basics of retouching books

[chris jones]

Hi all, I'd like to get opinions on what are the best books/dvd's/sites out to learn the basics of retouching, and by basics I mean color correction, sharpening, that sort of thing. I love the effects that many are doing and am interested in learning that but I feel I need to be confident that I can make a mediocre photo a very good photo before I venture into that.

Are there any "must have" resources? I see Katrin Eismann mentioned a lot.

[Tony W]

Chris, IMO as far as books go I think the following are very good as a starting point:

Katrin Eisman

• Photoshop Restoration and Retouching
  (A very thourough book)

• Creative Digital Darkroom

Dan Margulis

• Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction
  
  (Can be a challenging read at times )

• Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum ........................
  

Bruce Fraser & Jeff Schewe

• Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom
  (Have not read this one but a friend recommended - assume that principles still apply with later version Photoshop)
  

Best sites you are here on one of them

[gene_spark]

Ok, one little thing

as far as i know is the 5. Edition of Professional Photoshop Dans last Book, but technics are changing. and so he did some Tuts on Kelbytraining..very interesting stuff:

http://www.kelbytraining.com/instruc...-margulis.html


and may be on Lynda.com all the Stuff made by Deke Mc Clelland:
http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk1=98

on my opinion: sharpening Images and of Course Chanels and masks part 1 and 2 over 30 Hrs of hard core masking. are must haves :-))

lg.
Gene

[Nasturtium]

Eismann's books are very detailed, she hasn't updated them in a while I wouldn't call them 'basic'

Margulis's books are very interesting but he is most definitely 'LAB'-centric and not really integrated with RAW processing yet. I wouldn't consider them 'basic' either more like 'esoteric'

Lynda dot com is an excellent site - and many of their courses you can sample for free (love that!). Deke McClelland's Photoshop Top 40 on Youtube and iTunes would be an excellent place to start with basic info. One of my favorite series on Lynda.com is Chris Orwig's Photoshop for Photographers.

Don't think you have to start with Photoshop either. Any photo editing program that let's you do levels, curves and hue/saturation, sharpening & noise reduction would be a great 'basic' place to start

Scott Kelby's 7-steps is a well thought out book that presents the basics in a logical and thorough manner.

If you want to dive into the deep end and want to know 'why' then Eismann and Margulis are excellent choices to start with. If you want a good foundation of the 'how 'basics then McClelland's top 40 is a good choice.

[mistermonday]

Chris, I think Nasturtium's comments and suggestions are bang on. In addition to those mentioned, you should take a look at Gry Garness' e-books on retouching as well as her new DVD which will be released in 5 days, the link is: http://www.grygarness.com/dvds/intro-offer.htm
And when your ready for advanced high end beauty retouching, take a look at Godmother's dvd set: http://digitalphotoshopretouching.co...utorials-dvd-2
Regards, Murray

[chris jones]

Thanks to all so far. I'm looking into all these suggestions.

[chris jones]

Originally Posted by Nasturtium

Margulis's books are very interesting but he is most definitely 'LAB'-centric

Do you consider this a negative? Just curious.

[mistermonday]

Chris, LAB is a very useful and powerful color space and it has many uses. HOWEVER, it is not the primary one you would use for retouching. Small moves in curves in LAB result in major changes in color. Certain commands and adj layers do not exist in LAB (like Selective Color). Most plugins and 3rd party filters will not work in LAB. LAB channels look and work very differently than RGB or CMYK so you should feel really comfortable before tackling LAB. I do not recommend LAB as a place to start for novice Photoshoppers.
Regards, Murray

[chris jones]

Murray, this makes sense and thanks for the clarification.

Also, I think my "learn the basics" original post may have implied that I'm new to Photoshop which is not the case, I'm just fairly inexperienced with retouching. I've been a web designer for close to 15 years so I've been using Photoshop since v3. I'm burned out on designing sites and am interested in moving more towards retouching and compositing, it's a more natural fit for me personally.

So though I have a decent amount of knowledge with the program, there are big holes in there, especially when dealing with photos and/or print. LAB is a great example since for the web I'm almost always in RGB. I've used it in the past for sharpening (USM to the lightness channel) but other than a few things like that, rarely touched on it.

By basics, I just figured it would be best to walk before I tried to run and take it in steps. I want to learn how to correct color, exposure etc. before I start smoothing skin and applying makeup.

[Nasturtium]

"you posted while I was typing" - will revise

Originally Posted by chris jones

Do you consider this a negative? Just curious.

I think that he's not objective and many of his arguments are rendered obsolete with the advent of ACR.

Originally Posted by mistermonday

LAB channels look and work very differently than RGB or CMYK so you should feel really comfortable before tackling LAB. I do not recommend LAB as a place to start for novice Photoshoppers.
Regards, Murray

what he said.

Margulis spends a lot of time arguing about why LAB is "best". Personally I feel like there is no best in Photoshop...more like 6 ways to do everything, especially now that there is ACR (Adobe camera RAW ~ and don't think since your files are JPEGS that you shouldn't even bother with ACR)

[Nasturtium]

Originally Posted by chris jones

I'm burned out on designing sites and am interested in moving more towards retouching and compositing, it's a more natural fit for me personally.

Steve Caplin's book 'How to Cheat at Photoshop' covers the basics in enough detail for your purposes and then has great chapters on selections and compositing. For printing, I learned the most from the webinar here.

[spotter]

top 100 simplified tips and tricks is good.
I got mine for christmas it is by lynette kent.
The version I have is for CS4 but it is just as relevant for 5.
If you dont have camera raw with your version there is almost a chapter that would be pointless however.
Very easy visual based instructions and excellent for getting into the basics and seeing results quickly.

[mistermonday]

Chris, thanks for the clarification. I think you might find some of the trining videos on Lynda.com very useful, particularly the ones by Deke McClelland and Chris Orwig. You can watch many of the clips for free before you need to sign up. Great value for the money.
Regards, Murray

[chris jones]

Originally Posted by Nasturtium

Deke McClelland's Photoshop Top 40 on Youtube and iTunes would be an excellent place to start with basic info.

I've started on these. Plenty there I know already but plenty more I don't. I particularly liked the one on ACR. I only started dealing with RAW files within the last year or so and have been blown away at how powerful of a tool ACR is.

[kkamin]

Chris Orwig at Lynda.com's Retouching Essentials:

Link

and I agree that Deke's Photoshop videos are good to watch before Chris' or in tandem. They have slightly different approaches and it is good to compare and contrast them in your head (I sound like a 7th grade teacher). Also Lee Varis who wrote the well known retouching book, "Skin" has a retouching series at Lynda that are worth a look--his method of retouching skin on the videos is a little higher end than Orwig's.

The retouching videos put out by this site feature some of the industry's leaders. I recommend them after you get your feet wet.

Good luck!