New to forum - and RE on "Photo retouching totorials?"

[Jiger]

Hi all !
Spent about an hour browsing this site before deciding to sign up and tho I'm not a photographer I do hope you will allow me to stay here and enjoy the company. My connection to Photograpy is that of a Graphic Designer and Retoucher (not necessarlily in that order) and as the latter with a "tendency" towards glamour, which is why I joined. I could need the inspiration from all of the hi-q imagery I've seen here and hopefully I may be of some assistance in retouching issues.

Now - as for tutorials - what got me started as a retoucher was Katrin Eisman's book "Adobe Photoshop Restoration and Retouching - second ed". That book is one of the best basic "educations" there is. It is now out in it's 3rd edition and thus adapted to Photoshop CS2. Available on Amazon at under US$ 30.00 !!

One of the better forums for people at all levels of retouching skills is Retouch PRO http://retouchpro.com/index.html
Yes, you do need to register if you want to post to forums, but you can browse and read individual topics without registering.

Retouching in general is very much a question of experimentation and trying out different techniques and "tricks" - as well as developing your own. There are really no set rules (only industry preferrences) so there is absolutely not any "this-does-it-all". You just have to try, try again and keep trying.
But hey - you learned Photography the same way, didn't you ?
Actually, I got some nice pointers to litterature I most certainly will check out just by browsing these forums.

If you'd like to see some of my retouching work I do have some up on my website http://www.jgraph.se/subpages/retouch/retmain.html
Well overdue for updating, but anyways ...
And, oh yes - I'm living in Sweden, but large parts of my site is in English, so I don't think you'll have any difficulties.

Hope to have many pleasent and enriching hours with all of you !

-- Jiger --