DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY Expert Techniques
By Ken MilburnReviewed by Tom Zinneman
This book is for the serious digital photographer. It targets photographers using digital SLR or prosumer cameras, rather than the under $500 cameras. It also assumes the use of Adobe’s Photoshop as the primary tool for editing images. It is not for the Photoshop novice. In fact, the author assumes the user is already familiar with the more common commands and tools used in Photoshop.
The process of taking images as well as manipulating images is covered, although much of the book is devoted to the latter. A wide-range of topics are covered as illustrated by the chapter contents: The Digital Photographer; Be Prepared; Bringing Out the Best Picture; Panoramas; Photoshop Selections, Masks, and Paths; Basic Digital Photo Corrections; Converting Photos to Paintings; Special Photographic Effects; Retouching and Rescuing Photos; Creating Fictitious Photos; Color Printing; Use Pictures to Sell Yourself; and Sell It on the Web.
Each chapter is divided into two sections: Getting Started and Tips. The Getting Started section provides basic information on the chapter subject. For example, in the chapter Basic Digital Photo Corrections, the Getting Started section provides quite a bit of information on Extending Tonal Range. Four different methods are described: use multiple exposures in the same image file, extend tonal range with the blend modes, burn and dodge small areas in softlight mode, and use screen and multiply modes on adjustment layers.
In this same chapter, five Tips are given. As an example, Tip 2 discusses reducing image noise. A discussion of reducing noise with Photoshop and two other utility programs, nik Dfine and Grain Surgery, is provided. Like this example, many of the Tips include not only solutions based on using Photoshop, but also on other available Photoshop plug-ins and specialty programs.
As can be seen by the above examples, this book is not for the beginning digital photographer. It is for those photographers ready to take their hobby or craft to the next level. Although I’ve been using digital cameras and image editing programs for the past six years, I found this book to be quite challenging. I found many useful ideas and techniques to add to my ever-growing bag of tricks (now, if only I could remember them).
Copyright 2004
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