Once upon a time, photographers used to do the retouching on their negatives. That is why our grandparents, solemnly posing in front of the camera, are looking at us from the old family albums with their chubby, wrinkle-free baby faces. Many years later, positive retouching appeared on the scene, making it possible for the artist to alter both light and shadow towards either direction, positive or negative. The new method did not distort any more, did not flatter, but it resulted in finer-looking photos in a way it managed to add to their artistic value.
Sadly, the technique is fast vanishing, forced out of the market by the advent of computer-assisted retouching. It seems inevitable that the old masters of that fine art will eventually fade away forever. :-(

Unlike my other paintings, the one on the right, was not made from scratch. It is based on a photo of Venice which I transformed using the new features of Adobe Photoshop 6.0. The original photograph ( on the left)comes from the CD included in the excellent training workbook Photoshop 6.0-Classroom in a Book.If you are a newcomer to Photoshop and you come across that gem of a book, do not hesitate: Snap it up!