Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio

Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio

by Glenn Honiball
Released August 2005
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596553081

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Book description

For both Mac and Windows PC users, Photoshop CS2 is the market leader and industry standard for commercial bitmap image manipulation. Also known as the "digital dark room," Photoshop is the unparalleled tool of choice among graphics professionals and hobby photographers alike.

Written by 20-year photo retouching veteran Glenn Honiball, Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio is the only book to deliver advice for the photographer and artist working with Photoshop CS 2 in a real world commercial environment. Honiball offers incomparable technical and artistic guidance for professionals, graphic artists, photographers, and just about anyone involved in creating and manipulating digital images.

Production artists face unrealistically tight deadlines and heavy workloads that leave little time for trial and error. Photo retouchers need practical, immediate Photoshop solutions to help them produce quality images with minimal effort and in a short amount of time. All the tools, techniques, and skills you need to achieve consistent, professional results with Photoshop CS2 can be found in Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio.

Anyone with intermediate-to-advanced Photoshop skills--whether you want to explore photo retouching personally or as an imaging professional or student--can use Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio to produce sharp, expert, extraordinary photos that don't look retouched.

Under Honibell's seasoned direction, you'll be able to tackle your greatest photo-retouching challenges with ease, precision and efficiency. He guides you through Photoshop CS2's new and innovative features; explains advanced capabilities; shows you how to adapt and custom-fit the software to meet your needs; offers time-saving tips for accelerating your workflow; and delivers advice and inspiration for exercising your own creative genius.

Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio is the ideal resource for any digital artist who wants to develop and perfect professional-level retouching using Photoshop CS 2. With this book, you will bring photo correction and manipulation to a whole new level.

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Table of contents

  1. Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio
    1. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
    2. A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
    3. Copyright
    4. Preface
      1. My Assumptions About You
      2. Contents of This Book
      3. Conventions Used in This Book
      4. Comments and Questions
      5. Acknowledgments
    5. 1. The Professional Retoucher's Studio
      1. 1.1. The Photo Retoucher's Work Environment
        1. 1.1.1. Setting Up Your Workstation
        2. 1.1.2. A Brief History of Retouching Technology
          1. 1.1.2.1. Retouching in the Paleolithic era
          2. 1.1.2.2. Dawn comes in with the arrival of Photoshop and the mouse
        3. 1.1.3. Hardware and Software Choices
        4. 1.1.4. Output Choices: Monitors and Printers
        5. 1.1.5. Other Necessary Equipment
      2. 1.2. The Workflow of a Typical Retouching Job
        1. 1.2.1. Run a Pre-Flight Check
        2. 1.2.2. Make Sure You Understand Your Instructions
        3. 1.2.3. Don't Be Afraid to Offer Suggestions
        4. 1.2.4. Review the Initial Proof
        5. 1.2.5. Create New Proofs for Each Set of Corrections
        6. 1.2.6. Know the Deadlines
        7. 1.2.7. Present the Final Image to the Client
      3. 1.3. Becoming a Professional Retoucher
        1. 1.3.1. Getting Training Isn't as Easy as It Used to Be
        2. 1.3.2. What Kind of Background Do You Need?
        3. 1.3.3. Gaining Experience and Building a Portfolio
    6. 2. Shadows and Light
      1. 2.1. Imagining the Light That Should Have Been
        1. 2.1.1. Understanding Changes in Outdoor Lighting
        2. 2.1.2. Merging Multiple Light Sources
      2. 2.2. Creating a Simple Shadow
        1. 2.2.1. Isolating the Image
        2. 2.2.2. Add the Isolated Image to a New Layer
        3. 2.2.3. Deciding on Brush Settings
        4. 2.2.4. Creating the Simple Black Shadow
        5. 2.2.5. Creating a Four-Color Shadow
      3. 2.3. Creating Shadows for Complex Objects
      4. 2.4. Retaining an Existing Shadow in a New Background
      5. 2.5. Grounding Objects with Shadows
      6. 2.6. Common Shadow Mistakes
        1. 2.6.1. Incorrect Shadow Angle
        2. 2.6.2. Not Putting the Shadow on a Multiplied Layer
        3. 2.6.3. Incorrect Shadow Shapes
      7. 2.7. Keeping a Shadow Library
    7. 3. Corrections: Improvements on Reality
      1. 3.1. Correction Basics
        1. 3.1.1. Using Layers to Make Corrections
        2. 3.1.2. Correction Changes
        3. 3.1.3. Making Corrections with the History Brush
      2. 3.2. Adding Texture to an Image
        1. 3.2.1. Changing Texture Using Individual Color Channels
        2. 3.2.2. Using the Channel Mixer Tool to Create Shape
        3. 3.2.3. Using a Grayscale Image to Create Shape
        4. 3.2.4. Using Plug-in Filters
      3. 3.3. Using the Clone Tool
        1. 3.3.1. Cloning Human Faces
        2. 3.3.2. Cloning Cloth or Similar Textures
      4. 3.4. Neutralizing Images
        1. 3.4.1. Neutralizing RGB Images
        2. 3.4.2. Neutralizing CMYK Images
      5. 3.5. Brightening Images
      6. 3.6. Changing Image Colors
        1. 3.6.1. Changing Color Drastically
        2. 3.6.2. Changing a black object to white
        3. 3.6.3. Changing a white object to black
    8. 4. Something from Nothing
      1. 4.1. Creating Smoke or Steam
        1. 4.1.1. Giving Your Coffee a Warm-up
        2. 4.1.2. Directional Steam
      2. 4.2. Creating a Smile
      3. 4.3. Creating Motion from Stillness
        1. 4.3.1. Adding Motion to a Car with Motion Blur
        2. 4.3.2. Off to the Horizon with Radial and Zoom Blur
        3. 4.3.3. Swinging a Hammer
      4. 4.4. Extending Backgrounds
        1. 4.4.1. Extending the Sky: a Simple Background Extension
        2. 4.4.2. Slightly More Complicated: Extending a Row of Bricks
        3. 4.4.3. Using Vanishing Point to Extend Background
      5. 4.5. Shining Things Up
        1. 4.5.1. Creating a Flat Finish
        2. 4.5.2. Creating a Very Shiny Finish
        3. 4.5.3. Reducing Windshield Shine
        4. 4.5.4. Learning a 3D
    9. 5. Special Color Requests
      1. 5.1. Creating Touch Plates
      2. 5.2. Merging Spot Colors into CMYK
      3. 5.3. Converting CMYK to Special Colors
      4. 5.4. Changing a Four-Color Image to Three Colors
      5. 5.5. Adding Trap
      6. 5.6. Changing the Overall Color
        1. 5.6.1. Creating Duotones
        2. 5.6.2. Creating Fake Duotones
    10. 6. Merging Images
      1. 6.1. Preparing the Pieces: Options for Selecting the Components
        1. 6.1.1. Selecting Circular Shapes with the Pen Tool
        2. 6.1.2. Using the Lasso Tool
        3. 6.1.3. Using the Mask Mode to Isolate an Image
        4. 6.1.4. Selecting with the Magic Wand
        5. 6.1.5. Bring Out the Whole Toolbox: Isolating Hair
          1. 6.1.5.1. Start with the Color Range tool
          2. 6.1.5.2. Use Quick Mask mode and a curves adjustment to maximize selection by color
          3. 6.1.5.3. Paint in areas that need to be added to the selection
          4. 6.1.5.4. Feather off the ends with the Smudge tool
          5. 6.1.5.5. Remove hard edges with Gaussian blur
          6. 6.1.5.6. Prepare for a change of scenery
      2. 6.2. Preparing the Canvas: Your Position File
        1. 6.2.1. Adjusting the Canvas
      3. 6.3. Putting the Pieces Together
        1. 6.3.1. Making a Simple Composition
        2. 6.3.2. Changing Outlooks: Putting in a New View
    11. 7. Low Resolution on a Grand Scale: Making Low Res Look High
      1. 7.1. Understanding the Spec Sheet
      2. 7.2. Assessing the Situation
        1. 7.2.1. Options for Enlarging on a Grand Scale
        2. 7.2.2. Reality Check: Spot Test
      3. 7.3. Improving the Existing File to Survive Magnification
        1. 7.3.1. Using the Client's Image as a Position File
        2. 7.3.2. Improving the Image Through Retouching
        3. 7.3.3. Preliminary Adjustments
      4. 7.4. Dealing with Specific Image Problems
        1. 7.4.1. Sharpening Image Details
        2. 7.4.2. Fixing Staircasing or the "Jaggies"
        3. 7.4.3. Fixing a Grainy Image
        4. 7.4.4. Color Areas of the Image Look Blotchy
    12. 8. Preparing Images for Newsprint
      1. 8.1. Start by Understanding the Process
        1. 8.1.1. Setting Up Your Image to Meet the Client's Specs
        2. 8.1.2. Using Photoshop Tools to Simulate a Newspaper Press
      2. 8.2. Preparing a CMYK Image for Use in Newsprint
        1. 8.2.1. Adjusting the Total Ink Values
        2. 8.2.2. Watch Out for Some of the Original Colors
        3. 8.2.3. Adjusting the Color for the Color of the Paper
        4. 8.2.4. Adjusting the Highlight and Shadow Areas
        5. 8.2.5. Adjusting the Midstones
        6. 8.2.6. Increase Sharpness
        7. 8.2.7. Further Enhance the Main Object
        8. 8.2.8. Putting It All Together
      3. 8.3. Preparing a Color Image for a Black and White Newspaper
    13. 9. Preparing Images for Use on Packaging Materials
      1. 9.1. The Image You Have Versus the Image You Need
      2. 9.2. The Spec Sheet
        1. 9.2.1. Understanding the Dot Gain Curve
      3. 9.3. Preparing a CMYK File
        1. 9.3.1. Taking a Reading of the Minimum Dot of an Image
        2. 9.3.2. Make a Cleaner Image by Using Fewer Colors
      4. 9.4. Another Option: Creating a Special Color
      5. 9.5. Trapping on Special Packaging
    14. Index
    15. About the Author
    16. Colophon
    17. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly

Product information

  • Title: Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio
  • Author(s): Glenn Honiball
  • Release date: August 2005
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596553081