Customer Reviews

Welcome to Oz 2.0: A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sometimes it is easier to define a thing by what it is not than what it is. Vincent Versace's book, Welcome to Oz 2, is not merely a "How-To" book or a "100 Photo Tips and Tricks" book. It does not tell you what lens or filter to use in a given situation. It is not a book you browse through. This is an adult book with a mature approach to photography from a different perspective than photographic help books. Whereas most books will teach you the craft of photography, this book will teach you the art of photography. Whereas other books teach you the "how" of photography, this book will also teach you the "why" of photography: why we are asked to do things in a certain way, why these ways are superior and how they will lead to a better appreciation of the print.

It was Vincent's prints that I stood in front of several years ago at a photographic seminar he was conducting in Oakland, California. I was stunned when I saw those images, and I didn't know exactly why they had the power to transfix me. I had been in photography as an amateur for a long time, and I could recognize contrast and saturation and other attributes, but it wasn't until I read his first Welcome to Oz book that I came to understand why I was so impressed and how he did it. Anyone looking for a quick fix or a pat formula for photographic success will not find it in this book. This book asks you to work and think and stretch your imagination. It leads you along the way through clear, concise explanations and numerous helpful illustrations. You don't read this book. You work through this book.

Yes, as one reviewer at this site mentioned, there is an emphasis on the use of Photoshop, but don't be fooled that this is a book about how to use Photoshop. This is a book about how to make great photographs into successful prints. It captures the thought process one should use from the conception of the print before the shutter button is ever pressed to how the nature of that capture can be enhanced in Photoshop to guide the viewers' eyes and thoughts to enhance his appreciation. This book is not about taking pictures. It is about making pictures.

Professionals have no monopoly on learning photography. Amateurs serious about their art will also benefit greatly from the Oz series of books and DVDs. It was not until I read the first book that I was able to raise my photography to another level. It proved to be a revelation to me. I have worked part way through this Welcome to Oz 2 book since receiving it recently. It is not a warmed makeover of the first book. It contains new insights, new approaches and new techniques. This book and I have many hours to go. Of all the photographic books I have ever read, I feel the first Oz book has taken me the farthest, and this book has the potential to take me even farther. I consider this work a gold standard in the education of photographic art. If you are serious about your work, I think you might, also.

Vincent Versace's new book "Welcome to Oz 2.0" is far, far more than another book about how to "make digital images look good" using Photoshop. I have a shelf full of such books. This book offers something much more unique and far more valuable. The book, in a way unlike any that I'm aware of, sets forth the artist's approach to producing masterful digital images and prints. Like a Zen master, Versace offers tips that bear extended contemplation: "Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect;" and "impossible is just an opinion." What differentiates this book from its peers is that Versace gives the reader NOT just step by step ideas about how he managed to create these visual masterpieces, he also explains the philosophy and thought processes that led him to take these steps. (Some of which are unique to him). It's as if we've been invited "behind the curtain" for a private tutorial with a great artist and teacher. In addition to the written material and images, purchasers of the book receive software worth many times the book's purchase price--along with instructions from Versace in the software's use. The first version of "Welcome to Oz"--if one can find it--sells at a premium of many times the original price. This new book is a complete rewrite and expansion of Versace's earlier work. The Introduction suggests that Versace may write two further books on this subject. Photographers and digital artists should hope this happens. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and buy this book before it too is fetching $150 a copy from used booksellers! This is NOT a beginner's book, but is a MUST HAVE for photographers and digital artists trying to "get the last 2%" from their images.

I have read Vincent Versace's Welcome to Oz and have now read Welcome to Oz 2. Well Done Vincent!! This version takes you further into Vincent's belief that it is the Print that is all.
He mentions how the eye travels within the image/print and he then goes into minute detail on how to accomplish this. Along the way, there are important discussions on various factors, These include image taking, image harvesting, depth of field, light, color and gesture. In addition, there are several terrific plugins that are included free.

As mentioned in another review, I would also recommend the DVD's that are available from Acme Educational. There is one for Welcome to Oz 2 so whether it is easier to learn via reading or viewing, both modalities are available to the end user. I would highly recommend the book and the DVD. In short, Vincent has again contributed something unique to our understanding of image making. Well Done!

Apparently the title threw me for a bit of a loop. I was lured by the majority of the title "a cinematic approach" & "digital photography," but betrayed by those two little words: "with Photoshop." Sadly, Amazon doesn't offer a preview of the book's contents.

This book seems to be less about photography (composing a shot, lighting it & using the right filters to get that "perfect shot" the first time in-camera) than it is about post-processing in Photoshop (compositing, changing light curves, enhancing, augmenting or fixing photos after the fact). Granted, there are other interesting tidbits interspersed to spruce it up...

Simply put, I was hoping for a book more specifically on the art of composing and taking photos, with some kind of reference to or comparison with cinematic visuals and techniques (vis a vis, the title "Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography..."), and maybe a brief section on Photoshop tricks. Seems it's the other way around with the majority of focus on using Photoshop and much briefer snippets on the taking of photos themselves.

I'd assumed from the title that there would be copious direct references to cinematic techniques or use of reference images from cinematic history to demonstrate a particular imaging technique (soft focus, long shot, lighting, neutral density filter, etc.). Not to be, I'm afraid.

Caveat emptor! (Just be aware of what the book is and isn't. This is obviously not the book for a beginner or an intermediate photographer, it's for wanna-be/gonna-be advanced Photoshoppers. I'm sure that for the avid Photoshopper, this will be a great book and teach you some neat tricks for post-processing images to push them beyond mediocrity and into artistic masterpieces. So, please, please be careful when ordering this that you're looking for a book specifically on Photoshopping your images and not so much a how-to on setting up shots or comparison with all things cinematic.)

For reference, a book that I recently read and LOVED was The Filmmaker's Eye: Learning (and Breaking) the Rules of Cinematic Composition. A reviewer of that book said this book should be checked out as well. Unfortunately, this book isn't quite as similar to that one as I'd hoped. I also think that for an introduction to photography and/or moviemaking there's Knack Digital Moviemaking and for a little more depth on lenses & filters one might check out Lenses for Digital SLRs, too. Also, The Digital Photography Book series seems a good introduction to photography itself.

So, all told, if you're looking for a book on intermediate to advanced use of Photoshop tools, this may be a good book to give a browse. It gives step-by-step instructions on the use of various Photoshop tools to accomplish specific goals in correcting and enhancing photos you've already taken. If you're looking for an introductory book on photography or for a comparative analysis of photographic techniques and filmmaking techniques, another book would probably be more appropriate.

If I ever get heavily into Photoshop, I might return to this book at a later date. It's by no means a bad book, just not quite what I was in the market for. For those into digital darkroom and post-processing, this may be just the ticket!

Early in "Welcome to OZ 2.0", Vincent Versace says that if editing an image will bring it 2% closer to your original vision, then you have to edit. That's a good rule to keep in mind as you read the techniques for using Photoshop that this book provides. (Note that there are substantial differences and updates in this edition so that fans of the earlier volume will probably find something helpful to them by exploring the updated work.)

The author believes that the artistic photographer leads the viewer through a photograph, and does this by a combination of global and selective adjustments to the original image in tone, lighting and color, among other things. The book consists of four tutorials that each take a single image and follow it step by step through the series of Photoshop activities that Versace uses to process a photograph. The reader is expected to follow along in Photoshop with the images, which can be downloaded from a special website, that also provides other useful materials (including a couple of free and demo Photoshop plug-ins that will be used in the tutorials). The author is not so much interested in making a duplicate of reality (if that's even possible in photography) as in creating an artistic print. The four images include a portrait, a glamour shot, a leaf shot and a flower shot and one has to admit that the final results are quite lovely.

Having been taken to task in the past for saying that a Photoshop book was for advanced users, I will say that this book went beyond any Photoshop techniques that I currently use. For example, like many photographers, I currently adjust my white balance by looking at an image and adjusting the temperature and tint sliders to my satisfaction using Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. Versace uses a far more elaborate system for making what he calls sensor corrections by selecting individual light and dark points and making individual curve adjustments for each color channel, although he then makes further color adjustments to suit his vision. Verace uses dozens of Photoshop layers and masks to develop an image to his satisfaction.

Whether such an elaborate procedure moves an image more than 2% closer to his or her vision is something the individual photographer will have to decide. For me, I thought that I would be unlikely to use most of the author's procedures. On the other hand, I might have occasional use for some of the procedures, such as adjusting the tonality of an area through the use of layer masks and painting on the masks in shades of grey, to, for example, decrease apparent depth of field. Moreover the overall theory of adjusting tonality and color to lead the viewer through the photograph was of great applicability. Versace's use of filters that I had never even considered, like the lighting effects filter, will surely prove useful to some photographers.

To get the most from the author's techniques, it is almost mandatory that you download the images and follow along, step by step. For me at least, that was a time consuming procedure, and made me wonder, during individual steps, if the process was worth what I learned. And yet, even though I don't expect to use many of his techniques, the effort seemed at first worthwhile, not just to acquire a few new tricks, but also to gain a greater understanding of what was going on in Photoshop. I must confess that eventually I found the process of following the author's adjustments too tedious, and given the fact that the effort seemed to exceed my calculation of the 2% rule, I quit about two-thirds of the way through the book. Nevertheless, if you find this kind of detailed processing useful to you, you may benefit from completion.

If you haven't developed fluency with Photoshop, this book may be over your head. On the other hand, individuals interested in squeezing the last drop from the post-processing process should investigate this book. For myself, I have been happy with the level of techniques provided in another book by the same publisher. In "Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Voices That Matter)", David DuChemin covers the same ground in a less intensive fashion.

I greatly enjoyed Vincent Versace's first "Welcome to Oz" book. What's not entirely clear from the product description is that this book---Welcome to Oz 2.0---is essentially a completely new book (rather than an updated second edition). It is 292 pages as opposed to 188 pages, and provides in many ways a different persepective based on Vincent's work and experience in the intervening years between the books. By the way, these are 292 pages packed with useful information, not light weight, fluffy stuff.

In other words, if you own "Welcome to Oz" you should also buy "Welcome to Oz 2.0"---and if you are altogether unfamiliar with Vincent Versace's approach to digital photography and Photoshop you'll definitely find this book useful and enjoyable.

Vincent's book is unusual in that it has contributions to make on two different subjects: learning to see so as to create good digital images; and how to perfect those images in Photoshop. There aren't many authors out there who can help you in both arenas. You may not want to do everything Vincent's way---I certainly don't---but you do want to learn from him as I have.

If you've read this far, don't hesitate. Just get this book, you won't regret it.

I had originally written the review below and given this book four stars in a matter of minutes after my powt, Mr Versace replied to my complaint by showing me what page the url for the downloads was located DOHHHHH!!!

Ok, I stand corrected. And have revised my rating to five stars.

And, thank, Mr. V, for given me a gentle nudge when a whack with a two by four might have been warranted.

Old review here - I'm leaving it because I'm not ashamed to show I'm a bonehead! Well, that and there's some stuff in there about the kindle iPad app that's important to know if you've shied away from buying kindle books for your Apple.

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Ill keep this revue short, as much of what I'd say about this book, and more importantly, Vincents approach has been stated by previous reviewers.

I have only one issue, and it's with the Kindle version, which is how I buy all my books these days. Early in the introduction there is reference to included high resolution digital files of the image used in the lessons. As far as I can tell, these are not included in the Kindle version, or available to download from Vincent's website.

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I'm accustomed to having those files available in this type of book, I.e. Scott Kelby's excellent books.

Sure, I have images of my own that are similar enough to use, and as the book is really about capture, as much as any computer work, I could create my own. Maybe that's the point?

BTW, if you have an iPad, all these books have full color images using the Kindle app. Most are even set up to zoom the images themselves to higher res. It's not quite as elegant as Apples iBook app and the way it handles photos, but though I love Apple gear (I own a n 8core mac pro, a MacBook pro, an iPad and an iPhone), I'm not thrilled with their media sales practices.

If you are looking for a comprehensive how to book that goes beyond the steps of Photoshop and into the why and how you can make artful prints this book is for you.

I love going over his source images "most books don't give you the files to learn on" and then applying these steps into my own images. With some "How to books" when trying to apply the how's the author described in the book the prescribed steps never quite cross over to your work. With Vincent's sharing his "why" he does and "what" he sees inside the image, you can understand "if you read and apply the thinking" why his images work and why MY images can work too. The best thing about this book is it's not just a book about Photoshop. It's a book about the art of photography and the tool's we use today. I can buy any book weighing in at over10 lbs of how-to's and the steeps of Photoshop but not often have I found a book that helps me understand the creative thinking behind what I can do with my work.

I am working back over old images now and using these very helpful tips and my work looks better then it did 10 years ago. I never knew how to get the images I felt from the tools that I had until this book.

Thanks Vincent for getting inside my head.

In my decades of climbing the mountain that is photography only two books have smacked me in the head and made me realize that I was indeed a hack but that I now had in my hands the tool to fix that...The Negative by Ansel Adams and Welcome to Oz 2.0 by Vincent Versace.

I write this because Vincent Versace is one of the industry's preeminent artistic photographers as well as,one of the most patient and passionate teachers I've had the pleasure to study under. However, do not presume I write this as an endorsement out of allegiance and homage. Following is my humble overview of what I learned from the book. Personally, I would not pay attention to a prior review from someone who does not read a book's synopsis before purchasing and who after supposedly reading the book does not understand the valuable lessons Vincent imparts upon the reader.

This is not a book for a raw beginner. Vincent takes the reader on a journey that will both educate and inspire any photographer who wishes to expand his or her artistic photographic horizon. Cinematography has the advantage of motion and time to tell a story and convey a message. Vincent offers a means to transform a still image into a complete vibrant cinematic saga. He begins by emphasizing the absolute necessity to get the photo correctly cropped and focused in the camera. Excellent photographers do not rely on post production software to make a correctly cropped initial image because they understand the necessity to maximize the use of the full frame with the image they imagined at the moment of the click. Cropping in postproduction eliminates important data from the image, which is necessary to print the desired enlargement to it maximum potential. However, every photograph does need some form of non-destructive enhancement to create a beautiful image and that is what this book conveys to the reader.

It's pure fact that the camera is incapable of producing the perfect imagined image as the eyes see it. I emphasize the word imagined because that is why the photographer clicked the shutter. This book is about a progression of methods to transform the initial image into the imagined work of art at the moment of the click. It is about creating a truly artistic story that the photographer will proudly display to friends and the public and not simply import into iPhoto and edit with a few limited generic presets to make an image worthy of printing at the local drug store kiosk to send to the grandparents or place in a passport.

As an aside, I strongly suggest the reader to purchase some of Vincent's educational DVDs to further comprehend Vincent's invaluable artistic approach to photography. I speak from experience and credit Vincent for improving me from a so-so photographer with minimal understanding of Photoshop into a well versed photographic artist with expert Photoshop knowledge. This book is a progression through Photoshop depth of field, focus, blur, lighting, image harvesting, portraits, landscapes, color and black and white and most anything else that one can imagine. The reader should keep in mind that the book does not contain Vincent's photographic masterpieces but the best image to convey each chapter's lesson so the reader can comprehend each individual step in the process. This is not a book about Photoshop quick fixes, keyboard shortcuts and surefire generic simple workflow. It apples strictly to Photoshop and some various plugins. It does not pertain to Lightroom, Aperture or Photoshop Bridge. God knows we already have enough of those in the marketplace. I guarantee that this book will become a desktop reference book for those artists that always wish to improve their creative photographic talent.

Be patient and pay attention because you'll learn more than you imagined from a true master.