Can anyone recommend a good photoshop book on digital color photo retouching, bringing up underexposed parts of photos while not ruining other parts of the image? I know this has something to do with the history brush, but is there any book or dvd course that goes over this stuff in detail, as well as preparing them and taking them to a lab, for enlargements, etc?
Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.
The Photoshop Fundamental Techniques series of QuickTime videos on CD-ROM by Julieanne Kost published by Software Cinema is also a great starting point. There’s also an Advanced Technique series from the same source.
In your case, this route is what I would be inclined to recommend.
I agree with Phosphor that Katrin Eismann’s book is an excellent resource. Another that you might look at is the "Photoshop CS Bible" by Deke McClelland, which pretty much covers most aspects of Photoshop. A couple of versions back I used the "Classroom in a Book" and found it very helpful – it has probably been updated.
Thanks mucho for that link…VERY informative! I especially enjoyed the excellent tutorial on there for making eyes POP … truly insightful and illuminating (pun intended).
Carl, next time youre in a bookstore, check out Scott Kelbys the photoshop CS book for digital photographers. Hes got some whiz-bang retouching tips all throughout the book. One of the best PS books Ive bought in a while.
Thanks, folks. These are my wedding photos, which my wife wasn’t too happy with, so it’s pretty delicate stuff. I’m currently using Photoshop 7. Is there a HUGE difference between that and CS? Would upgrading to CS make the retouching easier?
Sorry to be sounding like such an amateur, but I am!
One thing, which is in CS but not in 7, that you would probably find helpful is the new Shadow/Highlight filter — particularly if the photographer’s lighting left a lot to be desired. Otherwise, you can probably do what you need to do well enough in 7.0.1
A very good book for a variety of users is "Photoshop Artistry" by Barry Haynes and Wendy Krumpler. It is specifically geared to photographers when most Photoshop books are intended for graphics professionals.
The book presents a series of step-by-step excercises and comes with a CD of the images to use, and the layered files of the correctly performed excercises. It has retouching techniques, detailed info on Levels, Curves and most of the other adjustment layers.
It also gets into using some of the new digital printers for fine art output, color management, etc.
That is the book that I always recommend to people who are just getting into Photoshop — as well as to those that have been using it for quite some time and still don’t have much of a clue of what it is about.
Yep, I third that.. I bought his version for Photoshop 5, and never regretted it for a second. What makes his books even more appealing is that he keeps running updated articles on his books contents via his website. Highly recommended!
Im also partial to Jack Davis & Linnea Daytons series of PS WOW books. Excellent tutorials all throughout the covers, all in living color. A little pricey, maybe… but worth every penny.
I was reading through this post and would like to say you guys are pretty cool! I wrote down some of the book titles you all recommended. Sorry for butting in, but I can use all the help I can get.