New beauty retouching book online

[grygarness]

Hi all
I'm Gry Garness – based in London UK as a Retoucher and Photoshop trainer since 2002. I worked as a fashion, music and advertising photographer from 1994 until a few years ago, when the retouching side took over. I've also been a hair stylist and makeup artist for 14 years, and I've dabbled in journalism for a few years. These skills have given me the background for writing a book on fashion/beauty/portrait retouching. I have listened to your concerns about Lee Varis Skin book. I won't comment on it, but I will say that the e-book I have just released should give you a very good alternative, and couldn't be more different. It was originally commissioned by a major publisher. The deal didn't work out, but I went ahead and developed it anyway, as a labour of love I suppose.

It's called DIGITAL RETOUCHING FOR FASHION, BEAUTY AND PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY and it does exactly what it says on the tin. It's all about retouching, and is full of high-end published images... as fashion stories in magazines, covers, advertising, cosmetics campaigns, CD covers. This is the stuff I do for a living. At the moment I mostly do retouching for beauty, celebrity and music. I also train many of my peers, and this has taught me how to communicate the material. My training clients are generally professional photographers, operators, retouchers and art directors.

The book is primarily aimed towards photographic professionals. It’s targeted at those who either focus entirely on the retouching aspect, or photographers who do their own post-production. I think of it as a tool for photographers, assistants, digital operators, retouchers, and anyone who is charged with producing high-quality people-shots that need to stand up to close scrutiny and large output sizes. Based on my experience as a Photoshop trainer, the tutorials should be suitable for all levels. Beginners will have to grow slowly with the book, and I should say that retouching takes a lot of manual and visual practice – as I'm sure you all know.

I won't be contributing loads on this forum – simply because I'm too busy serving my clients, and also because I've said what I have to say in my books. Forgot to mention that I've also written a book on Color Management and on Color Optimization. All the books can be seen on:
http://www.grygarness.com/downloads.htm and my work can of course be seen on www.grygarness.com

I don't know if I've broken any forum rules by posting this here. But I think that this book can be a valuable resource and a great tool for those of you on the forum who retouch people, and especially those who want to learn to retouch in a more editorial, natural-looking way. I've already had an overwhelming amount of sales, and fabulous responses from various people in the business in the 10 days it's been out, but I also want to hear your views. The only negative response I've had (several times) is that it's not out in print. Well I thought you'd like save some money, save some trees, and zoom in on the images. How about that?

allthebest

Gry

[yangez]

Been looking for something like this. Thanks, I'll check it out.

[Mucker]

Looks good at first glance. Is there a table of contents available?

[dkcoats]

I was going to buy the book but when I clicked on the "Buy" button McAfee Site Advisor gave me this:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/phishing....pe=FF&aff_id=0

So I think I'll pass.

[hataproof818]

hey...this looks great...i think i will purchase it

[hataproof818]

Originally Posted by dkcoats

I was going to buy the book but when I clicked on the "Buy" button McAfee Site Advisor gave me this:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/phishing....pe=FF&aff_id=0

So I think I'll pass.

DAYUM ARE U SERIOUS??? YEAH I BETTER PASS TOO..what a shame

[yangez]

Hmmm, I don't know. I searched it in Google and it looks legit.

When I was ordering it redirected me to payloadz.com which automatically immediately redirected me to paypal. I verified it was indeed https://www.paypal.com/*** before buying... so... maybe I should change my paypal password anyways just to be safe?

Read up some more on payloadz, seems that this happened before but they're a legit payment company. Although it seems that their customer service is horrible so you might want to find another one

Read it at http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2007/...e-vs-payloadz/ in the comments

ALSO: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/...Off0297615.htm

[yangez]

by the way, the book looks pretty good at first glance. I'll be reading it more in-depth later and I'll write my thoughts

[grygarness]

Hi all

No phishing. I can guarantee that. Full contents listing can be seen when you click on the frontpage image on the website, as well as a small slide show of the images. There's also a short description of the book.

Actually I've been testing and using my payment and downloads system for quite a while now and it works pretty much 100%. The only thing that can be quite annoying with PayPal is when people haven't renewed their expired credit card information, and are not aware of it themselves. This means that the payment is by ECheque which takes over a week to clear, before they get the product. This usually happens when people don't use their PayPal account much... but that's another matter. Still – I have been impressed by how well it works, and if there's any glitch I am of course available for support.

allthebest

Gry

[Hendrik]

I can also state this is legit. I updated my CC before paying with Paypal, so thanks for the warning.

First impression is positive. It looks very well made. I still need the time to really read it, so I can't give a final verdict yet. (I really miss my full color ePaper reader now )

It seems there are pros who aren't afraid loosing their jobs when they give some help.

[charlotte]

Hi
I bought it. I think that a lot of work went into this book. A lot of HARD work. The images and quality are great. The before and afters are helpful. This book covers so much and all that it does cover I am interested in. I haven't been here in a while and glad I popped in and saw this posting. I can say I highly recommend it and would buy it again.
Charlotte
Yeah I too wish it was a book I could hold because I would be bringing it with me but glad to save the trees.

[rodsavant]

This looks like a good book.. After going to the web site and checking out the table of contents, I had one question though. Perhaps I looked at it too fast.. but does the author talk about dodge and burning techniques? I would like to hear from those who purchased the book.. Thanks..

[grygarness]

Dodging and burning is covered in a couple of different ways, in the Shading tutorial, in one of the two methods for Reduction of Pores, and there's a tutorial about using brushes. But there are alternatives to dodging and burning, such as the Color Adjustment for Smoother Skin. Won't got further into it here, but thought I'd let you know. --- Gry G

[DanBrown]

May I suggest that it would be useful to have an example chapter or portion of a chapter to download. The preview pages (done in a slide show) are mostly for show and don't really allow one to assess the quality of the content.

[rodsavant]

I purchased the book. I expected a different kind of discussion regarding dodging and burning.. I am in and out of the retouching industry here in New York as I am a musician (many musicians work in retouching houses in NYC).. I'm always looking to keep my skills up and apply new techniques. In one studio I worked at, I had the pleasure to work alongside a senior high end retoucher who's work finds its way onto many of the top fashion magazines. When it comes to skin, I can honestly say that most of our time was spent dodging and burning and I find that true in many retouching studios across New York.

I was just surprised that type of retouching was barely touched in your book..

That said, your book is freaking awesome. I am constantly amazed at seeing how a guru like yourself approaches their work flow. Even concepts and techniques that I am fully aware of, I love to read from your perspective on your approach.. as often I find that I can learn from others little things that I may over look or just some things I have not considered..

Great job on a wonderful book.. Good luck..

[grygarness]

Glad you liked it!
It's true, although I offer at least 3 ways of so-called dodging and burning I don't talk about D&B at great length. Why? Because the principles are essentially simple. Make something lighter... make something darker. Preferably with a safety net and a threshold that stops you from going too far. What I do stress a lot is working with full editability, and developing the visual skills that ensure that you don't go overboard, and don't inadvertently change the shape of the face. I actually dislike the term Dodging and Burning, because I have printed both color and BW in the traditional darkroom for over 10 years, and I must say that the way we use it in retouching is not comparative to the original D&B. If we broaden our minds, a lightening or darkening adjustment layer applied locally through a mask is the same as D&B, whether it's applied with a gradient, a large brush, or a tiny brush. However, I choose to call that Local Color Adjustment – not D&B. For me, the really exciting thing is when you manage to find a way of selecting the problem areas, thereby establishing a threshold for the adjustment, so you can work with bigger brushes. For me, 90% of Photoshop work is color work – even sharpening is essentially a color adjustment. The remaining 10% is just moving pixels around.

I do a lot of work for the music industry, and apart from covers, most of the work has to be done pretty fast. I often get 20-30 press shots of an artist, to do in a day or two. Musicians – as you know – come in all shapes and sizes, and many faces bear evidence of a rock'n roll lifestyle. So I get no time to faff around (as we say here). They have to look perfect, natural, and effortless. All within 30-60 minutes. Often they are male, and there's no way you can make them look plastic fantastic. I would have loved to show you those before/afters but I can't. Their names and faces are too well known.

I thought long and hard about putting out an extract of the book when I released it. I could never find one chapter that summed the whole book up. So I am putting it on Google books instead, where you can see 25%. It might take up to 3 weeks. I have 2 books there already – both on color. They are the top 2 on this list: http://books.google.co.uk/books?q=gr...G=Search+Books
---Gry

[studionewmarket]

this looks very interesting, priced right (unlike some $200 plus cd) and I am just about ready to buy it, just hoping the pages are formatted well for printing, I like to have the text in my hand and want to print few pages at the time, especially when I am working on one monitor set up.
Wish you success with this, not many good products on the market.
Peter

[grygarness]

It's hi-res printable, and each user can print a copy for themselves. Any distribution of the book is not permissible – neither electronically nor in print. Of course it's Copyrighted and there are complete restrictions on extracting, copying or changing the text. To keep it environmentally friendly I suggest to everyone that you only print what you intend to work on. Save some of that Norwegian Wood for me. (Spoken like the true Norwegian that I am). --- Gry

[charlotte]

I hate to ask this question and debated asking it but here it goes.
When running the Digital powder action I get this error message
the command select is not currently available
what am I doing wrong---sorry for having to ask
Char

[grygarness]

I can't tell you what you're doing (not psychic quite yet) but I can guess that you're getting a warning saying No Pixels Were Selected ... because you haven't painted the skin in (as the prompts you to do on the Stop). If nothing was painted in, it simply has nothing to select, and Photoshop warns you of this. But I say again – I can only guess at what you're doing, because you don't mention where in the Action it's happening. As I say in the ReadMe I recommend doing the actual tutorial before you do the Action. This action has been tested a thousand times at least, and it works. But do read the tutorial, roll up your sleeves and paint in. I suggest you try it on a flat image first time, just to keep things simple. As I say in the ReadMe for Actions, I cannot provide individual support. Everything is written in the book. It explains it better than I can do by email because you have the screenshots there. Let us know when you've sorted it out. Good luch --- Gry

[charlotte]

the only error I get is
the command select is not currently available
its stops on
select tool preset airbrush 100 at 30/30
with the error message
I will try and do the tutorial in the book

[grygarness]

Ah, you got to the point where the Action is (almost) done. The preset is not important. Just press Stop or Continue and the Action will stop. The Preset is an optional extra which you can make if you wish. I still think you should read and do the tutorial to get the feel for the values of the filters and the whole procedure.

[charlotte]

I am doing the tutorial now. This book is great I absolutely love it.

[woofw]

I purchase it thru paypal and downloaded the 3 ebooks 2 days ago and never got an email about the password. I emailed the author and till now have not recieved a reply, has my 30pounds gone to waste?

[grygarness]

I am sorry this has happened. It has happened once before, and may have been caused by spam filters – possibly both yours and mine. I make an effort to look over my spam-filtered emails every day but some might slip through. I will send you the passwords as a private message.

Thanks for letting me know and please confirm that you have got them.

[woofw]

thanks Gry, I've recieved the passwords.

[mistermonday]

Hello Gry,
I just downloaded the book and took a quick scan from 1 to 190. Looks like an absolutely excellent work! You have covered all of the key areas of this type of retouching in one well wriiten, well illustrated, document. It's really great to have it all in one manual. Best wishes for successful sales.
Regards, Murray

[studionewmarket]

is there a place where images from the book can be downloaded? I have really enjoyed the aspect of being able to work on the same images as presented in number of other PS books, like to see the same effects on my computer.

[grygarness]

Due to the nature of the images I'm afraid not. Most of the images are of professional models who would take great exception to being used for training purposes. Retouching is a very sensitive subject, and it's tricky to get permissions from models at at all. There are a few stock images there, but only very few. it should be easy enough for you to find images these days, with royalty-free stock libraries offering images for next to nothing. I suggest you look for images that are not retouched too much though, as I've noticed a tendency in stock to over-smooth the skin. --- Gry

[AFrazier]

I only just now read this thread, and I'm going to look into purchasing the book, but if you don't mind saying ... do you discuss curves techniques? I've found that some of the best color correcting is done that way, and I'd like to learn more about it. However, thus far, not too many books on the subject. The particulars seem to be a kept secret, else not too many people know much about curves.