Photoshop Restoration & Retouching,version 3 by Katrin Eismann

I must confess to a long-standing love affair with Photoshop Diva Katrin Eismann. Oh, she doesn't even know who I am, and my own wife is very tolerant about it…but there it is.

It started the first time I attended one of her seminars at a PMA convention. The presentation answered so many of my own questions about using Photoshop that I wanted to go home with the excellent handout material, study and work for a week, and go back to take the session all over again. Unlike some teachers, Eismann makes the complexities of Photoshop understandable - and fun! Her enthusiasm for the subject is infectious. 

Adobe Photoshop is an extraordinarily powerful image manipulation tool, but the learning curve is long and steep. Eismann brings it all into focus. Most Photoshop books don't address my own major concern, the repair and restoration of customers' treasured ancestor portraits. Photoshop Restoration & Retouching is entirely about that. No fancy special effects or creative expression techniques, just step-by-step recipes for making pictures better quickly. 

In just the first 10 minutes of reading her book I found one tip that will probably save me three minutes on every photo I scan and manipulate for the rest of my life. At minimum wage, that one alone probably adds up to thousands of dollars. 

Eismann's writing style is comfortable and colloquial. She'll guide you, step-by-step, through the restoration or improvement of specific projects that are exactly the sort of projects your customers have been bringing you. There's a supplemental website www.digitalretouch.org from which you can download approximately 60% of the images used in the book. That way you cam work along and learn by doing. 

The book's not absolutely perfect as your only guide to using Photoshop. Eismann assumes you already know all the fundamentals, and I'd like to see more about using selection tools. Even so it's a tremendously valuable production tool for anyone specializing in improving photos.

In the updates to Version 3, Eisman has reviewed and updated every page and technique for Adobe Photoshop CS2, by replacing 85% of the images and adding numerous intermediate to advanced techniques.

Highlights of this edition include:

• Working with the newest CS2 filters - Smart Sharpen, Vanishing Point, and Lens Correction to improve both antique and contemporary images.
• Using camera raw files and Smart Objects to refine exposure and color.
• Chapter10, "Glamour Retouching" features the latest techniques (and secrets) of the top fashion and beauty retouchers working today.