Real Retouching
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Product Description
From the perfect glossy pages of a magazine to the larger-than-life images floating on a billboard in the sky, image retouching has become a key component of today's digital photography world. So popular, in fact, that the sheer act of retouching has become its own verb as we often ask ourselves, "I wonder if this image was Photoshopped?" Sometimes controversial but widely accepted, and even expected, excellent retouching skills are crucial to finding success in the field of digital imaging. As you work through the clear step-by-step instructions in the book using the images provided on the bonus CD, you'll learn how to do real retouching jobs from start to finish, including each and every technical step along the way. You'll also get behind the scenes advice for talking to clients and establishing a workflow to ensure that your client gets the results they are looking for. If you're a student or aspiring professional just starting out in the world of retouching, the information found in this book can help you find work in the advertising/retouching industry. If you're already a working photographer, you'll be able to add retouching to your repertoire as an additional offering to your clients. Carrie Beene is a professional retoucher and educator who has worked with some of the world's most prestigious companies, including Revlon, MAC, and L'Oreal, and has contributed imagery to such renowned publications as the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair. In this excellent new book, she'll share the techniques she has learned and developed over the years to help you navigate the often mysterious world of image retouching.
*Offers insider advice through never before published retouching secrets to give you a leg up on the competition
*Includes practical and thorough coverage of exactly how to fix real life problems that you can apply to any retouching job, so that you can present yourself and your work like a professional
*The only book of its kind that focuses solely on retouching for the aspiring retoucher or working professional
About the Author
Carrie graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1982 with a BFA in Painting. She moved to NY and began painting and showing her work there and in Europe and the Caribbean throughout the 80's and 90's before going digital, taking off a year to intensively study Photoshop and high-end retouching. Carrie began retouching professionally in 2000 and moved quickly into high-end ad retouching. In 2005 she formed her own retouching house, Otto Imaging, LLC and now retouches for fashion and beauty advertising through Otto and CarrieNYC (www.carrienyc.com). Carrie has retouched for MAC, Revlon, Maybelline, Elizabeth Arden, L'Oreal, Chantecaille, DEVA, Shape Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, Glamour, Vogue, W, OK Magazine, Paper, V magazine, Vanity Fair, ID, Allure, Arena and more. Carrie teaches in the MPS Digital Photography Department at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Her classes include Beauty Retouching and the Business of Professional Retouching. Her speaking and training engagements include PhotoPlus, RetouchPRO and PhotoshopPro webcasts, and frequent visiting artist lectures at the School of Visual Arts.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was an ideal book to refer to when I was asked to enhance some Wedding photo. The conditions for photography were not good but was able to improve the background and the people extremely effectively and the final results were very satisfactory
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
27 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Serious business
25 Feb 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Got it today and just started checking it out.
The entire book covers one high end, professional project from start to finish, as opposed to separate, unrelated techniques. If you want to learn what's involved in creating the layouts you see in magazines like Glamour, this is the book for you. It's not for beginners! Besides photoshop techniques the book also gives good information about working as a retoucher. Things like knowing what should be done to an image, how to deliver a finished image and more.
I'll edit this with more info after I spend some time with the book. For now I can say that if you are looking for instruction on how to produce real life, high level, professional quality work, this is a good book for you.
The entire book covers one high end, professional project from start to finish, as opposed to separate, unrelated techniques. If you want to learn what's involved in creating the layouts you see in magazines like Glamour, this is the book for you. It's not for beginners! Besides photoshop techniques the book also gives good information about working as a retoucher. Things like knowing what should be done to an image, how to deliver a finished image and more.
I'll edit this with more info after I spend some time with the book. For now I can say that if you are looking for instruction on how to produce real life, high level, professional quality work, this is a good book for you.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Meticulous and Fun!
29 Mar 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The least you need to know: this is an exemplary book, but geared for advanced Photoshop users. However, should you invest the time to get to a suitable level, and you would like to apprentice by proxy to a real-life master retoucher, this is your book!
Carrie Beene has been around the block a few times. That's the feeling you get even a few pages into this exemplary book. And, "by around the block," I mean in the best way possible: by hard-won experience. She starts out with a personal story about how and what she did to get to her present position as one of the industry's master retouching artists. It involved the usual, hours of practice and hours of study.
After this brief interlude which served--at least to me--as establishing her bona fides, she jumps right into the meat of the matter, as every good author should. The other thing I appreciated was her down-to-earth, conversational tone. One feels the sure hand of a more experienced co-worker explain to the rookie what the client wants and how to go about it. There are tips and tricks in addition to explaining her reasoning process, the philosophy of retouching if you will. With this kind of tutelage, anyone can increase their capabilities surely.
On the included DVD are various files that the reader will be using to follow along as Beene explains the very, very in-depth process of delivering a finished work to the client. These files are composed of "The Beauty" and "The Lifestyle" in addition to various products, such as lipstick, mascara, and powder products.
Employing the industry standard photo manipulation software from Adobe, she covers both Photoshop CS4 and CS5 in good detail. You will not find beginner or even intermediate level information on how to use Photoshop here, this is high-Intermediate to Advanced stuff. This is why, I think, the book has been kept to a slim 198 pages.
That is not to say however that there's anything worthwhile sacrificed to space. No, Beene exhaustively covers, as promised, step-by-step how she goes about the painstaking job of wrangling pixels. You will learn to brilliantly modify eye lashes, add or remove color to lips and various body parts. Using the various brushes and other tools at Photoshop's disposal to manipulate finger width, bust size, even shoe fit!
This is all truly amazing work and Been accomplishes it with finesse--no hardcore jargon here (and what she does use is contained in a fun-to-read glossary near the front) and her laudable conversational tone makes it all easy to read. She has ideas about which tools to use and when, also how to set up Photoshop to best effect, and practical tips on everything from layers to file size. And really, all this is explained stage-by-stage, almost click-by-click.
This is a fascinating book and I'm happy I got to read it. Now however, it's another matter entirely if I can jump into retouching work immediately. As she herself wrote after attending some Photoshop events where wonders were performed on stage, doing that at home almost always seems to fall flat. Having this book at hand will shorten that gap tremendously!
Five stars.
Carrie Beene has been around the block a few times. That's the feeling you get even a few pages into this exemplary book. And, "by around the block," I mean in the best way possible: by hard-won experience. She starts out with a personal story about how and what she did to get to her present position as one of the industry's master retouching artists. It involved the usual, hours of practice and hours of study.
After this brief interlude which served--at least to me--as establishing her bona fides, she jumps right into the meat of the matter, as every good author should. The other thing I appreciated was her down-to-earth, conversational tone. One feels the sure hand of a more experienced co-worker explain to the rookie what the client wants and how to go about it. There are tips and tricks in addition to explaining her reasoning process, the philosophy of retouching if you will. With this kind of tutelage, anyone can increase their capabilities surely.
On the included DVD are various files that the reader will be using to follow along as Beene explains the very, very in-depth process of delivering a finished work to the client. These files are composed of "The Beauty" and "The Lifestyle" in addition to various products, such as lipstick, mascara, and powder products.
Employing the industry standard photo manipulation software from Adobe, she covers both Photoshop CS4 and CS5 in good detail. You will not find beginner or even intermediate level information on how to use Photoshop here, this is high-Intermediate to Advanced stuff. This is why, I think, the book has been kept to a slim 198 pages.
That is not to say however that there's anything worthwhile sacrificed to space. No, Beene exhaustively covers, as promised, step-by-step how she goes about the painstaking job of wrangling pixels. You will learn to brilliantly modify eye lashes, add or remove color to lips and various body parts. Using the various brushes and other tools at Photoshop's disposal to manipulate finger width, bust size, even shoe fit!
This is all truly amazing work and Been accomplishes it with finesse--no hardcore jargon here (and what she does use is contained in a fun-to-read glossary near the front) and her laudable conversational tone makes it all easy to read. She has ideas about which tools to use and when, also how to set up Photoshop to best effect, and practical tips on everything from layers to file size. And really, all this is explained stage-by-stage, almost click-by-click.
This is a fascinating book and I'm happy I got to read it. Now however, it's another matter entirely if I can jump into retouching work immediately. As she herself wrote after attending some Photoshop events where wonders were performed on stage, doing that at home almost always seems to fall flat. Having this book at hand will shorten that gap tremendously!
Five stars.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Step-by-step walkthrough retouching tutorial
21 April 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I didn't know about the author in advance, but her website (available if you search) seems nice, with a decent portfolio. The book isn't nearly as large/thick as some texts in this price range, but I believe it still offers a great value for learning critical high-end retouching skills. Basically, the whole book (190 pages or so) is one big composite retouching project that Beene walks you through, one baby step at a time, covering all of the skills and techniques that might be used in a commercial retouching project (using her files included on the DVD as you follow along). Personally, I liked this approach. Can easily compare your results with hers to see if you're doing it "right", etc. Loads of illustrations and hand-holding throughout, great for those of us to whom retouching is fairly new. I've done plenty, but mostly the 5 minute per image quick once-over in lightroom before calling a portrait done. This isn't a quick method. This technique takes hours, but delivers the best possible results (of course, you can choose to just integrate a few of her methods into your workflow if you don't want to do the whole thing on any given image). Methods are fairly easy to generalize to other photos within similar genres (commercial/fashion/beauty/editorial, etc). Wouldn't apply as much to landscape photography... but great for high-end portraits, etc.
There are other resources available as alternatives. Other books cover the basics of this type of work (but few exist for such detailed work). Videos from Lyndadotcom or KelbyTraining have plenty of overlap, but a very different approach (pay by the month for access to way more videos than you could ever watch). Some people may prefer that. Also available are DVD sets by professional retouchers, like Natalia Taffarel (look it up; it's an industry fave).
Given all of those other rescources though, I still like this book. Learned a lot going through it. Took a long time, and I didn't do it all at once, but although I still have to practice a bit, I know now how retouching is done, and feel more confident tackling bigger projects. An excellent choice if you want to learn the fancy stuff (or would make a great gift for someone that does).
There are other resources available as alternatives. Other books cover the basics of this type of work (but few exist for such detailed work). Videos from Lyndadotcom or KelbyTraining have plenty of overlap, but a very different approach (pay by the month for access to way more videos than you could ever watch). Some people may prefer that. Also available are DVD sets by professional retouchers, like Natalia Taffarel (look it up; it's an industry fave).
Given all of those other rescources though, I still like this book. Learned a lot going through it. Took a long time, and I didn't do it all at once, but although I still have to practice a bit, I know now how retouching is done, and feel more confident tackling bigger projects. An excellent choice if you want to learn the fancy stuff (or would make a great gift for someone that does).
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