Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom [Paperback]

Lisa Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

Photoshop 6 is Adobe's well-received, highly acclaimed update to its most popular product. Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom is a full-color tutorial-based book that shows you how to work step by step with digital pictures. Learn how to use the newest features in Photoshop, as well as more traditional tasks such as correcting colors, applying effects, and working with layers, channels, and masks. This is a cross-platform guide that shows you how to use Photoshop to create great-looking digital pictures for your Web site. Intermediate to advanced Photoshop users will benefit most from this book. ItemID: 0761531637

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this well-organized, image-filled book, the author promises to show readers who have some computer experience but are new to digital photography (that is, neither computer neophytes nor professional photographers) how to take, touch up, edit, and publish digital pictures for the Web. As Lisa Lee puts it, "I start with a crash course about how to take a good picture, and then try to show off some basic and advanced tasks you can perform to create spiffy-looking Web-ready photographic images."

In a way, the whole book is a crash course--plenty of full-color screen shots accompanied by short but insightful explanations and step-by-step instructions that take you from opening screen to finished image quickly. Tips and cautions pop up frequently, and the pithy, concise text says a lot without taking up much space. For example, the author clearly and speedily explains why applying the sharpen filter to a blurry image won't make much of a visual change. And in just five pages, the section on image masks touches on RGB and alpha channels, the high pass filter, the magic wand and the lasso tools, and many keyboard shortcuts, as well as showing you a decent composited image. The discussions in the book are like recipes: you may not know why you should use baking soda rather than baking powder, but you'll eat a satisfying dish in the end.

The author writes, "I'm assuming if the image looks good to you, using your eyes as your guide, then it's okay for your Web site." Prospective buyers can check out the book's example images, as well as download a few of the .psd files, at her site (www.flatfishfactory.com). This would be a good way to gauge your level of experience against what's covered.

With its detailed index, art-book shape, and lie-flat spine, the book is handy for finding quick fixes or creative ways to experiment with digital photos. One note: Macintosh users are favored since all the screen shots were made using that version of Photoshop, but all instructions are cross-platform. --Angelynn Grant

From the Author

Learn how to use Photoshop 6 step by step I wrote this book to bring together a group of examples to show folks how to use new and old Photoshop features to create and edit digital pictures for the Web. You can learn how to edit a digital picture using the selection and drawing tools, apply effects, set preferences, or create layers, masks or channels with a digital image. The more advanced chapters show you how to optimize and add an image to a web page, as well as add text, or combine images from different digital pictures using layers, masks, and channels.

Each example, or task, is designed for someone who's familiar with Mac OS or Windows, and has had some experience working with graphics applications, such as Photoshop or Macromedia's Fireworks. This book is designed to work side-by-side with other books that explain the Photoshop 6 feature set, digital photography, animation, color correction, or Mac OS or Windows. Almost all of the screenshots were created with the Macintosh version of Photoshop 6. However, the Windows version of Photoshop 6 is very similar to the Macintosh version. All examples, including keyboard combinations apply to Mac and Windows versions of Photoshop.

The book is made up of 19 chapters divided into four parts. Each chapter contains a set of tasks that explain how to apply a particular feature or create a specific effect with an image file opened in Photoshop. Each task contains at least one full-color screen shot, and clear explanations about what to do to get from one step to the next. Although a CD-ROM is not included with this book, I have posted most of the original 2, 3, and 4-megapixel images, plus smaller, resized 640 x 480 pixel images used in this book on my web site. Have fun and enjoy learning about Photoshop!

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Prima Tech; 1 edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761531637
• ISBN-13: 978-0761531630
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,538,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a delight to study, January 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom (Paperback)

MyMac.com BOOK BYTES review by John Nemerovski

Regular readers of MyMac.com will remember Lisa Lee for reviews of her award-winning books, plus a Nemo Memo interview. She's back with an unusual book published by Prima Tech. Book Bytes welcomes this new publisher, with encouragement for their future titles.

Why does a $600 application require a $50 third party book? Don't you think the software developer of a world-class product would hire the best authors on the planet to develop printed manuals and online help guides? What's wrong with this picture?

I can never get enough illustrated tutorials. Book Bytes will continue to review them as often as we can. Most of these graphics-heavy texts come from two or three of the major computer book publishers. Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom breaks new ground, and sets a high standard.

FACTS: This book is big, heavy, expensive, and worth the effort. Author Lisa Lee itemizes the crucial steps in making Photoshop 6 the premier creative working tool for the next generation of talented digital photographers. Her lessons are informative and well-illustrated, and the book is designed, not merely assembled.

Four major parts contain 19 chapters, assisting readers on "Taking Pictures," and learning how to manipulate them in Photoshop, through "Creating Complex Images" and publishing the results on the Internet. Lisa knows both photography and Photoshop, and incorporates them together seamlessly.

The oversized pages contain instructional material, brilliant color images, detailed steps, and hundreds of helpful hints. If you utilize only a few of the author's lessons, Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom will pay for itself.

My favorite aspect of this book is Lisa's consistency. Her writing and visual styles are no-nonsense casual. She includes an ongoing visual conversation with readers, featuring a few versatile generic images given very different treatment as the book progresses. Here we have a book that is a delight to study and full of wisdom.

An invasion of Photoshop 6 titles from every computer book publisher is about to commence. Hey! Two more just arrived. You can't own every one, so give Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom serious consideration.

Mac Mice Rating: 4 out of 5

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really nice introduction to digital darkroom, February 26, 2001

By 

K. B. Bruun (Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom (Paperback)

Lisa Lee writes in a down-to-the-point-way. The book is en excellent INTRODUCTION to the digital darkroom. However: this is no specific introduction to using Photoshop 6, as one might believe.
I've not yet had the time to dig reeeally deep into this book, but a few hours of looking through it tells me that the experienced (I'm an ACE in Photoshop) user might feel that this book doesn't contain what one might expect.
Lisa Lee writes about different cameras, going deeper under the surface at one of them. I think that is a good idea, because most of the digital cameras have many options in common.
She also tips the reader on HOW to take pictures, in the short-and-to-the-point-way one needs. (Time is not what we have most of, is it?) I do recommend this book - especially for beginners to intermediate users :)

79 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In color . . . and GREAT, November 19, 2000

By 

J. Robinson (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adobe Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom (Paperback)

I like the layout and great color. Pages lay flat on the desk. Good crisp text on quality paper; and rich in-depth content presented on bigger than usual pages. I'm a photoshop novice, and this book satisfies my craving for help with understanding and using some advanced features. Screen snapshots (in color) illustrate effects of features being discussed.

Book has a nice table of contents -- four parts (19 chapters): Working with Digital Pictures, Photoshop 6 Basics, Creating Complex Images, and Publishing Pictures. There is also an adequate glossary, and rather complete index. (good for reference)

The introduction states: ... designed for the casual or amateur photographer with an intermediate to advanced level of computer and graphics application experience; there is no coverage of the history brush, color theory, pre-press, or printing...

This book suits me well. Most chapters are useful, and the examples are great. I love the presentation (layout).