The Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital
Photographers
Do you have a problem editing your digital photos? Maybe you’ve taken a ton of during your last vacation, but
are not sure how to clean them up.
Or perhaps you’re a traditional film
photographer who needs help in the realm of digital photography.
There are many digital photography books out there, but many of them fall short
of delivering the correct mix of content.
Well, look no further, because the Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital
Photographers is the book for you. This book shows the exact techniques used by
digital photographers in cleaning up their images.
It’s
written by Scott Kelby, who is President of the National Association of
Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). This is a trade organization for Adobe Photoshop
users, with thousands of members in the US and 63 countries. Scott is also the
editor of various Photoshop magazines and is a leading Photoshop trainer.
The book itself is not meant
to be an exhaustive reference on Adobe Photoshop CS. What it does, and does
extremely well, is to show you the inside tricks that experienced photographers
use. You’ll learn how the pros correct, edit, sharpen, retouch and present their
photos to their clients.
File Browser
Basics
In Chapters 1 and 2 of the book, you’ll learn about the file browser within
Adobe Photoshop CS. Scott shows you have to perform basic navigation tasks and
the layout of the menus and commands. There’s a nice tutorial on digital contact
sheets which allow you to print an inventory of the pictures on a CD. This makes
looking for a photo much easier.
Basic Photo
Editing Techniques
Chapters 3, 4 and 5 expose you to basic image editing techniques in Adobe
Photoshop CS. You’ll learn stuff like cropping, resizing and color correction.
If you have a lot of underexposed pictures, the book shows you how the
professionals fix these. I also particularly like the trick on taking small
photos and blowing them up to poster size, with minimal loss in quality.
Other Techniques
There are many other techniques illustrated in the book. Throughout Chapters 6,
7 and 8, you learn techniques like masking, retouching and sculpting.
Have dark circles around the subject’s eyes? No problem. The book shows you
clearly how to remove those ugly patches.
Want to change the color of the sky or the background? It’s simple to do by
extracting the subject from the background.
You’ll also learn about the different types of sharpening available in Adobe
Photoshop CS, how to stitch panoramic scenes and watermarking. Watermarking is
important for stamping your photos with your personal signature.
Scott also shows you how to package your pictures. From creating a website, to
burning a picture CD, the book shows you how using illustrative step-by-step
examples.
Shortcomings
I thought one of the shortcomings of the book is the fact that it is slightly
biased towards portrait photography. Many of the examples are geared towards
portraits. I’d like to have seen more examples of other genres of photography,
like action shots or landscape photos. In any case, this is a minor flaw.
Conclusion
In summary, the Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers is a fun to
read and extremely informative guidebook. You’ll learn the tricks of the trade
and how the pros editing and retouch their digital photos. What’s more, it’s
written by one of the leading trainers on Adobe Photoshop, and should be an
essential tome on any digital photographer’s bookshelf.
Touch Up
Your Photos Easily
Ulead PhotoImpact is a great photo editor that does its job
- yet doesn't burn a hole in your pocket. I've used this program for a long time
and it has never let me down.
PhotoImpact has all the usual tools you expect in a photo editor, contained within a smart, uncluttered user interface. It's definitely worth a try, especially if you don't want to invest in expensive commercial editors like Adobe Photoshop CS.
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Touch Up
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