A few days ago I bought a copy of "Digital Restoration From Start to Finish" by Ctein. It's published by Focal Press
I expect this will become one of the books added to my "permanent" bookshelf next to the computer desk. Very few books make it to that spot, so this is high praise. My previous best references for this type of work were a pair of books by Katrin Eismann, "Restoration and Retouching" and "Masking and Compositing". I still highly value Eismann's books, but am finding Ctein much easier to read and in some areas much more complete. Where Eismann spends a few pages on scanning, Ctein devotes a full chapter to getting as much as possible out of the original before you ever get to photoshop. The editors at Focal press have made this book much easier to use by listing all of the How-to's in the front of the book. Throughout the book, the how-to's are called out with red labels in the margins. This is supplemented by a red rule in the margin denoting where the how-to begins and ends. Illustrations are excellent. I've been jumping around, reading particularly interesting sections of the book. The description of the curves function is about the best I've read anywhere. My guess is this would be a great book to start learning about retouching. For those that would like to go into more detail, Eismann's books would make a great follow up. For most, it may be the only reference they may need. See you later, GS <http://georgesphotos.net> -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
