The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers [Paperback]

Scott Kelby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0735712360 | ISBN-13: 978-0735712362 | Edition: 1

Finally, a Photoshop book that is written expressly for professional photographers and hi-end serious amateurs that doesn't talk about F-stops, exposures, and how to frame a shot (you know all that stuff already--if you don't¿I hate to say it, but this isn't for you).

This new book, from Photoshop User magazine editor and bestselling author Scott Kelby, starts at the moment your digital camera photos come into Photoshop, and he shows you the Photoshop pros techniques for managing, correcting, retouching and outputting your photos to knock your client's socks off, and turn you into a Photoshop production wizard. This book is absolutely ideal for traditional photographers who are making the jump to digital photography, and Scott's casual, step-by-step, plain-English style makes even the most complex Photoshop techniques seem so easy and accessible. It's the type of book that makes you smile and think "Ahhhh, so that's how they do it" and then immediately you realize "Hey, I can do this!"

The entire book is graphically rich, in full color cover-to-cover, and best of all it's packed with real-world project-based tutorials that will take you through the process of sizing your images with the proper resolution (and the secret to doing so without losing image quality), how to deal with High ISO noise, blue channel noise, and other common plagues introduced by digital cameras; you'll learn how the pros color correct their photos for output on everything from inkjet printers to printing presses, and the secrets to getting perfect fleshtones no matter where it¿s output. You'll learn the sharpening techniques today's top digital photographers use, and how the leading retoucher's perform "digital plastic surgery" in Photoshop, plus professional facial retouching techniques using Photoshop 7.0's amazing new tools.

Plus, you'll also learn how to manage your photos, "digital dodging and burning" tricks, dealing with common problems, making client presentations within Photoshop and on the Web, and the inside tips on how to work faster and more efficiently than you ever thought possible. If you're serious about digital photography and Photoshop, this is book you've been waiting for.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Some people make their living with a camera, and for these people the maturation of digital photo technology means a significant shift in their trade. The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers is for people who are already adept with a camera, and pretty much up to speed on the peculiarities of digital photography, too. The book teaches these people how to use Adobe Photoshop, the standard photo-editing software package. More accurately, the book explains how to use Photoshop for the kinds of work professional photographers do.

Case in point: The removal from photographs of what are politely called skin blemishes. Author Scott Kelby (the editor of Photoshop User offers two strategies: One you can use to remove all traces of a mark but which requires a fair amount of time, and another procedure that delivers "pretty good" results and which can be done on many pictures (such as a set of class portraits) rapidly. Kelby teaches by means of heavily illustrated procedures, each between five and 20 steps long and spanning several pages. A good way to use this book is by scanning the table of contents for a procedure that interests you (say, "Fixing Underexposed Photos," or "Pro Wrinkle Removal"). This will enable you to spot Photoshop techniques you hadn't considered. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use Adobe Photoshop if, for you, the program is one tool out of many in a photographic kit. Tricks teach you how to recolor hair, whiten teeth and eyes, modify unflattering body contours, dodge and burn, apply filters for effect, assemble panoramas, and do a score of other slick photo jobs.

From the Back Cover

Finally, a Photoshop book that is written expressly for professional photographers and hi-end serious amateurs that doesn't talk about F-stops, exposures, and how to frame a shot (you know all that stuff already--if you don't¿I hate to say it, but this isn't for you).

This new book, from Photoshop User magazine editor and bestselling author Scott Kelby, starts at the moment your digital camera photos come into Photoshop, and he shows you the Photoshop pros techniques for managing, correcting, retouching and outputting your photos to knock your client's socks off, and turn you into a Photoshop production wizard. This book is absolutely ideal for traditional photographers who are making the jump to digital photography, and Scott's casual, step-by-step, plain-English style makes even the most complex Photoshop techniques seem so easy and accessible. It's the type of book that makes you smile and think "Ahhhh, so that's how they do it" and then immediately you realize "Hey, I can do this!"

The entire book is graphically rich, in full color cover-to-cover, and best of all it's packed with real-world project-based tutorials that will take you through the process of sizing your images with the proper resolution (and the secret to doing so without losing image quality), how to deal with High ISO noise, blue channel noise, and other common plagues introduced by digital cameras; you'll learn how the pros color correct their photos for output on everything from inkjet printers to printing presses, and the secrets to getting perfect fleshtones no matter where it¿s output. You'll learn the sharpening techniques today's top digital photographers use, and how the leading retoucher's perform "digital plastic surgery" in Photoshop, plus professional facial retouching techniques using Photoshop 7.0's amazing new tools.

Plus, you'll also learn how to manage your photos, "digital dodging and burning" tricks, dealing with common problems, making client presentations within Photoshop and on the Web, and the inside tips on how to work faster and more efficiently than you ever thought possible. If you're serious about digital photography and Photoshop, this is book you've been waiting for.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press; 1 edition (March 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735712360
• ISBN-13: 978-0735712362
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, Editor and Publisher of Photoshop User magazine, and a book author myself, having penned more than 30 titles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful for entry level Photoshop processing only, June 19, 2003

By 

Armen Jamkotchian (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers (Paperback)

This book could be very useful for beginner amateur digital photographers not having enough experience with Photoshop. It is mainly focused on relatively simple photo corrections (cropping, color adjustments, removing blemishes, etc.), but doesn't address higher level artistic techniques. If you are using a digital camera for vacation or family pictures, this manual will let you make your photos look more natural, but if you are into serious digital photography and would like to learn those neat techniques that always aspired you, look elsewhere. For example, try the "The Photoshop 7 Wow! Book", or similar publications, which will give you in-depth coverage of those techniques.

This book uses "step-by-step" approach, which is helpful for the beginners, but can get very irritating for those who have some experience already.

Nevertheless, for what it is intended for, the book is quite good.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, even if you aren't a pro..., April 26, 2003

By 

Stella Nemeth (Macungie, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers (Paperback)

The Editorial Review begins: "Finally, a Photoshop book that is written expressly for professional photographers and hi-end serious amateurs that doesn't talk about F-stops, exposures, and how to frame a shot (you know all that stuff already-if you don't-I hate to say it, but this isn't for you). "

I don't know any of that stuff about F-stops, exposures, etc., but this book absolutely IS for me. I'm not a professional photographer, but I am on my third digital camera.

I've worked my way up, over the last 4 years, from beginner photo manipulation software, through Photoshop Elements to Photoshop itself. I use Photoshop because it does the things I need to do. What Scott Kelby's book did was show me some of the less obvious ways to get things done. Some of the easier ones were amazing.

This is an excellent book that is intended for anyone who has a copy of Photoshop and needs to get digital photos fixed. It is very accessable. You can open it anywhere and follow the steps in any chapter and successfully adjust your own photos using Scott Kelby's instructions. He designed the book so each chapter is independent and none of them require that you read the chapters before it to understand what he is trying to accomplish. If you can follow along with the pictures, you can do what he is teaching. He believes in lots of screen shots and even though his screen shots show Macs and I'm using a PC, Photoshop is Photoshop and I can follow along. He gives both the PC and the Mac commands for every Keyboard shortcut he uses. This is great for me because I generally need to learn something that is buried in the middle of the book, and I don't have the time or patience to read four or five chapters to understand how to get it done.

I own several Photoshop books, and I've never seen some of the techniques he teaches in those other books. He also teaches some advanced general Photoshop techniques and he makes those easy to understand too.

Worth every penny...

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch Book, Well Written and Laid Out!, September 20, 2004

By 

FFSmith (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers (Paperback)

This is a very good book. In fact it is by far the best I have found to guide me in taking images from camera to use! Comprehensive, but easy to follow and read.

I am not a professional photographer, but I do take a lot of photographs. Some for fun, but many find their way into our company's website, PowerPoint slides, and promotional material (engineering and industrial projects). I also use a lot of photographs for my wife's travel business website and brochures. Mostly slides for years, but am now going "all digital." They all need adjusting, cropping, sharpening, fixing so I find myself using Photoshop more and more.

I started using Photoshop 5.0 almost 6 years ago, about the time I purchased a scanner and started trying to master inserting images in documents for my work. I was no computer amateur, but what a struggle. I fumbled through at least two of the obscure "list everything and every option" manuals Kelby describes-with time consuming, mediocre results. Finally admitted defeat and enrolled in a Photoshop night course at university. Three years, Photoshop 7.1, Win2000, and many thousands of photographs later, I am still learning. I read through parts of this book at a local bookstore three weeks ago and quickly concluded that this was a book I had to have. Just got it today, and have actually read a third already!

Good, solid advice on using Photoshop's browser was the first thing that caught my attention. I was using the limited "Zoom Browser" software that came with my new Canon digital camera and wasn't even aware of the browser capabilities of Photoshop. Also appreciated the advice on sharpening settings, some of which I had already noted from the class I took on Photoshop. I had been investigating sharpening plug-ins for Photoshop, and Kelby's examples are a good introduction to the different sharpening effects. Next will be colour curves and adjustments-which, despite appearances of my photos, I am still making a mess of!

The book is very well laid out. Use of colour and white space is nicely done. Easy to read and follow, and generously illustrated with colour photographs for every step. In fact, this is one of my criteria for an instructional book-if it's not "easy on the eye" it will probably just sit on the shelf. Of course, eye candy can grow old quickly without content. Kelby covers the subject well in an informal and humorous style. His advice is right on, and to the point: I have photos, now I need to use them-even if it's only to e-mail friends and family. He lays out how to do this.