Book Review - The Photoshop Book for Digital
Photographers
by Robert A F van de Voort
"The reason that there are so few good books
written is that so few people who write know anything."
-Walter Bagehot
The Photoshop book for digital photographers
(this is about photo shop 7, one of the most exciting books I
have seen for a long time, I had to share it!)
This is a visual book, and immensely practical (cross-platform),
not a technical manual. I was pointed in the direction of this
book by a friend of mine, and I am so grateful he did, this book
is a problem solver and moneymaker. All photo shop books have
their pro's and con's. This book tackles only daily needed topics,
it is not a "Bible" that will respond to all your questions
and that is probably one of its most endearing features.
This book assists photographers working with digital cameras
to solve problems that they encounter on a daily basis. It will
not explain with many examples each of the filters available in
photo shop, it will not explain the toolbox and the functions
of the various tools and it does not cover many of the myriad
possibilities that photo shop can offer your photographs (and
you never use). If you are an intermediate to advanced user of
Photoshop 7 this book may (will!) be beneficial for you.
When I read a technical book I need to understand the topics
easily and how to achieve the desired outcome. Some Photoshop
books are so very thorough like those Bibles; they handle in explicit
detail everything possible. Sometimes the steps are written in
such explicit detail that I get lost reading them. They cover
sometimes so many options and possibilities at the same time,
with only a very few images or diagrams highlight the written
words. Who uses everything that Photoshop is able to perform for
you? I (you?) need a book about the things that I inevitably almost
daily need or may need if I just only knew how to do it. Most
of these Photoshop books are built on the principle of supplying
information of what photo shop can do for you, than you have to
find out where in the book is your answer to the problem that
you are facing with the image that you have just photographed
with your digital camera.
The author is Scott Kellby, editor of Photoshop user magazine.
He is the editor in Chief of Photoshop User Magazine and president
of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)
and a training director for the other Adobe Photoshop seminar
tour. He definitely knows what he is on about. His writing style
is short, quirky, humorous and very easy to understand. He writes
in such a way that you feel you are with a personal instructor
sitting next to you. Even cracking jokes! In most cases Scott
does not use the tool you think you need for the problem but tackles
it from a totally different angle, based on working techniques
used by professional photographers.
The content of the book holds 358 pages and the chapters are
not necessarily to be used in order, you just pick the topic that
you need to work on. The chapters are: mastering the file browser,
cropping and resizing, digital camera image problems, colour correction
for photographers, masking techniques, retouching portraits, body
sculpting, photographic special effects, from colour to greyscale,
professional sharpening techniques, showing it to your clients.
You might think a chapter about cropping and resizing photographs,
so what. In this book you discover tips and tricks about cropping
and resizing that are practical and speed up your workflow. It
does not explain how to use the crop tool, it explains how to
crop images with whatever means.
The more interesting chapters are the ones about colour correction,
dodging and burning (without the dodge tool), whitening teeth,
correcting flesh tones, extracting people from their background,
digital nose jobs, advanced skin softening, fixing grannies, layer
masking for collages and an edge sharpening technique, etc. in
fact you will find that this book will probably cover any of the
routine jobs that you are highly likely to do once or twice or
all the time. My problem is that if I do not execute the same
task every other day I will forget about it. I may not need to
do a digital nose job every day, so I would easily forget the
technique.
Put this book next to your computer and if you start working
on an image you'll find in the index a chapter that handles your
problem. Working with layers, history brush, and many of the options
of the various tools are easily understood. You will often work
with layers, changing the opacity, changing the layer from normal
to lighten or darken or multiply, Scott explains his easy and
very effective techniques. This is something I could never really
understand when it was explained in other Photoshop books. At
least Scott writes in such a manner that it is almost impossible
to do it the wrong way, anyway the screen captures of all the
diagrams are so explicit and big enough to follow it easily. I
had seen in other books diagrams but they are so small that you
need a magnifying glass to find out what is actually being shown.
He covers and solves problems in unexpected ways. He uses solutions
that are quick, unconventional but very effective.
Each time I have to work on an image now, I open the book, see
how Scott tackles the problem, or what can be done, and so far
my images have improved greatly. I have even attempted to do work
that I would not have been able to execute before. The book has
many online references, which you can see on Scott's website:
http://www.scottkelbybooks.com
or see at http://www.scottkelbybooks.com/digibookphotos.html
Images Scott has used in this book to practice his explanations
for a better impression of what this book holds for you. This
book does not come with a CD - that would be my only complaint.
To finish it off, Scott shows you how to place a copyright stamp
on your photos, no not just a regular copyright, but a refined
artistic version that makes you stand out from the crowd. He has
you covered, from capture to client presentation, no gimmicks,
but photography.
No silly 3D and glitter / artistic effects or prepress - commercial
and people photographers will find this daily practical work book
a treat.
ecommended retail $104.95
Published by New Riders Publishing
ISBN: 0735712360
Imported by Pearson Education New Zealand
Feedback to hotshot@ihug.co.nz
About the author:
Robert van de
Voort is a professional photographer and writer, with his headquarters
located on the North Island of New Zealand. Robert's professional
photographic career spans the course of over 20 years, with work
in stock, advertising, studio, digital photography and much more!
You can learn more about Robert and see examples of his stunning
work by visiting his website at www.AlbanyStudios.co.nz.
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