well -- an important factor especially for seeing the differences b/w before and after stages, and the sometimes subtle changes made.

In closing, I have never seen a more useful book than this. Anyone would benefit tremendously from buying it.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best!!!, April 19, 2001

By	Maxwell Crumley (San Jose, California United States) - See all my reviews

I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this book since hearing of it at the annual Thunder Lizard Photoshop Conference in San Francisco in early January. Early previews had set some high levels of expectation regarding the content and application. My book arrived and I sat up all night reading it and trying the various tutorial exercises. My expectations were more than met. They were exceeded!

I am a professional photographer and educator. I have been teaching and employing Photoshop since version 2.5. In the years that have passed, I have probably purchased every major instructional book on Photoshop that has appeared. Many have had outstanding sections, but this book surpasses all of them. Its graphic design, its instructional methodology and its practical, straigtforward application of Photoshop to the commercial portrait photograper's craft is unique. Every chapter brings a new insight to bear on the daily work of the photo-retoucher. This is a MUST for any serious Photoshop user. It will be a required text for all of my future college Photoshop classes.