The Photoshop Workbook - Professional Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

The Photoshop Workshop: Advanced Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and Techniques is an advanced-level Photoshop book that focuses on the Photoshop techniques that photographer and retoucher Glyn Dewis has become well known for. Combining compositing work and special effects in Photoshop has lead to Glyn's signature look, which students want to know how to replicate.

The book is divided into two parts, and it mirrors Glyn's approach to teaching his popular workshop on the same subject matter. The first part is made up of individual Photoshop techniques and "disciplines," such as selections and lighting effects, mastering the pen tool and using Color Range, and creating light beams and realistic shadows. He also devotes entire chapters to blend mode techniques and special effects.

Of course, it's one thing to know the techniques, but it's a whole other thing to know how and when to apply them, and in what order. Without this vital info, the student has a bag of tricks without knowing how to use them. Recognizing that the real skill in this kind of Photoshop work is knowing how and when to combine these techniques, Glyn teaches that exact skill in the second part of this book, as he brings all those techniques together in project-based, real-world examples. Bringing together the techniques and the workflow equips the student to learn exactly how to create and pull off these great compositing and retouching techniques.

List of contents

PART I: TECHNIQUES

 

Ch 1: Selections/Cut Outs

-       Blend If (Extracting Liquid and Other Tricky Elements)

-       Mastering the Pen Tool

-       Perfect Results with Refine Edge

-       Cut Out with the Overlay Blend Mode

-       Creative Uses of Brushes and Layer Masks

-       Tricks with Layer Styles (Inner Shadow, etc.)

-       Using Color Range

 

Ch 2: The Power of Grey

-       Adding Textures

-       How to Transform a Location

-       Non Destructive Dodging and Burning

-       Lens Flare

-       Faking Detail

-       Creating Dents and Making Abs

 

Ch 3: Lighting Effects

-       Simple Light Source

-       Neverending Lighting Rig

-       Gradient to Mimic Street Lighting, etc.

-       Light Beams / Sun Rays

-       Realistic Shadows (From the Sun; Under Feet/Objects)

 

Ch 4: Blend Mode Techniques

-       Compositing

-       Match Color (in Composites)

-       Adding Colored Highlights (Blend If)

-       Light Glow / Reflection

 

Ch 5: Special Effects

-       Thingies (i.e. Dust in Light Source for Realism)

-       Rain

-       Cartoon / Painterly Look

-       Debris

-       Wet Look

-       Snow

 

PART II: PROJECTS

 

Ch 6: Character Portrait (Editor Style)

 

Ch 7: Composite on Grey (Tough Guy Style)

 

Ch 8: Full Composite (Giraffe)

 

Ch 9: Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe

 

Ch 10: Flowers

 

About the author

Glyn Dewis is a photographer, retoucher, and trainer based just outside of Oxford in the UK. Working both nationally and internationally, his work sees him shooting promotional and commercial material for industry professionals, physique athletes, musicians, bands and actors. An Adobe Community Professional, Glyn teaches workshops and one-on-one coaching specifically covering all aspects of Adobe® Photoshop® from the basics through advanced retouching techniques, and Glyn is an instructor at Scott Kelby’s Photoshop World conference. Glyn can be found online at glyndewis.com, as well as at his YouTube channel, which has over 50,000 subscribers.

Summary

The Photoshop Workbook: Professional Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and Techniques reveals the creative skills that photographer and retoucher Glyn Dewis uses for his global clients. In this guide you will learn not only his step-by-step Photoshop techniques, but how and when to apply them so that you, too, can take your images to a whole new level. Glyn starts by covering the individual Photoshop skills that are the essential building blocks of his process:

    •    Mastering selections and cutouts with the Pen tool and other important tools
    •    Dodging and burning, adding textures, transforming a location, and using the “power of gray” for composites
    •    Applying lighting effects such as spotlights, beams, realistic shadows, reflections, and street lighting to images
    •    Creating special effects, including snow and debris, and turning day into night using a nondestructive workflow

It’s one thing to learn the techniques, but to master them you need to understand when to apply them and in what order. In the second part of the book, Glyn brings everything together with his real-world projects. He covers six complete, start-to-finish projects—including all the images for you to download and follow along—that show you how to apply the techniques to a variety of scenarios, including character portraits, themed composites, and a landscape.

 

Product details

• Authors: Glyn Dewis
• Assisted by: Scott Kelby (Foreword)
• Publisher: Peachpit Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2014
• EAN: 9780134008462
• ISBN: 978-0-13-400846-2
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 206 mm x 234 mm x 13 mm
• Weight: 620 g
• Series: Peachpit Press; Peachpit Press
• Subjects: Guides > Hobby, home > Photography, filmmaking, video filmmaking; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing > Application software; Bildbearbeitung, Photoshop (EDV)