Real World Adobe Photoshop CS (Paperback)

by David Blatner (Author), Bruce Fraser (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Professionals in visual media face the "real world" every time their work goes to press. As authors Blatner and Fraser point out in the introduction, "In this new age of desktop prepress, there's simply no one you can ask [what values you should enter in the Color Settings and Proof Setup dialog boxes]." You need to be able to find the answers yourself to this and other critical Photoshop questions; the technology is changing too fast to rely on the guys at the end of the project to fix your errors. The authors want you to develop your "spidey sense" which is where, "in a crunch, you've gotta have an intuitive, almost instinctive feel for what's going on in Photoshop, so you can finesse it to your needs."

That's the philosophy behind the Real World series: finding the solutions to common problems and preparing your work so there're no unhappy surprises when you go to output, whether that's print, PDF, or Web/multimedia. First, this book goes over the essentials: the work environment (tools, palettes, preferences), working with images (resolution, mode, up- and downsampling), and the huge area of color management.

Once readers have those issues under their belts, they can work on techniques: tonal and color correction, selections and channels, using adjustment layers to have the perfect digital darkroom, and a variety of ways to sharpen an image (not just a blanket application of Unsharp Mask). Later sections cover spot colors and duotones (essential to every print designer's workflow), capturing images (effectively using your digital camera and scanner), and building a digital workflow using the new Camera Raw capabilities in CS and the improved file browser. And there are some great final chapters on compositing, retouching, typography, automation, outputting, and the Web.

Throughout the book there are tips and tricks that help you work more efficiently in Photoshop, for example, holding Shift while using the Move tool to take a selection from one image to another of the same pixel resolution allows you to pin-register that selection, landing it in the same location in the second image that is was in the first. This isn't a step-by-step lesson-style book. It's more the essential resource you'll read through when you first get it and always keep on hand when your "spidey sense" needs recharging. --Angelynn Grant

Product Description
Noodling around with Photoshop to create interesting composite artwork is all well and good. But if you rely on Photoshop to meet tough production challenges in a fast-paced professional environment, noodling won't cut it! You need results, and you need them now: This book delivers! In this copiously illustrated volume, best-selling authors David Blatner and Bruce Fraser offer scads of hands-on production techniques--as well as clear explanations of the concepts that drive them--so that you can get the best results possible on your own Photoshop CS projects. You'll learn about managing color, getting great scans, correcting tones and colors, and more. You also find complete coverage of all of Photoshop CS' newest features: an improved File Browser; nonsquare pixel support; cool, new Photomerge technology (which allows you to create seamless panoramas out of multiple images); and more. Throughout, the emphasis is on efficiency: the time-saving tips and professional shortcuts that will allow you to work faster, smarter, and more creatively with Photoshop CS.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 928 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 6th edition (March 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321245784
• ISBN-13: 978-0321245786
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #426,275 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Can Only Afford ONE Photoshop Book ..., September 3, 2004

By	V. Maciulski - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At over 900 pages, this book is formidable. Some beginners may be intimidated by its sheer size and weight. But, if you want thorough coverage of Photoshop CS, how to set it up, use it, tweak it and troubleshoot problems with it, then this is the book for you.

I was surprised that they started out by telling you how to build your "Photoshop System." They give advice on choosing your platform, and what you need in terms of horsepower (GHz), OS, RAM, etc. They go on to give advice on upgrading to CS and tell you what's new. (And they tell you where to find some "Easter Eggs.")

At page 555 they continue the "set-up" theme with sections on capturing images and building a digital workflow. "Capturing" covers digital cameras, scanners and photo CDs, with good advice on how to get the best image capture into Photoshop. "Building a Digital Workflow" explains the essentials of "Camera Raw," metadata and the File Browser to manage you photos. (If you're trying to capture b/w line art, it's better to scan as a high res grayscale and then use sharpening and threshold.)

They do a good job at explaining bitmaps vs. vectors, and how resampling or changing image modes affects your document. (You should use "Bicubic Smoother" for upsampling and "Bicubic Sharper" for downsampling.)

Since Bruce Fraser is co-author, the 100+ pages on color theory and management are excellent. (There are over 60 more pages on color correction, 50 more pages on spot color and duotones and yet another 50 additional pages on tonal correction.) If you buy this book, you don't need an additional book on color management.

I personally got a lot out of Chapter 10, which covers sharpening. It gave me a better understanding of how it works and how to do a better job when retouching photos. I plan to re-visit page 626 when I need to convert color images to grayscale. And page 636 has a technique to use the clone tool and stroked paths to automate removal of powerlines, long scratches, etc.!

Of course, they cover more stuff, like getting more detail in shadows, text and typography, photomerge hidden features, and how to apply those nifty filters and effects.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written clarifications of complex issues, August 21, 2004

By	D. Johnson (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wouldn't write this except for the fact that nobody else has mentioned this book's major strength. It is exceptionally well written. It is quite obvious that the authors have taught this material in the "real world".

It addresses tasks that we need to perform but often can't even define. It follows with examples and explanations that have wider applications. The result is a real education. You understand how to think about digital images and where to begin to find ways to your objectives.

A lot of people who have made one picture in Photoshop write books on how to be an artist and "all you have to do is..." drivel. This book is not an ego trip for an amateur writer. It is insightful and should motivate you to make photographs and eventually use more than the 2% of your digital camera's potential that you now use.

If you want a sample of what to expect, look up Bruce Fraser and you'll find some of his articles on-line. Try http://www.creativepro.com/author/home/40.html. If this stuff makes sense to you, you should buy this book. If it seems over your head, study it until you understand it, then buy this book.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent intermediate/advanced Photoshopping, September 29, 2004

By	Stuart Bloom (Earlville, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At the outset, the authors say that this is not the book for tips and tricks on how to get the coolest special effects, but rather a book for moving images through Photoshop, from image acquisition through final output. I'd add that neither is it a book for the raw newcomer looking for a handholding step-by-step guide to the basics. It is instead a book for the person who's past the basics and wants down-to-earth, practical advice on how to move to the next stage - the creation of great images using this superb piece of software.

Almost every page of this book has at least one valuable nugget of information. The authors cite example after example from their personal experience. Most of the time, they not only suggest what you should do, they tell you why. It's hard to pick out one chapter or section to praise, because they're uniformly excellent.

One minor quibble - the authors are unapologetic Mac users, and they do not even follow the normal practice of giving keyboard shortcuts for both Mac and Windows environments. Also, the simple scripting example is in Applescript instead of the cross-platform Javascript. But if you can keep in your mind that Option means Alt and Command means Control, this will not detract from the value of this superb book.