Rating: 
Summary: 99% Waste of Time
Review: Before reading Photo Retouching with Adobe Photoshop by Gwen Lute, I had read the following books on the subject:
- 5 stars: Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (Katrin Eismann).
Exceptional book; one of the best PS books I've read on any topic. Check the reviews.
- 3.5 stars: Photoshop Retouching Handbook (Carol Braverman). Pretty good.
- 1.5 stars: Retouching Old Photographs - Photoshop Methods and Solutions (Michael Kiteley). Serious problems. See my review under that title.In retrospect I should have quit while I was ahead. Compared with the offerings above, the Lute book is a sham (and a shame). Poorly written, frequently incomplete explanations, very little useful detail, no accompanying CD or web-site for example images, lots of "white border" per page to make it appear "thicker." I wouldn't recommend it for beginning, intermediate nor advanced PS users. I literally sold this book on the second hand market two days after receiving it. I noticed there's an updated version of this book on the horizon (projected availablity: 2nd half of 2002). At this point I would not even remotely entertain the thought of acquiring it unless I read many, many stellar reviews proclaiming a complete rewrite. Most of the other reviews for this book are right on. Don't waste your hard earned $ on this one regardless of your PS skill level. You may be thinking, "So why didn't YOU pay attention to the other reviews before buying this book?" Fair question... I'm a PS knowledge junkie... I LOVE to read about and learn new Photoshop techniques. Though I read the not-so-flattering-reviews before taking the plunge (like you are doing right now), I *hoped* they were too harsh. I *hoped* I'd find a few golden nuggets that would be useful to me. Bottom line: It was about the most useless PS book I've ever read (my personal library consists of over 30 PS books). My advice: If you're interested in this topic, give serious consideration to the first book listed above and some consideration to the second. If you pass on the last one and this offering, you'll be a much happier camper.
Rating:
Summary: 99% Waste of Time
Review: Before reading Photo Retouching with Adobe Photoshop by Gwen Lute, I had read the following books on the subject:
- 5 stars: Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (Katrin Eismann).
Exceptional book; one of the best PS books I've read on any topic. Check the reviews.
- 3.5 stars: Photoshop Retouching Handbook (Carol Braverman). Pretty good.
- 1.5 stars: Retouching Old Photographs - Photoshop Methods and Solutions (Michael Kiteley). Serious problems. See my review under that title. In retrospect I should have quit while I was ahead. Compared with the offerings above, the Lute book is a sham (and a shame). Poorly written, frequently incomplete explanations, very little useful detail, no accompanying CD or web-site for example images, lots of "white border" per page to make it appear "thicker." I wouldn't recommend it for beginning, intermediate nor advanced PS users. I literally sold this book on the second hand market two days after receiving it. I noticed there's an updated version of this book on the horizon (projected availablity: 2nd half of 2002). At this point I would not even remotely entertain the thought of acquiring it unless I read many, many stellar reviews proclaiming a complete rewrite. Most of the other reviews for this book are right on. Don't waste your hard earned $ on this one regardless of your PS skill level. You may be thinking, "So why didn't YOU pay attention to the other reviews before buying this book?" Fair question... I'm a PS knowledge junkie... I LOVE to read about and learn new Photoshop techniques. Though I read the not-so-flattering-reviews before taking the plunge (like you are doing right now), I *hoped* they were too harsh. I *hoped* I'd find a few golden nuggets that would be useful to me. Bottom line: It was about the most useless PS book I've ever read (my personal library consists of over 30 PS books). My advice: If you're interested in this topic, give serious consideration to the first book listed above and some consideration to the second. If you pass on the last one and this offering, you'll be a much happier camper.
Rating:
Summary: poorly structured, no tutorial files
Review: Do yourself a favor, spend your money on a really good book such as Katrin Eismann's "Photoshop restoration and retouching" instead of buying this one. I read both; I enjoyed the Eismann's book and felt that I learned next to nothing reading the Lute's book. I think, there are two major reasons why I felt this way: 1. This is yet another step-by-step tutorial without images to work with. There is no CD and no downloadable files. Since one has to have images quite similar to those in the book (and due to the nature of the tasks discussed in the book these images may be hard to find) in order to reproduce the tutorials, I found that the only way how I could learn anything at all was is to play the steps of image processing in imagination. I discovered a couple of useful tricks while doing it, but certainly the concept "learning by doing" does not work well when the "doing" part is stripped off. The most ridiculous thing in the book is that the author sometimes suggests something like "click anywhere in the blue background". Come on, this book is published in black and white, there are no tutorial images, what are you talking about?! 2. The approach is based on tools, not on problems. Katrin Eismann's book starts with identification of what is wrong with the image - e.g., its too light, or its color balance is wrong, or it has scratches, etc. - and then suggests solution to each particular problem. Each section in Eismann's book is about a particular problem in the image, and a variety of ways how to solve this problem. Gwen Lute's book starts from the tools and techniques; each section is dedicated to a certain group of tools, and it is shown how they can be used. For instance, there is a cection on layers and masks, another section on filters, etc. As practical as this approach is, it does not give you a systematic knowledge how to identify problems in a photograph, and how to solve them. The best you get from this approach - a review of the photoshop tools. You are not getting any better in retouching, though!
Rating:
Summary: Not for the professional or the beginner
Review: From the title of the book, you would expect some useful information on what is, a specialized subject. I found this book: 1. Poorly laid out - Printing very large, little or no content on the particular subject under discussion 2. Oversimplified - To the extent that you are told of a function, and asked to press the button and see what effects you can get! 3. Poor quality examples - No colour 4. No CD rom (to follow examples) 5. No advanced techniques covered, in fact no discussion at all about history brushes, adjustment layers, curves, tonal adjustments, very limited on layers, masks, etc. A very disappointing purchase to the point where I have returned the book and intend to purchase another. Buyer beware!
Rating: 
Summary: From the Author, Gwen Lute, November 18, 1999
Review: I am a second generation photographer and also a photo retouching and restoration artist. I have been involved in this field for over thirty years, and retouching has always been my passion. However, when the prospect of converting to digital retouching reared its ugly head, I instantly rebelled. I wanted nothing to do with computers. As I watched the photography field expand, I soon realized I must expand my personal capability with it. In the process I discovered a method of expanding my passion through the use of the Adobe Photoshop program. As I became involved in the digital retouching process, I soon became aware that the majority of manuals and "how to" books focused on graphic arts, but left the photo retoucher and the photographer in the dark(room)! There was a paucity of material available, and many training manuals, in spite of thier great value, stated there are some tasks that cannot be completed with Adobe Photoshop. In my explorations, I discovered many of these tasks could, in fact, be done! The purpose of this book is to help the digital retouching novice learn the principles that seem to stump us all in the beginning. I also felt it important to share the techniques that effectively allow the reader to dive into the Adobe Photoshop pool and enjoy the swim!
Rating: 
Summary: Very helpful to me
Review: I found this book very helpful. Most Photoshop books are too intimidating, but this not only was easy for me to follow, it also had projects that might be useful to other non-professionals. You might want to take a look at it rather than judge it by the reviews here. It may be a little pricey, but I feel like the first project I did with it, doctoring a family group photo of 15 people and 1 dog (I had to transplant open eyes to one kid's face and add a dog that was in the doggie hospital that day), made it well worth the price in personal satisfaction.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been better
Review: I recently gave a 1-star review to this book, but some sort of guilt hit me and I decided to look through the book again to see if I could find some way to up my rating. Well, the author could try putting in a CD with pictures that are included in the book so the buyer could practice the lessons; and a different layout that would be more pleasing to the eyes wouldn't hurt either. So does this book have some merit? Yes. Is it the best book on Photoshop retouching? No. This book is going to have trouble competing when so many other books include hands-on tutorials via a CD. The positive behind this book is it's not lengthy, and how I hate buying a book the thickness of the Yellow Pages. So who would buy this book? Someone who is heavily into using Photoshop and has purchased just about every book there is on Photoshop. It's not the best, but it's not the worse.
Rating:
Summary: A high price book not live up to expectation
Review: I was looking for a book in photo retouching with Photoshop and borrowed this book from a local library. The back cover promised "step-by-step, fully illustrated instructions ..." but when I went over the book, I was disappointed. For a price ......, this book had no sample files from either CD-Rom or downloadable from the internet so you could practice the techniques. The pictures were impressive enough, but without the sample files it just like you read a cook book and expected to become an expert in cooking. Well, at least with cooking you could buy the ingredients elsewhere. So there was no way you can prove the author right or wrong or if the techniques worked! Try Photoshop Artistry, they had before and after files which you can practice! Also, the instructions were not "step-by-step" as promised. For example, page 23 (retouch wedding picture), step 7 said "clean up the final image using various tools and methods for fine turning (i.e. the rubber stamp tool, the eraser tool, the lasso tool). You can see the image below" This is not "step-by-step" how could I clean up an image using various tools if I was trying to follow the sample? What various tools? Is the rubber stamp tool first and then the eraser tool? This is vague at it best. I looked at the fimal impressive image and still couldn't quite get how the author arrive there.
Rating:
Summary: A high price book not live up to expectation
Review: I was looking for a book in photo retouching with Photoshop and borrowed this book from a local library. The back cover promised "step-by-step, fully illustrated instructions ..." but when I went over the book, I was disappointed. For a price ......, this book had no sample files from either CD-Rom or downloadable from the internet so you could practice the techniques. The pictures were impressive enough, but without the sample files it just like you read a cook book and expected to become an expert in cooking. Well, at least with cooking you could buy the ingredients elsewhere. So there was no way you can prove the author right or wrong or if the techniques worked! Try Photoshop Artistry, they had before and after files which you can practice! Also, the instructions were not "step-by-step" as promised. For example, page 23 (retouch wedding picture), step 7 said "clean up the final image using various tools and methods for fine turning (i.e. the rubber stamp tool, the eraser tool, the lasso tool). You can see the image below" This is not "step-by-step" how could I clean up an image using various tools if I was trying to follow the sample? What various tools? Is the rubber stamp tool first and then the eraser tool? This is vague at it best. I looked at the fimal impressive image and still couldn't quite get how the author arrive there.
Rating:
Summary: A high price book not live up to expectation
Review: I was somewhat as disappointed as Martin with this book. My expectation was a book with greater depth. However, I do think that an entry level Photoshop user would find it, as Marilyn did, a useful book and that's who I would recommend it to.
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