Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques

Scott Kelby has published a lot of books, but I believe “Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop” is one of his best books! This one has it all!

Scott Kelby photo retouching

Scott has published a lot of books, but “Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop” I believe to be one of his best books. While many of his teachings in other books are recycled or picked up from existing pervious techniques, this book does have some new learning opportunities. I’ve enjoyed the book, and gained some valuable lessons I hadn’t thought about before. The book is beautifully produced with stunning images — I urge you NOT to purchase the download version — but go for the full-color printed edition!

Scott explains why he wrote the bookI do have to caution you to look very closely at many of the examples thosever. Many times you can hardly see the changes and it becomes confusing that nothing was accomplished by the exercise. Of course, Kelby starts with fairly good (and in most cases, simnply beautiful) photo examples in the first place. So, one is left to wonder why we’re retouching photos that are near perfect to begin with. But listen up — this book is specifically for professional photographers. So the subtleties of the work does not go in unnoticed. Scott writes:

quoting Most photographers aren’t able to send their images out to a full-time, high-end retoucher, so we wind up doing our own portrait retouching in Photoshop. That’s exactly who I wrote this book to help — photographers who want better, faster, more realistic results from their own portrait retouching. end quote

Scott Kelby photo retouching
Now you can learn the same techniques he uses in his own retouching workflow, in the only book of its kind-one written expressly for photographers who do their own retouching.

As a pro photographer himself, Scott understands that photographers make their living shooting, not retouching. But, delivering fully retouched images is now expected by clients. That’s why Scott put together this amazing resource for teaching photographers the quickest, easiest, and most effective ways to create professional-looking, retouched final images without spending hours grinding away at painstaking, detailed techniques.

quoting … as photographers, we usually don’t get paid for the retouching part of our jobs, so we need to get back to shooting as quickly as possible. That’s why I only focus on teaching you the fastest, easiest techniques to get your retouching done in as little time as possible. end quote

Scott Kelby photo retouching

LEARN HOW THE PROS DO IT

It’s all here – the step-by-step methods for fixing, enhancing, and finishing your portraits in Photoshop. Using the techniques in this book, you’ll create images that will absolutely wow your clients. You’ll learn:

  • How to soften skin and still retain detail and texture
  • The best tricks for beautifully enhancing eyes, eyebrows, and eyelashes
  • How to selectively sharpen portraits without complicated masking
  • How to create gorgeous-looking lips
  • How to remove blemishes fast and keep the most detail
  • The pros’ tricks for body sculpting
  • How to make your subject’s hair look fabulous
  • How to give your retouches that natural look that sets them apart

Plus, you get Scott’s complete 5-minute, 15-minute, and 30-minute start-to-finish workflows

cover
If you’re ready to learn the “tricks of the trade” – the same ones that today’s leading pro photographers use to retouch, tuck, tighten, and tone their images for that pro-retouched look — you’re holding the book that will do exactly that. It will radically change the way you retouch your portraits from here on out, and give you the best-looking, most natural retouches you’ve ever done.

I believe this could be the retouching book that will solve most problems for both professionals and amateurs alike. You do not need to read the book in order. Utilize the index and contents to jump right to the issue you need to solve NOW. If you do a LOT of retouching, I suggest you take it to Kinko’s and have them SHAVE off the spine and DRILL it for 3-ring binder use. That way you can use it flat, or pull out the sections you need at the moment.

As a training aid and desktop mentor/tutor, I don’t think you can go wrong purchasing
Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques by Scott Kelby


Peachpit / New Riders / Kelby Media

Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques / Amazon


thanks for reading

Fred Showker

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Scott KelbyScott Kelby is Editor, Publisher, and co-founder of Photoshop User magazine, host of the top-rated weekly videocast Photoshop User TV, and co-host of D-Town TV (the weekly videocast for DSLR shooters). He is President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), the trade association for Adobe Photoshop users, and he¹s President of the training, education, and publishing firm, Kelby Media Group, Inc.