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"Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio": Insider's Tips and Techniques for Pro Photo Retouchers

September 9, 2005

Sebastopol, CA--The next best thing to a mentor, Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio (Honiball, O'Reilly, US $44.95) is a collection of real-world, straight-from-the-trenches advice on the practical commercial applications of retouching with Adobe Photoshop.

This one-of-a-kind guide to professional photo retouching and compositing delivers insider techniques and seasoned advice from someone who retouches photographs for a living and has been doing so for more than 20 years. "The examples in this book are the types of things I might be asked to do for a client on any given day," says author Glenn Honiball.

"Professional artists need to create professional-looking retouched images in the most efficient and realistic way," continues Honiball. To make that happen, he gives professionals--or those who just want their images to look professionally crafted--the tools, tricks, and know-how to save time and minimize stress while achieving the perfect balance of imagination, efficiency, and technique.

Commercial Photoshop Retouching begins with an introduction to the day-to-day life, typical project workflow, and studio of a professional retoucher. It continues with in-depth guidance on various types of image manipulation (basic corrections and enhancements, changing colors, extending backgrounds, etc.) and concludes with special advice on preparing images for "unusual" mediums, such as billboards, newspapers, and product packaging.

The practical, immediate Photoshop solutions in this book help readers prepare and perfect images that are unbelievably sharp and polished--but don't look at all retouched. Honiball shows production artists how to successfully:

  • Manipulate light and create realistic-looking shadows
  • Enhance basic reality to make flat, dull images come alive with texture and color
  • Create something from nothing, adding elements or images that only exist in their (or their client's) imagination
  • Use special colors effectively so that their output is what they and their client expect
  • Make seamless composites, adding a realistic quality to even the most fantastic images
  • Solve resolution issues for images to be used on a grander scale than originally intended
  • Honiball inspires readers with his creative sensibility and offers up all his favorite tools, skills, and carefully honed techniques for consistently outstanding, commercial-quality retouching. Notes, sidebars, and full-color images throughout the book illustrate Honiball's lessons and support his incomparable technical and artistic guidance. The book even offers advice on finding work, building a portfolio, and running a successful retouching business--from initial concept meetings to working smoothly with suppliers to getting the final image approved by a highly satisfied client.

    Additional Resources:

    Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio
    Glenn Honiball
    ISBN: 0-596-00849X, 272 pages, $44.95 US, $62.95 CAN
    order@oreilly.com
    1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000

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