Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop for Underwater Photographers

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is really the third book in a series by the photographer - writer team of Jack and Sue Drafahl. First is Digital Imaging for the Underwater Photographer. Second is Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography. All three published by Amherst Media.

The reason for this book is that underwater photography, under the best of circumstances (and how often do you find those) the filtering and color changing effects of water tend to produce images that are simply not what we want to see in a photograph. Colors tend to get washed out, after all, the fish doesn't want to stand out too much. Fish that stand out tend to become dinner for somne other fish. But in looking at the picture, we want to see the fish. Photoshop is the answer.

This book is not a tutorial on how to get started with Photoshop. It presumes a certain base knowledge so that it can spend its time on the particular needs, problems and solutions for the problems facing people editing underwater photographs. At that task, this book is beautifully done.

I purchased this book thinking that there might not be much information I could use, but boy was I wrong! I use photoshop professionally, and thought I knew the program-- but I am by no means a program guru--this book contains good grounding information about tools to use, and then has some great step by step examples to help people solve some pretty big image issues. If you know how to use Photoshop, but just can't seem to tweak your photos the way you want... IMHO Buy This Book.

A great resource for those who know, or are just begining to use photoshop. It helps you apply this powerful program to the unique problems of underwater photography, with easy hands on demonstrations. Version differences sometimes get in the way a bit, but the concept is clear and you just have to figure out how a newer version does what they may have done on the version this was written on.

All in all a very helpful book, with many great tips and concepts. I have used photoshop for a while, and been shooting UW for several years, this has already helped me get better photos and I have not hit the water since I got the book. I revisited some shots with specific problems that I learned a fix from in this book. Paid for itself in the first week.

My best advice would be to master (if that is at all possible) Photoshop before turning your attention to this book. There is no doubt that the authors understand the subject and have also found the right pitch in order to share their combined expertise with the reader.

I have a number of good quality colour slides which were never used because of something - such as a diver's fin, in the picture. The first lesson I learned from this book was how to remove those unwanted items in such a way as to leave no trace of any alteration.

My subject, however, is shipwrecks and high quality photographs of, for example, the entire stern or other large section of wreck, often elude me. Consequently, the content of page 99 jumped out at me. This shows a fairly good quality photo of the stern of a large shipwreck surrounded by 5 divers with even more in the far distance. With carefully detailed instructions, this picture is changed from something which was good into something quite spectacular.

Having read that particular page several times, I then played around with some of my own photographs and, to begin with, ended up overdoing it. Of course the advantage of computer enhanced images means that none of the original detail was lost and I was able to start over. My point being, I would caution the reader not to overdo their alterations to photographs.

Altogether, a very good product and one which has a definite place on the bookshelf of all serious underwater photographers.

NM

I've been using Photoshop since Ver. 3.0... But this book gave me insights and tips on techniques I had never used before.

PRO: Clear, concise overviews and discussions on techniques and functions. I like how they explain how a tool works as well as how to use it - it helps in giving you a basis on which to build skills (understanding vs. just knowing)

SEMI-PRO: if you're expecting a 1-2-3 how-to then this book MIGHT be disappointing. Sure it gives techniques and 1-2-3s but also it doesn't hold your hand

LIKE: it makes you THINK! I picked up enough to start with and apply across photographs. It gave me a toolbox (so to speak) with which to apply to different problems.

NOT LIKE/ CON: the color scheme and layout of some text/ graphic/ menu samples - Red + Yellow on Blue??? UGH! Seriously - I was distracted by the windows color scheme the authors used even if it was a very small part of the page layout...

COULD HAVE USED: follow ups and variations on techniques... after the technique on 1 type of photo/ problem, variations on them... for different what-if scenarios related to the original

OVERALL: a very good book that doesn't spoon-feed you and gives you enough tools to go at it on your own. Not for those with little knowledge or a fear of Photoshop or computers... this book needs you to be able to get out of your comfort zone and explore

This book is targeted for beginner and intermediate photographers. It is clear and easy to understand. It has something for everyone from camera basics to tips for interemediate users.

I write this review with one purpose in mind: to affirm the 5-star rating this book has (so far).

As an experienced but not professional Photoshop user, I already had a good set of skills under my belt prior to color correcting underwater shots. I'd also done my internet homework and found plenty of good material out there. (YouTube, for example, has some great tutorials.)

I am cynical about most Photoshop books. Too often the same-old same-old just gets repackaged.

This said, I feel AP4UWP was excellent and well worth the price. In particular, AP4UWP helped me with those shots that really needed help but were worth preserving.

I've already recommended this book to every UW photographer I know.

Dr. Kirtland C Peterson

An overall nice guide, however this second edition was revised and published in 2006. Thus, it only refers to the software version and available tools from that time (CS2). Despite being an "old" book many concepts still will apply to current versions of Photoshop.

Good book, well laid out, my only complaint is that way too much space is given to non Adobe add-ons.

The book is written for someoine with basic knowledge of Photoshop (doesn't matter which version) who wants to fix specific problems with their underwater photos. Some of the fixes are a little gimmicky, like making it look like a flsh fired when it didn't etc, but mostly good tips and help.

The edition is a little dated still using a lot of film pictures (taken back in the film era. The whole book seems to be about 5-7 years behind and they should really think about an update without all the Photoshop add-ons which should really be in another sererate book.

I have never used PS before. But with this detailed and step-by-step instructions of this book, I found PS is quite easy to handle. love it, recommended to those who are truly beginners like me!