BOOK :: PHOTOCRAFT BY Susan Tuttle and Chrysti Hydeck

Photocraft
by Susan Tuttle and Chrysti Hydeck
North Light
ISBN-13: 978-1440318702
144 Pages
Review by Jenny Doh

In a word, Photocraft by Susan Tuttle and Christy Hydeck is now. It's a book that helps us combine the wondrous world of photography with new and timeless mixed-media techniques. Tuttle and Hydeck do an excellent job presenting tips and ideas on how to take good photos, how to manipulate them in Photoshop Elements, and then how to use the manipulated photos to create exciting and unique photography-centered art projects.

The first forty pages of the book provides step-by-step information on how to use the various tools in Photoshop Elements so that you can manipulate your photos in the coolest ways, like removing unwanted pixels with the Clone Stamp Tool, mimicking shallow depth of field with the Blur Filter, and adding dreamy effects with Graient Fills. Additional digital techniuqes are interspersed throughout the book.

In addition, there are 13 stepped-out projects where you learn now to use photos to make the coolest art. Paint, wax, resin, sandpaper, rubber stams and more are just some of the materials that you learn to combine with photos to make projects that are fun and achievable. My very favorite project is the Quotable wood panel where photos and papers are collaged onto a wood board with a favorite quote painted to tie everything beautifully together.

Contributing artists also make valuable appearances in the book to provide expert tips on photography, photo manipulation, and appliation of photos into art. These contributing artists are Pam Carriker, Samantha Kira Harding, Misty Mawn, Claudine Hellmuth, Linda Plaisted, Madelyn Mulvaney, Susanna Gordon, Pilar Isabel Pollock, and Michele Beschen.

Bravo to Susan Tuttle and Chrysty Hydeck on producing a high quality book that is artistically relevenat to the now.

Learn more about Photocraft here.