Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Mac and PC (Paperback)

~ Martin Evening (Author) "I reckon it is probably fair to say every photographer I know now involved with digital imaging came from the position of being a one-time..." (more)
Key Phrases: grayscale work space, image layer mask, layer clipping path, Channel Mixer, Adobe Gamma, Adobe Photoshop (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers focuses on the capabilities of Photoshop that are most useful to professional, particularly commercial, photographers. It's no cheesy production: with its crisp text and color images printed on heavyweight paper, and a companion CD-ROM with several substantial QuickTime movies, it's a beautiful way to learn.

The book is primarily a guide to using Photoshop as an effective photographer's tool. A substantial portion of the book is spent on digital image capturing, resolution, and color management. If you are at all unclear about the RGB workspace, but need to know the ins and outs of profiles, this book will definitely help. There's even a movie on the CD-ROM explaining the RGB, CMYK, and LAB spaces. Prepress proofing and outputting are also well covered.

Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers also runs down each tool and its options and then presents the techniques most photographers will want to know: basic image adjustments (for example, perspective cropping and unsharp masking), color adjustments (like using variations or replacing color), repairing an image (for example, cloning or rescuing shadow details), montage techniques, black and white effects (including helpful information on duotones), cool coloring effects (like channel mixer adjustments), and about 50 pages showing what can be done with layer effects and filters.

These sections are not so much tutorials as examples that illustrate an effect or set of effects, displayed in stages using professional-level photographs. As opposed to the numbered step-by-step approach, each section in this book has several paragraphs of text, written in a conversational yet supportive and knowledgeable style, accompanied by images and screen shots with detailed captions. (You can get an idea of this by reading excerpts from the book on the author's Web site, www.evening.demon.co.uk.) You'll be able to follow along better if you've already worked in Photoshop. However, if you work professionally with digital photos, the material in here is stuff you will want to know, no matter what level of user you are.

There are a lot of creative ideas to be discovered in this book, in addition to the necessary facts about maintaining the visual integrity of your photographs as they go through the digital process. --Angelynn Grant

Review

Reviews of this edition:

"If you"re fairly new to digital imaging, this book will help guide you through every step from capturing the image from setting up Photoshop to learning short cuts and image manipulation. It has a comprehensive chapter on color management as well, which is often a confusing subject."
Range Finder magazine

"Despite its title...there's a lot in here that's valuable for the general Photoshop user... the chapter [on Color Management] is far and away the best I've ever read on the subject... Digital photographers should buy [this book] even if they have to pawn their analogue SLRs to get it." Karen Charlesworth, Macworld magazine

'Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers' has been awarded a COOL 2 Award from PEI magazine.

'The book is very production-orientated and herein lies its strength... It's reassuring to be taught by someone with many miles of real output to his name' Tom Ang, MacUser magazine

"I wish I had bought this book before spending a fortune on other much more expensive books. This book is written in terms that are easy and interesting to follow. I would certainly recommend it." Amazon.co.uk reader

"Quality - that's the one word that sums this book up. The professional advice, the beautiful images, the simple but effective design and layout... all make this book a class act all the way. A very good book indeed." Amazon.co.uk reader

'The title says it all... All in all it's an excellent book that deals with its title in a clear and professional manner.' Amazon.co.uk reader

"Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers carries on the series that has become an invaluable guide to getting the most out of the program, particularly in a photographic workflow environment." Professional Photographer

"Outstanding, well written, what every photographer needs.... I've been using Photoshop now for many years, in fact since S3.0 when I upgraded to PS5 I purchased Adobe Photoshop 5.0 for Photographers, couldn't put it down. Now with this edition you would have thought Martin couldn't have bettered it...but he has. This book is the 'must have' reference book for all....not just photographers." Amazon.co.uk reader

"To be called the 'bible' in a given field is a high honour for any book. But this updated edition deserves the accolade, as it's the essential reference work for all digital photographers. Incorporating Photoshop 6's new features, this manual shows how your digital images can be enhanced and improved."
Computer Arts

"Martin Evening makes a splendid guide for the photographer making the change from darkroom chemicals to digital processing. A professional photographer himself, Evening knows which information is essential for a smooth transition, and what needs be left on the cutting-room floor. The book covers everything from Photoshop workspace basics to sophisticated montage techniques. The accompanying CD is packed with tutorial movies. Serious shutterbugs, this one's for you.covers fresh ground and the tutorials work brilliantly. If you are looking for fresh insight you will not be disappointed."
Amazon.co.this is the real thing... it has a clear, clean layout with superbly detailed content on nearly all of Photoshop's features, old and new. It's wonderfully illustrated with color images throughout, and (my favorite) includes real-life assignments from leading photography professionals - the real difference between the bulk-book authors who guess at the technique and the pros who are actually doing it." Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher, DT&G Magazine

Amazon.com listed 'Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers' 6th in its Bestselling Graphics and Illustration Books of 2001.

'This is really the Photoshop bible - and that's not just my opinion! Packed with class information and terrific illustrations, once you have had a look at this complete volume, you'll agree that there's not much that can come close to Evening's book for no-nonsense, quality Photoshop information. Everything Evening has to say is eminently relevant for the serious commercial or enthusiast photographer. One of the best Photoshop books on the market.'
Better Digital

Reviews of previous editions:

"This is the book I wish I'd had five years ago when I was first learning Photoshop."
Russell Williams, Adobe Photoshop engineer.

"Adobe Photoshop 5.0 for Photographers is a great choice for any photographer who has finally been dragged, perhaps a little reluctantly (or perhaps kicking and screaming), into the brave new world of digital imaging."
David Herman

"Someone has just re-written the bible, the Photoshop bible...Whether you are an expert or a beginner, this is a book that talks your language."
Digital PhotoFX

"You are a photographer and new to digital imaging and Photoshop - this is just the book for you. A teaching CD-ROM of short walkthrough movies enhances the value of the book as a really sound instruction manual - likely to be revisited many times as experience grows"
The Photographic Journal

"A mine of useful information, aimed at not only helping photographers to produce the very best quality images, but also gives techniques for image manipulation. For anyone involved with image processing this is a must have book!"
Photo Technique

"Whether you're a newcomer to Photoshop or a more experienced user seeking some guidance, Evening's easy-to-follow book is on the only guide aimed specifically at photographers".
Amateur Photographer

"Every instructor of Photoshop should have Photoshop for Photographers in their library and use it as a resource"
Photoshop student

"If you're one of those people who hates manuals - this book comes as a breath of fresh air."
British Journal of Photography

"Covers all the most useful features in understandable terms. This book will save you hundreds of hours of heartache."
Total Imaging

"This publication is a must for all photographers, independent of your level of experience with the package, as it's written by a practising professional photographer with you, the photographer, in mind"
The Association of Photographers

'Photographers, and anyone else who needs a thorough technical grounding in all aspects of digital photography will find everything they need to know within these pages'. --Ken McMahon, amazon.co.uk

The previous, 5.5 edition of this book was 5th in Amazon.co.uk's 'Choices of 2000' titles in the computer graphics section!

"With the previous version never straying from the Top Ten digital imaging publications for photographers at Amazon.com, [this is] THE digital imaging book that photographers must have." Digital Photography & Design -- Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; Bk&Cd edition (December 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240516338
• ISBN-13: 978-0240516332
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #422,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT book,...but not for the novice., March 30, 2001

By A Customer

This is a GREAT book! I thinks it's the best book on Photoshop since 'Photoshop Channel Chops' (out of print, but if you see it, GRAB IT). However, the amateur should beware as this is definately NOT for the novice user of photoshop.

I consider myself to be an 'advanced' user of photoshop (worked with it since version 4). I use it for everything from simple color correction of photos to full-blown, entirely digital matte paintings composed of 50+ layers and channel adjustments and even I learned a thing or TEN from this book. I was really pleased with the author's thorough discussion of color management and file output and proofing - GREAT stuff! Not to mention the many examples utilizing Photoshop 6.0's improved funtionality to do things in ways I'd either never thought of, or had done in a less than elegant, round-about way 'cause I've always done it that way.

Like many of the unsuspecting readers who have posted here, when I first read the back cover I thought it would be yet another one of the many 'Getting Aquainted With Photoshop' type books that litter the bookstore shelves, but after thumbing through it, I quickly realized that despite the quotes that the publisher had thrown on the back-cover, the author has aimed this work squarely at the professional. In fact, upon close inspection of the cover you'll see just below the main-title, the faint silver sub-title, 'A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative Use of Photoshop For The Macintosh and PC',...that really says it all. I have no doubt that the publisher purposefully made the sub-title a MUCH smaller and thin, sans-serif font with a silver (read: invisible) color to drop it from pronouncement on the front cover. With that and the 'Anyone Can Use It' tone of the quotations on the back cover, it's obvious that they were hoping to appeal to a much broader audience. Shame on you guys! However, I do think that a determined novice user of photoshop , someone who understands the program and is enthusiastic to learn more, will benefit GREATLY from this book,...I wish I'd have had this book when I was first starting out. Worth the read. Well done!

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good - but not for the inexperienced, February 12, 2001

By	"chris_harlow" (Ellon, Aberdeenshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

When I bought this book it was as an aid to my understanding of the use of Photoshop in conjunction with digital cameras. To a large extent it succeeded and I learnt a great deal from it.

Potential purchasers should, however, understand that the book appears to be targeted rather more at the professional photographer than the amateur with moderate cost equipment. The chapter on colour management is, for example, good, but deals mostly with high end devices and does not really help those who print to standard colour inkjet printers.

The author also has an annoying habit of assuming that the reader is already familiar with much of Photoshop and, worse, that they have already read the previous version of his book!

If you are a beginner to either Photoshop or digital photography this book is not for you, but if you already have some experience then you will probably find it very useful and if you are a professional photographer then it will probably be invaluable.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Written by someone who knows what he's talking about, August 26, 2001

By	Van Goodwin (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews

Finally, a book on digital imaging that actually uses full color throughout! This is an excellent book if you are interested in digital photo reproduction and/or manipulation. While you'll need some knowledge of the terms in the profession to understand everything the book has to offer, even the casual photoshop tinkerer will find a lot of useful information. If you EVER use Photoshop to handle digital images, you will NOT be sorry you bought this book. It covers scanning, digital cameras, retouching, reproduction, and has extensive information on color management. The list goes on, but needless to say, the author covers everything that he, as a photographer, feels is important.