Chapter 13. Using Strategies for Success
You may have noticed that some of Photoshop's tools are referred to as 'retouching tools." Thai's because of the way they're used to copy and paste information. But retouching is about more than these tools and techniques. It's also very much about the process. In this chapter, we're going to look closely at that process. However, before we deconstruct the process of retouching and look at its various pans, we should define just what it is we're talking about when we say retouching.
What Is Retouching?
When most people hear the word retouching, they usually think about portrait retouching. It's no wonder. In the days before digital, when photographers were shooting film, the things that could be done in post-production were quite limited. A film workflow had two basic types of retouching: film retouching (mostly negatives) and print retouching. Film retouching was done with dyes applied to the negative, and print retouching was done with pencils, dyes, and sprays applied to the print. Print retouching was often necessary after film retouching because of the limited abilities of the film retouching. Any other limited manipulation took place in the darkroom and was considered custom printing, not retouching.
Note
Naturally, high-end retouching at the time involved film masking ...
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