Printing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 [Paperback]

Tim Daly (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0240811380 | ISBN-13: 978-0240811383 | Publication Date: May 19, 2009 | Edition: 1

Photoshop users:

Ever feel like your printer is letting you down?

Sick of seeing the bright, saturated tones of photos on your monitor turn into washed-out, drab prints?

Frustrated by the lack of resources on this essential process?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you really need The Complete Guide to Digital Printing by Tim Daly.

This essential resource is the only guide you'll ever need to printing with Photoshop. Acclaimed author and photographer Tim Daly brings a wealth of experience to this under-resourced topic, covering every aspect of the printing process using Photoshop. Not content with simply covering the software, Tim approaches the entire workflow. This means that right from the moment of capture, your photos are optimised for the highest print quality from Photoshop. Topics covered include image capture and management, file processing, creative emphasis, proofing, Photoshop print functions, color management (both input and output), printer hardware and software, and, of course, the actual printing.

Buy this book, and see an immediate difference to the quality of your prints. Authoritative, practical and comprehensive, this is a must-have for every photographer using Photoshop.

* Comprehensive one-stop guide to getting the highest quality print results using Adobe Photoshop CS4

* Written in a practical, jargon-free style by a working photographer and experienced author/educator on the subject of printing

* Also covers essential material on either side of the Photoshop workflow, including capture, and mounting

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Author background Since studying photography under John Hedgecoe and Michael Langford at the Royal College of Art, Tim Daly has become a well-known writer on digital photography and digital printing. During this time he has worked as a professional photographer for many blue-chip clients and national newspapers and has exhibited his work at major UK and European galleries. Tim Daly has also worked as a lecturer in photo-imaging for 20 years and combines his knowledge of teaching and learning with an infectious enthusiasm for his subject. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of Chester and an Ilford/Harman Masterclass leader. Tim Daly's books are characterised by inspirational and original photography and jargon-free language. Tim also runs Photocollege, the online learning centre for photo-imaging on www.photocollege.co.uk. Current Position Senior Lecturer in Photography, University of Chester, UK Previous titles: The Digital Photography Handbook (Quintet, 2001) The Digital Printing Handbook (Argentum/Watson Guptill, 2003) The Desktop Photographer (Argentum/Quarto 2003) The Encyclopaedia of Digital Photography (Quintet, 2004) The Essential Guide to Photography (Rotovision, 2004) Digital Retouching and Restoration (Rotovision, 2004) The Digital Color Printing Handbook (Argentum/Watson Guptill, 2005) The Digital Photo Doctor (ILEX/ Readers Digest, 2006) Creating Exhibition-Quality Digital Prints (Argentum, 2007) The Photographers Yearbook (AC Black, 2008) Printing for Digital Photographers (GMC Publications, 2008) Regular freelance Contributor to: Ag: The international journal of photographic art and practice (UK) Better Photoshop Techniques (Aus) Black and White Photography (UK) Outdoor Photography (UK) The British Journal of Photography (UK) Digital Camera Magazine (UK) What Digital Camera (UK)

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (May 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240811380
• ISBN-13: 978-0240811383
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,022,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs a Good Edit, August 15, 2009

By 

K. Grande - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Printing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Paperback)

This book tries to cover a lot of ground - more than it should. Because of this, sections are brief and often poorly explained. There are many sections at the beginning that seem completely extraneous to this topic. Of course taking a good photo is important to a good print but that isn't the focus here.

It is clear the author knows his subject well but this books need a good editor. There are no transitions in the text and I often found myself turning the page in anticipation of an in depth explanation only to find a new chapter starting instead.

More frustrating though was that the explanatory screenshots and photos are often poorly placed without captions and it is impossible to figure out which one goes with the explanation. As mentioned before, the screenshots are too small to read. Also, I found the discussions of plug-ins and third party software completely extraneous to this text.

All that being said, when I finally got to the sections that discuss printing, they were excellent. I really enjoyed the sections on soft proofing and gamut, along with the print output functions. The creative print styles and edges chapters were very interesting.

I did learn several things from this text. It will stay as a reference on my shelf. However, less breadth and more depth on the chosen topic would have made a more useful text.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Try at Explaining a Tough Topic, August 7, 2009

By 

Geoff Scott (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Printing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Paperback)

Everything you always wanted to know about printing but were afraid to ask? Well, not quite. A more accurate title for the book would be Printing Photographs with Adobe Photoshop CS4. But since photos are most of what people are trying to print, the title will reach its audience.

Printing is a nasty subject to tackle. It blends the complexities of arcane topics like color management with the harsh, physical realities of ink, paper, printers, and all the manufacturers of each. The topic touches too many companies. It's tough to simplify when a person just wants the print to look like what is on the computer screen.

Author Tim Daly notes that a good print starts with a good image. The early chapters in the book encourage good habits both at the moment of capture and throughout the editing process. There are explanations for what makes a good image and a good print. Even more useful are the techniques for correcting an image based on the resulting print, so the reader learns to refine the image to perfection. I would've liked to see more examples of this. Problems in shadow areas are specifically mentioned multiple times, but didn't have accompanying examples.

A major problem with the book is the size of the screenshots for the dialogs. They are simply too small. The text is completely unreadable in the screenshots. Considering how many dialogs have to be used to make decent prints, the screenshots are an important part of the book. The accompanying text does not really give enough details to expand on what is obscured.

Adobe Photoshop is rightly the center of the book. But it was nice to see mention of other companies both in the software world, like Nik Software's plug-ins, and printer manufacturer's like Canon, which have a plug-in just for some of their printers. The author also mentions a few of the online options available for printing these days like Blurb's on-demand books. The printing eco-system is big with a lot of options to be found in many places. This exploration is a welcome aspect to the topic of printing.

Writing comprehensively about printing photographs in a digital world is not easy. Even showing examples can't be simple. Imagine trying to show a mistake on a specific printer, which is itself printed in a book using a different printing process and type of paper. Yet even a good explanation of solving just that would go a long way to educating people about the process of printing.

Printing deserves a book to explain it well. A clear guide is needed for the complexities of the whole process, as well as Photoshop's approach to it. The scope of this book is very good, but many times the details are not explained in enough depth. The book is an improvement on the other books that I've read, but ultimately is still not the book I hope for on this important part of photography.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Printing with Adobe Photoshop CS4, August 20, 2009

By 

Ariane Colenbrander "ariane c" (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Printing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Paperback)

Tim Daly's Printing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 provides an informative, in-depth background on working within the program from a printing viewpoint. The book's 18 chapters are easy to work through and are broken down into a logical format, starting from camera essentials, understanding the difference between RAW and other formats, right through to color-correcting images for print and types of printers available on the market.

If a Photoshop plug-in is deemed worthy, it's briefly discussed where applicable. Daly additionally points out creative ways of achieving old-school photographic borders and effects that can be easily transferred to the digital medium.

Many of the printers, papers and vendors mentioned are geared to the UK audience, and on that note I did feel as though the book could have used a light edit for North American readers. Some of the sentences didn't seem to make complete sense, while text referring to a specific diagram didn't always point to the one being discussed. This however wasn't enough to keep me from reading through and learning some of the significant aspects of working within Photoshop CS4 in order to produce successful results.

Even a seasoned Photoshop user will benefit from the many topics covered in the book. I would further recommend this book to anyone who's learned the program but lacks traditional photography knowledge. Here is where the book especially shines. I plan on keeping it handy as an excellent future resource guide.

Tim Daly has both taught and written on the subject of digital photography and also runs Photocollege, an online photo imaging learning center.