This is how your grandparents were Photoshopped…

Yesterday I got all old lady cranky pants on you about how the way things used to be. Well, today I continue with the fist shaking and yelling at you to get off my lawn…

I wrote a post a couple months back for those of you who are looking for guides on how to use Photoshop. Today I’d like to write about an “old school” photo retouching guide that makes for interesting reading and is free for you to download. This is a guide that shows you how your grandparents were Shopped.

I stumbled across this little literary gem a few days back and my eyes have been devouring it ever since. I think it is perfect reading for photographers and designers who want to learn the history of their craft; as well as for those people who are just curious how photos were retouched prior to the invention of Photoshop (which just celebrated its 20th anniversary). With today’s advanced image editing technology people are able to do things like add cigarettes into photos, but even without that modern technology people were still able to remove cigarettes from photos…

Figures 5 & 6 showing the removal of wrinkles, facial blemishes, cigarette and finger; taken from the book The art of retouching and Improving negatives and prints by Robert Johnson and Arthur Hammond (©1941 – 14th edition)

As mentioned in both captions, the book is The art of retouching and Improving negatives and prints, and it is available for download free from the internet archive in multiple file formats. Yes, you can download a book about photo retouching written in 1941 and read it on your Kindle Wireless Reading Device. Isn’t the internet awesome?

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