Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers Using Photoshop (Voices That Matter) [Paperback]

Over the years I have amassed quite a collection of instructional books on Photoshop. Over the past couple of years I've come to rely primarily on two excellent authors and Scott Kelby is one of those. Even so when I saw he was writing a book on professional portrait retouching I was a little unsure how he would strike the right balance between showing real professional techniques while maintaining the easy to follow format that has become a trademark of his recipe-style books. Well, I am delighted to tell that you Scott has taken my misplaced concern and kicked it out the park. This book is an absolute delight to read and follow.

The book is broken out into chapters of related content, eyes, skin, face shaping, hair, lips, and slimming & trimming and culminates like some of his other books with a workflow section in which he demonstrates a 5, 15, and 30 minute retouch workflow. You can download the files used in the chapters from his web site and one really nice touch is that not only does he provide you with good sized image files, but also makes available an additional image per lesson that you can use to reinforce what you have learned. In essence you get two chances to practice and can compare with Scott's results for validation. I think this is an excellent idea and I hope other authors take note and start doing the same in their future books of this nature.

Working through the chapters I found each instruction easy to follow and I would expect that even those new to Photoshop would not have a problem doing so despite the book claiming to be aimed at the Intermediate user. I have to say that this really is testimony to Scott's clear and concise style of instruction combined with good supporting screenshots as he goes along.

I have very few complaints about this book, but if i had to dig for something then I would have liked a few more male models. There are some but it is very heavily geared toward female models. In Scott's defence this is primarily what most photographers are shooting anyway. I think also some portrait styles would have been interesting but again this is not a book about creating a 'glamour' look or a 'grunge' style but in fact educating the photographer to the subtleties of good, natural-looking retouching.

A couple other value-adds that come with the book are the eyebrow brush set and retouching checklist extension, both downloads from the book's web page. All in all I would say this book is a perfect addition to any portrait photographer's library. A well earned 5 stars from me.

If you ever find yourself sat infront of your computer screen staring at some portrait shots you've taken, Photoshop open and saying "Now what?" or quite simply you want to make your portrait shots look their very best, then I can't say it any simpler than You Need This Book!

`Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop' is the latest book by Photographer and Photoshop Guru Scott Kelby and in my own opinion this time he's out done himself and produced what I predict will become the Retouching Bible! Seriously...the book is that good!

With what appears to be an infinite supply of Photoshop books out there lining shelves in book stores it can be incredibly difficult knowing which ones/s to get especially when each and every one promises to `share the secrets of the pros'. The risk of possibly wasting your hard earned cash on a book that you'll glance through disappointingly and then never pick up again is real, and one that I'm sure most of us have done on more than one occasion.

However, this latest book changes things. We now have a book that not only gives us techniques that are easy to follow and apply but a book that eliminates the feeling of `What do I do now?'

This new book is full to the brim of techniques that work and work extremely well and what's more they're written and explained in a way that makes them easy to understand and then apply to your own work.

If you're familiar with Scott's Digital Photography Book series [Link] and the one page, one tip style then this is kind of written in the same way. Now obviously I don't mean that each technique takes just one page to explain but what I do mean is that the techniques don't drag on and confuse the heck out of you; Scott gets to the point and in a way that feels like he's there with you..."Do this, now do that...there you go!" Simple!

Some folks have `complained' in the past about Scott's humour in his writing but I think even `they' are going to be impressed this time. I don't know if it's an intentional decision on Scott's behalf but this latest book does seem to be written in a way that's slightly different to what we've become accustomed to, but that's definitely a good thing. Personally I like Scott's writing style...I'm a very visual person so for me to read, I need to be entertained as well as informed but this latest book will definitely appeal to all.

So what does the book cover?
The book is made up of 7 Chapters each covering a different area of retouching and on most occasions showing more than one technique to achieve the same/similar result so you can choose which fits in best with your way of working...

Chapter 1: Retouching Eyes

Increasing Contrast in the Iris
Darkening the Outer Rim of the Iris
Adding More Life to the Eyes
Enhancing and/or Creating Catch Lights
Brightening the Whites of the Eyes
Removing Eye Veins
Changing Eye Colour
Reducing Dark Circles Under Eyes
Making Eyes Larger (or Smaller)
Swapping One Eye for the Other
Enhancing Eyelashes
Creating Beautiful Eyebrows
Making Fuller Eyebrows
Darkening the Eyebrows
Sharpening Eyes to Make Them Sparkle

Chapter 2: Retouching Skin

Removing Blemishes
How to Avoid Plastic-Looking Skin
Basic "Quickie" Skin Softening
Softening Skin While Retaining Texture
Softening Skin & Adding Texture Back In
High Pass Skin Softening
Softening Skin Using Channels
Reducing or Removing Wrinkles
Removing Hot Spots
Balance Skin Tones
Reducing Stubble
Applying Digital Makeup
Creating Porcelain-Looking Skin
Sharpening Portraits

Chapter 3: Reshaping Facial Features

Reshaping the Face and Head
Making Features More Symmetrical
Sculpting the Face by Dodging & Burning

Chapter 4: Retouching Hair

Adding Highlights to Hair
Removing Stray Hair Strands
Fixing Gaps in Hair
Changing Hair Colour
Darkening a Part Line
Hiding Roots

Chapter 5: Retouching the Lips and Mouth

Making Lips Larger
Creating Glossy Lips
Applying or Tweaking Lipstick
Changing the Shade of Lip Colour
Repairing Teeth
Whitening Teeth and Reducing Yellowing

Chapter 6: Slimming and Trimming

Overall Slimming
Slimming One Person in a Group Shot
Reducing a Double Chin & Thinning the Face
Thinning Arms or Legs
Getting Great Abs
Fixing Clothes (Lumps, Bagging & Folds)

Chapter 7: My 5-, 15-, and 30 Minute Retouches

Retouching Checklist
My Five-Minute Retouch
My 15-Minute Retouch
My 30-Minute Retouch

Now this Chapter is the icing on the cake! Sure it's ok to know all these different techniques but when do you apply them, and in what order and more to the point how do you decide what needs doing anyway?

In Chapter 7 Scott goes through 3 retouches from start to finish...each more involved than the next; a 5 minute, a 15 minute and a 30 minute retouch covering techniques explained throughout the book and what's more there's an included `Check List' that you can use during your own retouching that goes through the kind of questions you should be asking yourself and that will help you to decide what to do.

Summary
As Photographers we should all aim to get the best `out of camera' images we can but it doesn't stop there! The money and time we've all invested, and continue to do so, to improve our skills still doesn't take away the fact that EVERY image requires some form of editing...even if it's adding a little more contrast and some sharpening.

Being proficient in Photoshop is all part of being a photographer just as knowing what to do in the dark room was in the days of film and this book will give you all you need to finish off your portraits and show them off at their very best.

No matter how proficient you may be in Photoshop you will DEFINITELY learn some valuable techniques amongst the books 384 pages, oh and although the book is written in such a way that you can dive into any section you want, be sure NOT to skip the introduction as there's some valuable hints and tips plus details of the book's accompanying website that includes downloads for you to use too.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Having purchased a few of Scotts books I thought this was the one I was waiting for and I wasn't dissapointed, the book is laid out well in typical Kelby style with easy to follow instructions, however if like myself who has been using photoshop for a number of years, I found myself skipping over things like how to create a black mask etc, although fully understand the need for it to be there, the book has some great techniques which I will certainly be using in my workflow, you can also download all of the images Scott used to enable you to practice the techniques.
The other great thing about this book is the fact that you can keep going back to it for reference, I have learnt many techniques over the years and forgotton just as many, you simply cannot remember them all especially if you use them infrequently, this is where this book comes in as a great reference tool.

I would highly reccommend the book to anyone who shoots portraits and processes their own work in photoshop.