Apart form one short  course back in 2000, I am completely self taught when it comes to Photoshop. I learnt from necessity when I was teaching in high schools, staying just one step ahead of my tech savvy students. It wasn’t until I started my business and in particular restoring photographs that I realised how little I knew about this amazing program.

It was a series of books which taught me most of what I knew about Photo Restoration during those early days.  Of course I have learnt a great deal since then…..I am always learning.   Each new image introduces a new challenge.

I am often asked which books I would recommend  to those wishing to learn how to restore photographs.

This snapshot shows just a few of the Photoshop restoration and retouching books I love  they just happen to be available from my Amazon store as well.   All books in my store ship from Amazon in the US.  You may be surprised at just how affordable they are, even with shipping.

By far the best restoration book I have ever read is Katrin Eismann’s “Photoshop Restoration and Retouching”. (Note the numerous yellow ‘post it’ tabs on the copy I first learnt from).  The most recent version is now a few years old.  It was written for CS2 however the content still applies to more recent versions of Photoshop (and even Photoshop Elements).  You can even download the images Katrin uses in her lessons so you can complete the very comprehensive, step by step tutorials in the book.

Katrin’s Photoshop Masking and Compositing book is equally as impressive.

Another fantastic restoration book in my collection is Ctein’s, “Digital Restoration from Start to Finish”.  This is a more ‘technical’ book which outlines all aspects of copying, restoring and archiving your images.  I recently attended a webinar where he explained some of the techniques he demonstrates in his book.  Since then I have adopted new processes in my restoration workflow, especially applying to colour correction.

I also like Scott Kelby’s books, in particular one of his recent offerings, “Professsional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop” and Matt Kloskowski’s recent publication, “Photoshop Compositing Secrets “.  All books are jammed full of step by step tutorials and  screenshots to assist the reader.  I should note that Scott Kelby’s retouching book is aimed at Photographers, not high-end photo retouchers.  His techniques are designed to enable productive workflow to photographers who do not have hours to spend on a single image.  He has a huge collection of books, all of which I find very easy to read.  He writes, just as he would speak.

With each new version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements new books arrive on the scene.  I usually add them to my Amazon store as I hear about them but I cannot claim to have read them all.  The books listed above are books I own and can recommend.

Have you stumbled upon any great restoration or retouching books?