How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Jack Davis (Author), Ben Willmore (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321357507 | ISBN-13: 978-0321357502 | Publication Date: July 29, 2005 | Edition: 2

Wouldn't it be great if you could have two of the world’s most sought-after Photoshop teachers sitting next to you at your computer as you navigate through the infinite possibilities of your digital photographic darkroom? How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography, second edition, is the next best thing. It’s the brainchild of two Photoshop powerhouses---Jack Davis and Ben Willmore, both world-renowned authors and educators, who have developed an effective way to help you reach your full creative potential.

Jack and Ben guide you step-by-step through real-world projects, with an emphasis on uncompromising quality, last-minute flexibility, and go-home-at-night speed! You'll receive tips and techniques on everything from streamlining your workflow to solarizing without chemicals to balancing out skin tones. Whether it’s optimizing the color and tone of your image, retouching cosmetic undesirables, reconstructing priceless heirlooms, or creating sepia color treatments, you'll be given the tools at every stage of the creative process in order to learn How to Wow!

The book begins with the essentials of workflow (including color management, the new Adobe Bridge, and Camera Raw 3), and then moves on to adjusting and optimizing and retouching and repairing. Next comes the fun stuff, with projects focusing on enhancing and exaggerating aspects of your photos for maximum impact, followed by projects on color and black-and-white treatments and artistic effects and overlays. Finally, there is a chapter devoted to combining your images and creating custom photo collages using instant Wow Tools Presets, available on the CD-ROM accompanying the book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Wouldn't it be great if you could have two of the world’s most sought-after Photoshop teachers sitting next to you at your computer as you navigate through the infinite possibilities of your digital photographic darkroom? How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography, second edition, is the next best thing. It’s the brainchild of two Photoshop powerhouses---Jack Davis and Ben Willmore, both world-renowned authors and educators, who have developed an effective way to help you reach your full creative potential.

Jack and Ben guide you step-by-step through real-world projects, with an emphasis on uncompromising quality, last-minute flexibility, and go-home-at-night speed! You'll receive tips and techniques on everything from streamlining your workflow to solarizing without chemicals to balancing out skin tones. Whether it’s optimizing the color and tone of your image, retouching cosmetic undesirables, reconstructing priceless heirlooms, or creating sepia color treatments, you'll be given the tools at every stage of the creative process in order to learn How to Wow!

The book begins with the essentials of workflow (including color management, the new Adobe Bridge, and Camera Raw 3), and then moves on to adjusting and optimizing and retouching and repairing. Next comes the fun stuff, with projects focusing on enhancing and exaggerating aspects of your photos for maximum impact, followed by projects on color and black-and-white treatments and artistic effects and overlays. Finally, there is a chapter devoted to combining your images and creating custom photo collages using instant Wow Tools Presets, available on the CD-ROM accompanying the book.

About the Author

A senior engineer from NASA once said that this man gave the best technical seminar he ever attended. That same year a computer-phobic who had been struggling with Photoshop for years proclaimed that “He takes the Boogie Man out of Photoshop!” This seems to be Ben Willmore's special gift; he has an uncanny ability to connect with users of every level and mindset; whether it’s first-timers taking their first sniff of Photoshop, or razor-sharp nerds and nerdettes who are on the fast track to technical illumination. The common echo that Ben leaves in his wake seems to be “Aha! I finally GET Photoshop!”

To date, Ben has personally taught over 45,000 Photoshop users on three continents. His descriptions of Curves and Channels are thought to be the best in the industry and his breakthrough teaching style of “not-just-how-but-why,” has made him the in-house instructor of choice for companies such as Mercedes Benz, Adobe Systems, America Online, the U.S. Airforce, Lexis Nexis and Fisher-Price Toys. His award-winning, best-selling book, Adobe Photoshop Studio Techniques is said to be “Arguably, one of the best Photoshop books ever written.” by Photoshop User’s publisher, Jim Workman. His latest book 'Photoshop CS2: Up to Speed' is a new concept in books and is the only book focused exclusively on the new features in Photoshop CS2. He is also co-author (with Jack Davis) of “How to Wow: Photoshop for Photographers”, and creator of the best-selling Master Series videos.

He continues to be a featured speaker at publishing conferences and events worldwide, including Photoshop World, American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and the Royal Photographic Society of England. He's a member of the Dream Team for NAPP and writes for numerous digital imaging and photography publications, including a monthly column for Photoshop User magazine. In 2004 he was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame. His reputation as the “expert's expert” prompted NAPP's president, Scott Kelby, to say, “When we get stuck, we call Ben!”

Ben sold his house in the mountains of Colorado in early 2006 and started to live a mobile lifestyle. His home is a 1997 40' Prevost bus (often referred to as a Rock Star Bus) that was converted by Liberty coach into a motorhome. The bus is pretty much a one bedroom apartment on wheels. Ben spends his time driving to speaking events and photographing National Parks and small town America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 2 edition (July 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321357507
• ISBN-13: 978-0321357502
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,377,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars give your images a new lease on life - this book WORKS, February 13, 2005

By 

J. Peasley "digital photographer" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography (Paperback)

I was looking for a book that concentrated on using Photoshop and digital photography together without getting too wild or too complex in skill level. As a person who has used Photoshop for 5 years, both for work and at home, I still felt like I wasn't getting the most out of it. And after taking 4,600 digital photos last year alone, I decided I wanted to actually do something interesting with them. So I poured over the plethora of books out there on Photoshop: tricks, tips, how-tos, guides, shortcuts, etc. at the bookstore for 2 hours. Some books were too novice, some too difficult - - I really don't need to know how to make a surreal collage of a planet pouring a waterfall into a floating baby's outstretched hand behind a rainbow thank you. What I was searching for was a basic primer on real-world techniques with some fun stuff thrown in to give my images punch and snap, but nothing too involved. I wanted something that would get me results the same evening. "How To Wow" is that book. Having been a photographer for half my life and worked in photo labs for years and then as a digital designer, this book still completely changed the way I see a digital image. I have gone through the book cover to cover and done all the techniques, tips and tricks and THEY WORK. Even the ones I didn't think I would like ended up pleasantly surprising me. Like if you want to convert a color image to black-and-white, don't use MODE-GREYSCALE, use the Channel Mixer instead. You do have to know a little bit of basic Photoshop, but most of the tips are 3-4 steps and the results are great. These guys write well and make it absolutely clear what your result will be and how to get there. I couldn't be happier with this book! The CD that comes with the book contains all the sample images, so you can use those or your own. I found it best to use theirs first, then try it on my own image to really get the feel of the technique. My favorite chapter is "Enhancing & Exaggerating" and using glows and tints. Your digital photos will never look the same! I guarantee you will add new pop and life to your images. The CD also comes with a gaggle of free presets, so you can load those up and do one-click framing styles and other cool stuff. I also liked that this book wasn't cheesy. A lot of Photoshop effects look like obvious filters and give a cheesy result. Not these - these effects are elegant and stylish and often subtle and don't have that "Photoshopped" look. I printed out many of my images and they translate well to paper. I just can't rave enough about this book. It's already dog-eared from me taking it with me everywhere. Get it if you've used Photoshop a bit but feel like you could do more with your images.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very good digital photo book, March 4, 2005

By 

D. Freed (Clinton, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography (Paperback)

I don't often give 5-star reviews but I think this book deserves one. It is clear and easy to follow, and has lots of good examples to get you going. I have a number of digital photography/Photoshop books and and this one stands out because it is very useful, but without being a 500-page encyclopedic volume on all things digital. I think if you become familiar with only a quarter of the techniques in this book you'll be a much improved digital photographer and photoshop user.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book full of tips!, August 27, 2004

By 

Del Osman (Honolulu, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography (Paperback)

I have purchased every book jack and Ben wrote on Photoshop and have attended a 3-day workshop presented by Jack Davis and will attend his 2-day workshop in Honolulu. When it comes to Photoshop, Jack is the most knowledgeable person in the field. This book covers every trick you can think of and shows you how to solve the same problem with different approaches using Photoshop CS! The book is only 270 pages, easy to read, and with all the images on the CD, you can follow the instructions until you get it. For the beginner, you will be a pro in few weeks, for the advanced user, you will have all the tools you need in a handy concise book for fast reference. This is truly the photographer's Swiss Knife!
The best companion for this book is Ben Willmore's: Photoshop CS Studio Techniques, it covers the "why", while the How to Wow book shows you the "How" of Photoshop techniques.
Thank you Jack and Ben for these master pieces!