Photo Retouching & Restoration for Dummies

Whether you want to fix a 100-year-old family photo or a business shot you took yesterday, Photo Retouching & Restoration For Dummies shows you how. You’ll discover how to:

• Scan and prep photos for editing
• Work with photo-editing software
• Fix the five most common photo flaws
• Get creative with collages and backgrounds
• Print photos or share them on the Internet

Here are just some of the things you can do by following the simple, easy-to-understand instructions provided by the book:

• Bring new life to old, faded photographs
• Adjust colors throughout the picture or in a certain object
• Improve exposure and contrast
• Sharpen focus
• Cover up flaws such as negative scratches, scanner dust, and dirt
• Remove unwanted elements from the scene
• Get rid of red-eye, soften wrinkles, and do other facial retouching
• Replace a busy background with one that compliments the subject

The techniques in the book use screen shots from Photoshop Elements as illustrations, but you can get the same results using Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoImpact, or most other intermediate or professional-level photo-editing software. To help you get started, the book comes with a CD-ROM featuring tryout versions of all the programs mentioned above, as well as other useful photography software. And to help you get the hang of color correction and other photo restoration techniques, the book includes 16 pages of full-color before-and-after examples. In short, you get just what you need to jump right in and start turning your flawed photos into frame-worthy masterworks!

I'm anxiously looking forward to doing some more pictures when time allows. As a matter of fact, others have asked me to do some of their personal family photos.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in photo restoring.


Very helpful to me...   September 6, 2002
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

When I pointed to this site to recommend this book to a friend, I was stunned to see a review of 1 star. Even though I definitely consider myself a novice as well, especially in regard to digital photography, I had no problem learning from this book and following the examples.

This book was very helpful in doing what it set out to do - teach photo retouching and restoration. I was very confident in recommending it. Kudos!


Not enough help for a novice   September 4, 2002
Elva W. Bonnin (Gastonia, North Carolina USA)
3 out of 14 found this review helpful

I bought this book thinking that it would be a good guide and on first reading it it seem to be just that--however when I started to try out some of the examples on my computer, they didn't work. Steps were omitted and since I am a novice I need every step outlined which is what I expect from a "dummies" book. Very disappointing.