Brisbane Camera Group

Thank you to BCG members Paul Stevens and Marylou Badeaux for these book reviews and don't forget that BCG members receive a 10% discount from Folio Books - satisfying Brisbane book lovers for over 25 years (http://www.foliobooks.com.au/).

Photoshop Restoration and Retouching

3rd Edition

Katrin Eismann

Berkeley, California: New Riders, 2006

460 pages, RRP $74.95

Reviewed by Paul Stevens

Katrin Eismann is an internationally respected teacher on photographic imaging, restoration and retouching. She has created many online Photoshop tutorials and is one of the people Adobe employs to create their in house coaching videos.

This is one of the “new wave” instructional books that use hands-on training with online support. The tutorials in each chapter are based on photos that you can download from the book’s website (www.digitalretouch.org). That way, you can actually practice what you see in the book. I found this to be an invaluable training aid. I believe there is a reader gallery attached to the website, where you can post your restored “works of art” for others to admire.

This “How To” book is primarily aimed at Photoshop users with a basic-to-intermediate skill level. As the title suggests, it is designed to show the reader how to repair and restore old or damaged photos, but it does so much more than that. Any amateur and most professional digital photographers would find this book helpful. It is divided into four Parts:

1. Photoshop For Retouching, which includes the basics usage of Photoshop; things like keyboard shortcuts, workflow, file organisation and the work environment. This is a “must read” for beginners and veteran users alike.

2. Correcting Tone, Exposure and Colour, containing a very in-depth explanation of these subjects using “follow along” example images. I have used the techniques described in Exposure Correction many times. (The book is worth the cost for this section alone.)

3. Essential Restoration, Repair and Rebuilding Techniques, covering such subjects as dust, mould and texture removal. Also there is outstanding coverage of image damage repair, rebuilding and recreating images, and refining the final product. Even if you aren’t interested in repairing old photos, there are many valuable lessons in this section.

4. Putting the Best Face Forward, covering portrait and glamour retouching. This is an excellent and well-illustrated section for anyone interested in portraiture, and the main reason I bought the book. There’s a wealth of tips and tricks presented with the work-along, example images.

The 10 chapters are colour-coded so the reader can easily navigate through the different topics. Information contained in the book seems to be accurate and reasonably up-to-date. There is no edition for Photoshop CS3 as far as I am aware. The writing style is easy to understand and the instructions are quite logical. The Photoshop interface can be quite confusing to many people, but the author has used clear screenshots to show the reader what they should be seeing on their own computer monitor at home, for each stage of the lesson. I found the first thirty pages (on basic usage of Photoshop) so informative; I had to read it all again to help it all sink in. I am sure many readers would find some sections of this book heavy going, and a few of the tutorials are of little use to amateur photographers like me. Having said that, even some of these seemingly useless lessons are a lot of fun to do regardless. The “Saturday Night Live Effect” in chapter 9 is an example of this; well worth having a go at.

I tend to judge the quality of a photography book by the number of times I refer back to it. My copy of ‘Photoshop Restoration & Retouching’ has been referred to so much, it has become quite ragged. My only wish is that it was available in a more durable, hardback form. I highly recommend this book to our club members. It is available from our supporters, Folio Books, who have indicated to me, they would do a reduced price for a group buy from club members.

Scott Kelby's 7 Ppoint System for Adobe Photshop CS3

1st Edition

Scott Kelby

Peachpit Press, 2007

288 pages, RRP US$49.95

Reviewed by Marylou Badeaux

I found this book simple and easy to follow. You have the oppotunity to work through the tutorials using Scott's photographs as you follow his instructions and this is a great way to learn a number of techniques, some of which I will be sure to use over and over.

I think everyone will get something out of this book regardless of your level of expertise - although perhaps it is not for the REALLY good photoshop user.

Check out all of Scott's books at http://www.kelbytraining.com/books