Your Most Difficult Retouch

[larryf]

To all folks,

I am a professional photographer who discovered this wonderful forum recently. I do all the retouch work myself for more than 2 years. It will be great if everybody can share their most difficult retouch experiences.

For me, the human eyes has also been the most difficult. My studio does mainly 16x20 or larger prints. At this size, any wrong move means disaster. I don't know about you folks, but I have not yet find any good reference books both in-store and online on how to retouch or enhance the eyes. If you happened to have some good information, I am all ears.

Thanks for sharing!

[Leah]

I know this gets recommended for everything, but the later sections in Katrin Eismann's book, in particular the second edition, have some good tips on this - and many of the contributors of techniques in that area do a lot of advertising work that is reproduced SERIOUSLY big.

[larryf]

Your Most Difficult Retouch

Leah,

Thanks for sharing. I do own the first edition of Katrin Eismann's book. I believe the sections on enhancing eyes are from pages 216 to 229. I use a lot of these techniques already, however, she did not emphasize much on how to enhance the catchlights. I wish there is a book that dedicate a sizeable section on the eyes.

Again, if anybody have any information, I am all ears.

[Ed_L]

Hi Larry,

Welcome aboard. Here's a tutorial that *might* be in step with what you're looking for. Enjoy!

Ed

[larryf]

Ed,

Thank you so much for the link. As I had mentioned earlier, I am new to this forum. This information is valuablefor those of us who are looking for the correct answers.

Thanks again.

[jenniferfrances]

Re: Your Most Difficult Retouch

I am still trying to perfect the art of retouching hair.

getting all those little strands in line are such a pain in the butt!

[Hello_taipan]

Re: Your Most Difficult Retouch

i'm reading "professional photoshop" 5th edition and "photoshop LAB Color" by dan margulis. These two along with katrin eismann book are just pure gold.
I read all scott kelby's as well but those fall far far behind.

[Mucker]

Re: Your Most Difficult Retouch

i'm reading "professional photoshop" 5th edition and "photoshop LAB Color" by dan margulis. These two along with katrin eismann book are just pure gold.
I read all scott kelby's as well but those fall far far behind.

I've been debating which one of the 2 Margulis books you mentioned to pick up. I've got a handle on most of the basics of pshop, but I'm sure there would be a ton I could learn from professional pshop. On the other hand, I don't know jack about using L*AB, so I thought this might be better. None of the local book shops have had either for me to glance at. Care to give any comments about the 2 books? Should I go with one before the other? (Who am I kidding, I'll likely end up with both at one point.)

[Chilihook]

Re: Your Most Difficult Retouch

I needed to retouch a photo of country music star for an audiobook cover a couple of years ago, but the hardcover publisher wouldn't supply me with the finished image for a reasonable price, so I had to go with the original, unretouched photo. It really is amazing how much "digital exercise" some stars get for a book cover... anyway. I got everything just so, matched the original right down to the hair extensions. Blemishes, gone. Hair color, spot-on. Nips, tucks, and lifts, all nipped, tucked, and lifted. I was quite pleased with how it came out.

The hardest part of that job was the subtle manipulation that was done on the hardcover's photo of the shape of her face to make her look thinner. No detail was lost, skin was right, no pore-distortion, nothing looked "squinched", all the angles were soft and natural looking. That's what took me the longest to duplicate.

[pixelzombie]

Re: Your Most Difficult Retouch

I've been debating which one of the 2 Margulis books you mentioned to pick up. I've got a handle on most of the basics of pshop, but I'm sure there would be a ton I could learn from professional pshop. On the other hand, I don't know jack about using L*AB, so I thought this might be better. None of the local book shops have had either for me to glance at. Care to give any comments about the 2 books? Should I go with one before the other? (Who am I kidding, I'll likely end up with both at one point.)

start with professional photoshop" 5th edition before the LAB book...

[Hello_taipan]

Re: Your Most Difficult Retouch

I agree with pixel zombie, professional photoshop is more practical, with exemples that applies to the job. the LAB book can get theorical. i did the opposite by starting with LAB,
and i lack that step to understand it fully.

[Tim Whitney]

Re: Your Most Difficult Retouch

I'd have to agree with pixelzombie, too. I bought both books at the same time and decided to read Professional Photoshop first, as it appeared to handle a wider range of issues. It took me a couple months to get through it the first time but it was probably the most informative book I've ever read on any subject. Be warned though, it's a very information dense book and requires a lot of stopping and trying it out on your own images.

The most valuable thing I got is the concept of "Every image has 10 channels." I am half way through reading it again and am finding it much easier going this time because I've started looking at every image I work on more critically and thinking about them in terms of channel structure. It also really helped me to look at color and contrast as separate issues in my images and really opened up a lot of possibilities along those lines.

I don't think I would've gotten nearly as much out of his LAB book without having first read Professional Photoshop – it really lays a solid foundation of color theory and application which helped me not just with the LAB book but also getting the most out of all the information that's available on this site and others.