In this essential guide, expert photographer Tom Ang demonstrates how anyone can harness the creative potential of photo-enhancing software to create simply superb images using nothing more than basic computer equipment and an ink-jet printer. Ang encourages readers to avoid the distractions of special-effects filters and weird distortions that serve little practical purpose. Instead, he offers expert guidance and proven solutions to some of the most common problems every photographer faces, including how to clear dust specks from an image, the best film for scanning, why you should avoid using the brightness and contrast control, what does four-color black and white mean, how do you adjust an image for optimum tones, and more. Plus, numerous screen shots and clear explanations make everything easy. Focuses on Photoshop and the techniques that also apply to Photoshop Elements, Paint-Shop Pro, Photo Impact, PhotoDeluxe, and others.
I call myself a photographer, writer, and broadcaster. If I'm forced to say what I like to photograph most, I'll say it's travel photography because that includes people, landscapes, buildings, nature and the rest. I've had some 20 books published on photography and video. The popular Digital Photographer's Handbook has been translated into about 20 language. My latest, "Digital Photography Masterclass" has proven popular with readers and reviewers: it won the Library Journal's 'Best How-to Book of 2008 and was chosen by Shutterbug as its 'Créme de la Créme' of Top Digital Imaging Books of 2008.
I won the 1988 Thomas Cook award for Best Illustrated Travel Book for my coverage of the Marco Polo Expedition. Goodness knows how; there were very strong contenders that year. I presented two ground-breaking six-part series 'A Digital Picture of Britain' and 'Britain in Pictures' for BBC. And an eight-part series for Channel News Asia Singapore was broadcast in August/September 2009 and is being distributed in DVD.
I've worked as magazine editor, picture editor and was senior lecturer in photographic practice at the University of Westminster for 12 years. I led a Know How Fund project that reformed the journalism curriculum for a university in Kyrgyzstan, as well as photographing extensively in Central Asia. I was chair of the Arts Council England organization for Chinese Arts in Britain and am a founding member of the World Photography Academy, where I helped initiate and led the Student Focus program for its first two years.
My current interests include documentary film-making, high-definition video, fine-art photography, writing fiction and poetry. I was born in Singapore and now divide my time between UK and New Zealand.
My own website is at www.tomang.com
