Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques - A Book Review
I'll be the first to admit, Photoshop and I don't get along as well as I wish we had. And it's not because I'm a purist or anything. If possible, I'd try to get the good stuff SOOC (Strait Out Of Camera), but the truth is, almost all my pictures go through some level of retouching. Near the end of the post you can see how this portrait of Mika looked before applying some retouching. (Click for larger view)
Recently I got a copy of Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques (long name, I know). And While I don't usually review books, let alone Photoshop books, the book helped me make a huge jump in my post-processing, I hope that by sharing my thoughts on it can help others too.
The Good News
You can read the book in small doses. Each chapter has "a thing " that you can do to a portrait. Enhance the eyes, smooth the skin, shape the face (oh yea) and a bunch of other enhancements that you can make.
You can read the book in any order you'd like. if you are focusing on enhancing eyes, go to the eyes chapter, if it's lips go to the lips chapter, and so on.
The intro is great, and it has some great tips right there. (CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E to create a merged layers is my new way of going)
There is an sweet (SWEET!!) check list at the end of the book. Great if you don't have a work-flow yet, and is looking to build one. I photocopied it and posted next to my screen.
Some Things You Need To Know
You need some previous Photoshop experience to be using the book. There's some intro, but really if you don't know what layers are, it would be better to grab a Photoshop beginners book first.
This book will not make you a great retoucher. It will help you get way more out of your portraits though. Scott describes it as retouching for photographers and I could not agree more.
Why Retouch?
Mika looks great without any retouching at all. She is what you call the inner glow type. Just as a reference I am including her non retouched portrait. Any faults are 100% my own.
Conclusion
Take pictures with great lighting and great makeup so you can go easy on the book.
Consider starting from the end, the check list.
For the weird price of $29.31 you can get your copy here . Definitely worth it.
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Comments
Book
Just bought it this morning, in fact... .before I read your post this evening! :) I am glad you posted your review... your thoughts mirror my expectations.
Looking forward to fine-tuning some of my workflow and techniques when the book arrives.
Great original image of Mika... and (as if it was possible...) she looks even lovlier post-processing. :)
re: book
hi Carolyn,
Glad that we are inline. thanks for the kinds words and hope you'll find the book as useful as i did.
That price is weird alright.
That price is weird alright. Weirder than $17.95!
re: 17.95
$17.95 is a perfect price, probably the best price in the world :)
The reason you don't find it in wal-marts and targets, is that it is just too perfect. If you put enough of those price tags close enough, it may distort the time-space flux and open a tunnel to heaven, which may end up in tearing up the world
Portrait Professional
If one is using CS3 for retouching portraits, what's the advantage of buying Portrait Professional? Would it be wiser to upgrade to CS5?
I personally don't like the
I personally don't like the Portrait Professional kind of work. To me it seems unnatural and somewhat an abomination to take a model and change her features altogether to get an entirely different, virtual person. It feels wrong. Maybe it makes sense for advertising and editorial work where it does not matter how the actual model looks, but in the real world portraiture it is simply wrong to take a real person and change her or his looks to "look better", the way they show it on Portrait Professional web banners.
I personally limit the retouching to removing skin defects or wrinkles, highlighting the eye light and maybe whitening the teeth, but anything in the world of liquifying and changing face features or eye colour feels like cheating to me. I would always prefer Photoshop to Portrait Professional.
RIght on!
While I am not opposed to doing *some* photoshop work with portraits, I also feel that completely changing a person's appearance is actually a disservice to that person. Or, at least it would be to my clients. They are paying me to present them with a likeness of themselves. My job is to get the shot and process the portrait in such a way that it is flattering... not fake.
For example:
Like many people, I've lived with my own face my entire life. I'm pretty sure I know what my best and worst features are.... and so is anyone who knows me and happens to see a portrait of me. Just like cosmetics, hairstyles and clothing-- I use what I can to flatter and accentuate my best attributes. This does not mean eliminating the flaws, just minimizing/not drawing attention to them. Photoshop is the perfect tool to help me present my clients with a flattering and realistic/believable likeness of themselves. (So - this means I will NOT be using the chapter in the book about accentuating abdominal muscles... I'll focus on fixing gaps in the hairstyle instead.)
Scott Kelby's books ROCK!
Written by Scott Kelby . . his books ROCK!
I just went to his "Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it, LIVE!" seminar this week. Awesome.
You get to watch him set up the shoot with 1 to 3 lights, watch him shoot the model and what setting he uses and how he adjusts to the light and the look he is going for, THEN you get to see him EDIT THE PHOTOS! We had two HUGE screens to watch on either side of the stage as each photo popped up on the screen while he was shooting (he uses the "tethered" mode in Lightroom) and then again as he edits them in photoshop. I think we had four different sessions with four different models and four different "looks" he was going after. He shows you his method of retouching and it was cool to watch him work. I already knew many of the edits but I had quite a few "aha!" moments all day long. We had detailed workbooks with all the steps so we weren't trying to take notes all day. You just sat there and watched as he worked his magic. Best $99.00 I have spent in a LONG time.
It was also great to see him do the same mistakes we do (like forget which brush you need or try and use a black brush on a black layer mask). He uses lots os humor. If you can catch one of these seminars it was a blast to see him work in real time . . . and to meet tons of other people who have the same interests as you!
And if you are thinking of getting Lightroom 3(or you already have it and are frustrated by it) I HIGHLY recommend his book for Lightroom 3 . . . turned me from a Lightroom hater to a Lightroom LOVER in two days.
I am KICKING myself for not getting this new book while at the seminar. They had great deals on "free dvds and free books" for signing up or reuping your membership to NAPP, and I just kept thinking "at the next break I'll get in line" but alas I never did. Bummer.
Main Points
Good. It's one of ways to improve Photoshop for beginners. But I think it's important to show some informations about points of portrait retoucing techniques of this book. ...
Kelby's New Book
Ordered!
Thank you for the review...
Regina
Not all that simple
I've read some of your comments. This software is not as simple as I thought it would be. One gal posted a picture of a lady and said that we could see the original untouched photo at the end of her post, I did not see it at the end and the two shots I saw I noticed no differences. I guess this software is more for pros than professional photographers like me with a camera phone. I tried to alter a couple pix, it was very difficult, I guess the faces have to be large and looking straight at the camera, hence the term Portrait. Oh well, off to the back burner with everything else I'm stupid enough to purchase and not know what to do with. PP shows pix with huge differences, I wouldn't be surprised if BOTH the befores and the afters were equally altered. Photography is what one can do with the click of the shutter, once you begin altering pictures with CS5, PP or any other altering software, you are no longer dealing with "Photography", now you are dealing with creativity (ART).
Freedom of Speech Violations
Amazing, in this crazy world where everybody thinks they have the right to freedom of speech, we continuously run into this kind of shit on the internet ...
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Thanks
Just what i was looking for. I been checking out retouching tecniques on youtube but they done explain it to well hopefully this book will be just the thing i was looking for. Not sure if amazon would post to uk thow.
Thanks for the review
Gav
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