Customer Reviews

Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4

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

 

 

This is really an instruction manual on how to sell a book with a misleading title and virtually no useful content for a hefty price. I kept waiting for the authors to quit wasting time and actually get to the "Industrial-strength Imaging Techniques" promised on the cover. It never happened. After 200 pages of filler, there are a few actual examples of compositing, but nothing you couldn't readily find online for free. A complete disappointment, especially considering it's published in association with Adobe Press. Some free advice for Adobe Press: before you put your name on it, try passing it by one of your editors, eh?

I actually enjoyed all the chapters on preparation of your images and setups before tackling a compositing job, it was learning some new things mixed with reviewing/validating overall Photoshop features and workflow sequencing. I equated this book to being similar to painting a room. 90% of the work that will determine a superior quality paint (compositing) job lies in the hours spent getting the right materials, tools (images), and taping/prepping the room (prep-retouching/correcting). The actual painting (compositing) is just the almost-final step in the process, with some cleanup/tweaking at the end. Most important is to collect images with similar lighting source and image quality. It is very fakey to Photoshop-change the lighting on faces, buildings, landscapes, etc. to match other images' lighting if you don't have any artistic sense or experience.

My big gripe is the example composites in the back of the book. They were very amateurish, fakey and dorky, and did not show much of the tutorial lessons in them. One of the images of an old village countryside with a domed building - a mansion and a tree in the far background were too huge and out of proportion for their distance. I was hoping for more commercial compositing samples, like theatrical movie key art collages with FX layers, automotive brochure-type beauty shots and advertising art, and/or fantastic fantasy/sci fi composite imagery. This is not an ultra-advanced book, seemed aimed for high-beginner/low intermediate Photoshop students.

Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 goes over the many processes of creating a photo composite in a clearly explained, and at times simplified manner.
Compositing topics such as color correction for compositing, creating 3D content, retouching, layers and layer masks,
blurring for selective focus, and getting your image ready for output are all included.

This book will have you feeling inspired, and will enable you to look at various compositing ideas and options you may have overlooked or didn't even know existed.

Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 is to the point, yet full of information,
making this book helpful both to a novice and experienced Photoshop user alike.

My husband uses Photoshop and this has become his go-to book for compositing. It is well organized, easy to read and the instructions are clear. Highly recommended.

This is a great book for compositing photographers. It covers really important topics including the pre-visualization, shooting the images and the workflow. It's an easy read.

I wanted a book to complement the magnificent book by Katrin Eismann "Masking and Compositing" and bought this book despite the two rather negative reviews. I have lived to regret it. This book really misses the mark.

My expectations when I buy a book on compositing, sharpening, masking and compositing, channels, color management etc is to get a specialized book on that specific topic. I certainly do not expect to get a rehash of general Photoshop that may be of interest to the topic. A SHORT, VERY brief recap of necessary background knowledge is ok and sometimes even desirable. This book however, hardly ever gets past this stage.

My advice is to buy Photoshop Masking & Compositingby " Katrin Eismann. I am still looking for a book to complement it.