Digital Abstract & Macro Photography (One Off) (Paperback)

by Ken Milburn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Get ready to view your photographs as more than simply the images they have captured as you learn how to digitally transform them. Rather than a traditional step-by-step guide to photography, "Digital Abstract & Macro Photography" is meant to inspire with its images. It offers digital photographers a glimpse into the world of possibilities that exist for transforming traditional photographs into unique, abstract works of art. Each featured photograph is accompanied by a series of images, reflecting the major stages of the creation process. Take your vision to the next level as you discover the eye-catching techniques that can be applied to your photographs.

About the Author
Ken Milburn¿s background as a digital artist is founded in an earlier career of fifteen years as a nationally published advertising and editorial photographer. His photographs have appeared in TV Guide, Look Magazine, and The Los Angeles Sunday Times Magazine. His advertising clients have included Southern California Gas, Cole of California, Universal Pictures, Capitol Records, Strega Liquer, and the Fluer Corporation. Today, Ken is also an internationally recognized digital artist. He specializes in the composition and manipulation of digitized images for the purposes of fine art and illustration. His work originates as photographs and he then uses computers to abstract them into works that appear to be paintings. Design Graphics Magazine has featured his work in multiple-page full-color in two of its issues. Computer Artist and Digital Video Magazine have also featured Milburn¿s work. He has written twenty computer books in the past five years. His most recent include: Digital Photography: Expert Techniques, Digital Photography: 99 Tips and Tricks to Make You Look Like a Pro, Photoshop Elements 2: The Complete Reference, The Photoshop 7 Virtual Classroom, The Digital Photography Bible (1st and 2nd Editions), Photoshop 5.5 Professional Results (Osborne/McGraw-Hill), Master Photoshop 5.5 Visually, Visually Master Photoshop 6.0, , and Cliff¿s Notes on Taking Digital Photographs (Hungry Minds).

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (March 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592006132
• ISBN-13: 978-1592006137
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #720,486 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars digital overkill is not abstract, August 11, 2005

By	Alexei Lebedev (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While it would be correct to say that most of the photographs in this book are abstract, it would be more accurate to describe them as poor and overprocessed in photoshop, with instantly recognizable digital effects such as edge detect, posterize, charcoal, glowing edges, wild tinting and colorization, etc. Gratuitous applications of various fringe filters, ilke Photo Wiz Focal Blade or Xaos Segmation, abound.

In the "Salsa" photograph, you can clearly see the accidental click with a photoshop brush (it happens on Windows when you try to bring a window to the front and accidentally plant a blotch of foreground color).

What the author has done, for the most part, is taken the most average-looking, uninspired photographs, like that of the bottom of his sneaker, and tried to make them work by applying "interesting" effects. The problem is that abstract or not, a picture needs an idea to give it a reason to exist.

To be fair to the author, the very first few photographs look very reasonable and are done in taste. But once the author exhausts the repertoire of contrast, sharpen, and curves, it seems that he begins to grow increasingly desperate trying to fill the rest of the book with content.

The macro section is particularly disappointing: featuring just nine photographs out of the total of over a hundred, with almost non-existent depth of field, and instances of dirt, hair, cigarette butts, magnified slime, sprinkled generously with magnified digital noise, it's underwhelming considering that Macro is in the title of the book.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars False Advertising, May 28, 2005

By	Don Truett (Ramona, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I based my purchase of this book on the Editorial and Customer Reviews. What they failed to note is that despite the title, little of this is true macro photography - some of it is done with a closeup filter, but not much. Further, and in my opinion worse, is the lack of mention of the fact that most of the digital alteration in Photoshop is done with third party (read commercial and expensive) plug-ins. Sure, the author prefaces this by saying that you can try to get the same effect without them, but just try it - can't be done with most of the photos, therefore making this book worthless in terms of a tutorial unless you spend hundreds of dollars on Nik, KPT, etc plug-ins. I am returning the book. It's my most disappointing Amazon purchase ever!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Inspiring, and Helpful, April 3, 2005

By	Elaine Enderton (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

A friend of mine reviews books for one of the computer magazines and I just saw Digital Abstract & Macro Photography sitting on her coffee table. You might guess right there that this is not your average, overly-wordy "how to" book - the coffee table is appropriate! Anyway, after browsing through a few pages, I found myself captivated and asked if I could borrow it. I am not a digital photography expert, just so you know. This book caught my eye since it appears that Milburn's main purpose in this book is to show what can be accomplished with digital photography -- and where you can take it with a lot of imagination.

All the book's pages are in pairs: the left hand page shows you some of the evolutionary stages of the feature photo on the right hand page. Each of the small photos is accompanied by Ken's conversational description of what he did to get his end result. I can't wait to get a copy of this book for myself. In the meantime, I've dusted off my old little point-and-shoot digital camera -- I'm taking a lot more photos, and am even starting to look around for a more serious camera. Oh - and did I mention that the photos are gorgeous? Ya gotta get this book.