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111 of 113 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gets My Highest Recommendation!, August 22, 2002
When I purchased PS7, I knew that the standard manual was not going to cut it. I then began my search for a real guide to PS 7. After considering many different books, I settled on this one. I consider myself to be an advanced amateur photographer and my equipment includes a digital SLR. This book is helping me to get the most out of my camera. I have used a few different photo editing software packages but was new to PS7. Using tutorials that I found on the WEB, I was able to do some basic editing but wanted to know much more. Well, "Real World Adobe Photoshop 7" is a treasure trove of information. The book is easy to read and the occasional humor makes the journey through the book even more enjoyable. The book is full of tips and "how-tos". Note that this book is NOT a step by step tutorial with a CD where you get to practice on someone else's photos. I wanted a how-to guide where I could immediately apply the technique to my own photos - and this book fulfills that need. I have no desire to waste time on someone else's images. "Real World" includes chapters on color management, curves and levels, sharpening, printing, etc. The instructions on profiling using Adobe Gamma were the best I've seen. I thought I already knew something about USM and sharpening until I read that chapter. Do you convert from RGB to LAB and back again when you apply USM? Well, that may not be a good idea. Did you know that you can sharpen very effectively without USM by using Layers? There is so much more I could mention but hopefully this gives you a little flavor for the book. I also like that the book provides instructions for more than one way (sometimes many ways) of accomplishing a task. In this way, you can try them all and determine what's best for your workflow. So, what about negatives? The authors wrote the book from a MAC perspective. This is clearly mentioned up front and occasionally elsewhere when there are functional differences. At other times however, you will find that their descriptions do not exactly match what you are seeing on your PC. I found this to be very minor but wanted to mention it here, just in case. Also, I would not recommend this book for true PS beginners. The authors do assume a certain pre-level of knowledge. If you want the get the most out of PS7 or want to learn alternative (better) ways of doing something, you won't regret this purchase. Thanks to this book, I'm able to give advice to others regarding PS7 questions and problems.
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47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ultimate Digital Dark Room Technique Book, May 15, 2003
Real World Photoshop 7 is an ultimate digital dark room technique book for Photoshop 7 users. The largest part of the book is dedicated to dark room techniques, but a good part of the book covers such things as getting the best scans, creating effects, saving for the web, making half-tones, etc. They cover lots of issues that help me understand WHY I might want to do something a certain way. Such as, the differences between RGB, CMYK and LAB color. When I bring a digital photo into Photoshop, I almost always feel a need to adjust it, fix the levels, etc. Fooling with the levels usually causes a color shift. To avoid that, they explain how to change the mode from RGB to LAB color, and then apply the levels command to the L (luminance) channel, leaving the color untouched. I can change the mode back to RGB afterwards, if I want. In discussing color correction, they talk about fixing the neutrals so the rest will follow and explain that in Photoshop's RGB mode, it automatically calculates the amount of CMYK to produce neutrals, but in CMYK mode, you have to manually fill in the percentages. The section on color correction is incredible. They discuss printing from Photoshop 7, the issue of different file formats and which to use when; the Rule of 16; which settings take precedence over others, and much more. The book is well laid out, with an easy to follow structure. Several light bulbs spontaneously illuminated for me while reading this book. This book is useful to new Photoshop users and for seasoned photographers who have past experience with Photoshop but like to keep a reference of new features.
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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Expert Information, September 22, 2002
A wonderful and thorough job of covering topics such as tonal and color corrections, scans, color management, spot colors and duotones, prepress and the web. I found answers to topics such as spot colors in this book that I haven't found anywhere else. The authors are expert in their field and portray that information in an easy to understand format. They also throw in some humor here and there. You'll get very comfortable using levels and curves by the time you complete this book, it is very thorough and in-depth. You'll learn how to judge what adjust needs to be made and the best way to do it. Like most full-featured programs these days, there is more than one way to achieve a task. These authors teach you the most expedient way to accomplish a wide range of tasks. You'll learn how to calibrate your monitor, make tonal corrections, remove color casts and silhouette an image for catalog work and more. This book should be on the shelf of every serious photographer
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