Customer Reviews

Digital Abstract & Macro Photography

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While it would be correct to say that most of the photographs in this book are abstract, it would be more accurate to describe them as poor and overprocessed in photoshop, with instantly recognizable digital effects such as edge detect, posterize, charcoal, glowing edges, wild tinting and colorization, etc. Gratuitous applications of various fringe filters, ilke Photo Wiz Focal Blade or Xaos Segmation, abound.

In the "Salsa" photograph, you can clearly see the accidental click with a photoshop brush (it happens on Windows when you try to bring a window to the front and accidentally plant a blotch of foreground color).

What the author has done, for the most part, is taken the most average-looking, uninspired photographs, like that of the bottom of his sneaker, and tried to make them work by applying "interesting" effects. The problem is that abstract or not, a picture needs an idea to give it a reason to exist.

To be fair to the author, the very first few photographs look very reasonable and are done in taste. But once the author exhausts the repertoire of contrast, sharpen, and curves, it seems that he begins to grow increasingly desperate trying to fill the rest of the book with content.

The macro section is particularly disappointing: featuring just nine photographs out of the total of over a hundred, with almost non-existent depth of field, and instances of dirt, hair, cigarette butts, magnified slime, sprinkled generously with magnified digital noise, it's underwhelming considering that Macro is in the title of the book.

I based my purchase of this book on the Editorial and Customer Reviews. What they failed to note is that despite the title, little of this is true macro photography - some of it is done with a closeup filter, but not much. Further, and in my opinion worse, is the lack of mention of the fact that most of the digital alteration in Photoshop is done with third party (read commercial and expensive) plug-ins. Sure, the author prefaces this by saying that you can try to get the same effect without them, but just try it - can't be done with most of the photos, therefore making this book worthless in terms of a tutorial unless you spend hundreds of dollars on Nik, KPT, etc plug-ins. I am returning the book. It's my most disappointing Amazon purchase ever!

The reviewer who said this book is false advertising is missing the point. Ken Milburn's book covers ground that cannot be found in any of the Photoshop how-to books. This lavishly illustrated coffee table book has inspired my creativity, enabling me to take my photographs to the next level. By following Ken's techniques, I'm able transform good photographs into eye-catching digital art. The book is logically laid out showing a before and after example of each photograph, plus the steps needed to transform the original image. I can highly recommend this book to digital photographers who want to tranform their work into eye-catching digital art for themselves or their clients. I would give this book more than 5 stars if possible.

A friend of mine reviews books for one of the computer magazines and I just saw Digital Abstract & Macro Photography sitting on her coffee table. You might guess right there that this is not your average, overly-wordy "how to" book - the coffee table is appropriate! Anyway, after browsing through a few pages, I found myself captivated and asked if I could borrow it. I am not a digital photography expert, just so you know. This book caught my eye since it appears that Milburn's main purpose in this book is to show what can be accomplished with digital photography -- and where you can take it with a lot of imagination.

All the book's pages are in pairs: the left hand page shows you some of the evolutionary stages of the feature photo on the right hand page. Each of the small photos is accompanied by Ken's conversational description of what he did to get his end result. I can't wait to get a copy of this book for myself. In the meantime, I've dusted off my old little point-and-shoot digital camera -- I'm taking a lot more photos, and am even starting to look around for a more serious camera. Oh - and did I mention that the photos are gorgeous? Ya gotta get this book.

This book has beautiful full color abstract photos and some general ideas on how to create them. The problem is (as stated by the author in the introduction) that he uses a number of 3rd party filters and tools which can be quite expensive for the non professional. Most of these effects can be achieved with Photoshop alone and the book would be much better if he described those methods in addition to the 3rd party techniques.

Not only is this book an inspirational, it is also chock full of easy to follow techniques. What struck me about this book was that theinformation is not your run of the mill Photoshop, boring, overused techniques. Rather the author comes up with many techniques that differ from what everyone else is doing. I am a graphic designer who is learning to do his own photography so I will have more control over the final product. I am glad I purchased this one and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to do some awesome photographic technques.

There are times when the plain image your camera produces isn't what you or your customer want. And here in this book is Ken Milburn's description of how he takes plain and ordinary images and modifies them using software to produce images that a Dali or Picasso would find interesting.

The book is arranged with the original camera image at the top left hand side of the left page. Below that are various steps that he went through to get to the desired image which is printed on the right.

Abstract images are, of course, not everyone's cup of tea, but if you want or need to produce them, here is how. In addition to the images presented in the book; there is another chapter, and appendix with third-party links available for downloading from the web.

Although most of the images in the book are truly abstract, few are "true" macro photography. And as other reviewers have stated, the author uses Photoshop plug-ins on most of the images. In fact there were so many plug-ins used, I thought the book might've been published (or sponsored) by some association of companies that offer Photoshop plug-ins. The plug-ins that the author uses throughout the book are:
1.Corel KPT Collection (Color Equalizer, Channel Surfing filter, Reaction, Screen Norm blend, Collection Blur, Gel, Lens Flare, Notch Blur, Spin Blur, Zoom Blur, Fiber Optic)
2. Imaging factory (Color Correction & Color Equalizer)
3. Color Efex Pro (Infrared, Sepia, Bi-color, Pop Art filters, BW Dynamic Contrast, Pen tool)
4. Power Retouche (Sharpen & Color Editor, Edgeline)
5. Flaming Pear (Glitterato, Aetherize, Glow, Glare)
6. Dfine (noise removal)
7. USM (sharpening)
8. Auto/FX (Auto Eye, Mystical Lighting Enhance Strength, Mystical Tint Tone & Color (Antique Photo
Sepia, Soft Posterize, Color Mixer)
9. Corel Painter(Lighting, 3D Surface Texture)
10. Focal Blade Pro (sharpening)
11. Buzz Pro 3 (watercolor filter, Edges Color)
12. Andromedia (Reflection, Scatter Light, Star, Velociraptor, Etch filters)
13. Xaos Tools (Paint Alchemy Abstract, Segmation)
14. Alien Skin (Xenofex 2 Constellation filter, Edges, Diamond Plate, Bevel Boss)
15. Fred Miranda's (Highligh/Shadow)
16. Neat Image (Noise Removal)
17. Photo Wiz Focal Blade (sharpen)
18. Eye Candy 4000 (Water drops, Fire, Drip, Bevel Boss, Nature, Swirl)
19. Photokit (Sharpener)
20. Movie Prime (Lens Flare)
21. Grain Surgey (Noise removal)

However, many of the above effects that are done with these plug-ins can be accomplished with the tools and filters provided in CS2 or 3.

If you set aside all of the negatives, you will find the book to be inspiring. There are a few images in the book that say "wow!" and are well worth the price of the book. If you are a creative person, it's an absolute must buy.

As a Web Designer I am always looking for inspiration and creative ideas. It's easy for me to whip up a Web design but there are times when I need something truly inspirational and unique. I am sometimes "creatively challenged" and need outside inspiration. Ken's book is pure inspiration. The book is what it says it is, a book which is "meant to inspire with its images"

I recommend this book to any creative person who needs that spark of inspiration or to anyone who wants to expand the possibilities with their digital imagery.