How to Wow: Photoshop CS3 for Photography

How to Wow: Photoshop CS3 for Photography Review

Wouldn’t it be great if you could have one of the world’s most sought-after Photoshop teachers sitting next to you as you navigate through the infinite possibilities of your digital photographic darkroom, especially with a tool as deep and as complex at Photoshop? How to Wow: Photoshop CS3 for Photography is the next best thing. It’s the brainchild of Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis, world-renowned author and educator, and award-winning designer and photographer, who has developed invaluable methods to help you reach your full creative and craftsmanship potential. In this gorgeous full-color book, Jack guides you step-by-step through real-world projects, with an emphasis on uncompromising quality, last-minute flexibility, and go-home-at-night speed! You’ll receive tips and techniques on everything from streamlining your workflow in Bridge to hand-tinting an antique look, to optimizing and enhancing an entire photo shoot automatically (and nondestructively) in Adobe Camera Raw! Whether it’s optimizing the color and tone of your image, retouching cosmetic undesirables, or creating classic sepia color treatments, you’ll receive the tools at every stage of the creative process in order to learn How to Wow! Jack begins with the essentials of workflow (including color management, Bridge file-organization, and instant Camera Raw optimization), and continues with targeted adjusting and optimizing and retouching and repairing in Photoshop. Finally, Jack rounds it out with the fun stuff—projects that focus on enhancing and exaggerating aspects of your photos for maximum impact.

Bonus CD, included with the book, contains all the images you’ll need to follow along with each project!

How to Wow Topics Include:

• Camera and Computer Workflow: From Camera settings to using Calibrated Profiles to Soft Proofing and Print Previewing in CS3.

• Bridge and Camera Raw Workflow: Organizing and Processing your plethora of images in Bridge, and using the power of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to blaze through Optimizing dozens of photographs at once.

• Smart Non-destructive Workflow: Between ACR’s prowess and CS3’s Smart Filter technology you may rarely need to “push pixels” again!

• Selecting Tips and Techniques: Whether it’s the new Quick Select and Refine Edge tools or masking secrets that have been available for years, you will be selecting quickly and easily in no time.

• Color and Tone Optimizing: Sometimes you can’t tweak an image enough in ACR. Instead, use the power of CS3’s Curves and Masks for Color Correction and “Smart” nondestructive Dodging and Burning!

• Enhancing Can Begin in Camera Raw! Correct everything in ACR from Color and Tone (with Jack’s Four-Step Tango Fix) to instant Special Effects.

• Skin Softening, Portrait Patching, and Wrinkle Reduction: Skin Softening, Unifying Color, Problem Patching, Wrinkle Reduction and Skin and Glasses Glare Removal, even Selective Body Reshaping.

• Enhancing Eyes, Teeth, Hair, and Lips: Quick Color and Tone Enhancing, along with Selective Sharpening and some essential “Hollywood Glow“ effects can instantly turn a good shot into a great portrait.

• Retouching, Replacing, Removing, and Repairing: When one shot just won’t convey the whole story, it’s time for combining different images to make the perfect picture – from Group Portraits to Epic Panoramas.

• Enhancing Edge, Glow, Density, and Focus Effects: Creating everything from Illustrative HDR Edge effects, Diffused Glows to Graduated Neutral Density Gradients and Artistic Texture Overlays.

• Black & White, Tinting, and Hand Coloring: These techniques are some of the best (and easiest) methods to turn a “seen-it-before” picture into a fine-art print. And how you do it makes all the difference!

National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs

National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs Review

National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs takes readers on a spectacular visual journey through some of the most stunning photographs to be found in National Geographic's famed Image Collection. Award-winning photographer Annie Griffiths culled the images to reflect the many variations on the universal theme of beauty. Chapters are organized around the aesthetic concepts that create beauty in a photograph: Light, Composition, Moment (Gesture and Emotion), Motion, Palette, and Wonder.

Beyond the introduction and brief essays about each featured concept, the text is light. The photographs speak for themselves, enhanced by lyrical quotes from scholars and poets. In the chapter on Light, for example, we read these words of whimsical wisdom from songwriter Leonard Cohen: "Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the lights get in." And then the images flow, of light entering scenes via windows, clouds, and spotlights, from above, alongside, and behind, casting radiance upon young ballerinas and weathered men, into groves of autumn trees and island-dotted seas, revealing everything it touches to be beautiful beyond expectation.

To illuminate the theme of Wonder, Griffiths chose a wish from Andre Bazin: "If I had influence with the good fairy...I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life." This thought is juxtaposed with an exquisite vision in white, a frame filled with the snowy-pure dots and rays of a bird's fan tail. And on it goes, picture after tantalizing picture, alive with wondrous beauty.

When she created National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs, Annie Griffiths set two goals: to maximize visual delight, and to create a book unique in the world of publishing--one in which many of the photographs could be purchased as prints. She has succeeded on both counts. Many of these stunning images are available for order, and there can be no doubt as to the visual delight. You must open this book for yourself, and take in its radiant beauty.

Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography

Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography Review

Great portraits go beyond a mere record of a face. They reveal one of the millions of intimate human moments that make up a life. In Beyond Portraiture, renowned photographer Bryan Peterson shows how to spot those “ah-ha!” moments and capture them forever. A teary child...old people laughing together...a smiling girl with big, big hair. Everyone remember pictures like these, usually taken by a mother, a father, a friend holding a camera, forever preserving small yet revealing vignettes of our personal histories. But we always relied on pure luck and chance to catch those moments. Peterson’s approach explains what makes a photo memorable, how to spot the universal themes that everyone can identify with, and how to use lighting, setting, and exposure to reveal the wonder and the joy of everyday moments. Beyond Portraiture makes it easy to create indelible memories with light and shadow.

The Art of Engagement Photography: Creative Techniques for Photographing Couples in Love

The Art of Engagement Photography: Creative Techniques for Photographing Couples in Love Review

This beautiful guide to engagement photography will show aspiring and professional wedding photographers how to boost their current income by offering higher-quality engagement sessions (or by adding them for the first time). Written by award-winning photographer Elizabeth Etienne, this modern guide to engagement photography offers portrait and wedding photographers a step-by-step approach to shooting in-demand engagement sessions and maximising an often-untapped revenue stream. Including 200 inspiring images and written in a fresh style, this guide offers a high-end, magazine-style approach that is coveted by brides and wedding photographers alike.

Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second

Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second Review

The first book in the Understanding Photography series, Understanding Exposure, was a runaway best-seller, with more than 250,000 copies sold. Now author Bryan Peterson brings his signature style to another important photography topic: shutter speed. With clear, jargon-free explanations of terms and techniques, plus compelling “before-and-after” photos that pair a mediocre image (created using the wrong shutter speed) with a great image (created using the right shutter speed), this is the definitive practical guide to mastering an often-confusing subject. Topics include freezing and implying motion, panning, zooming, exposure, Bogen Super Clamps, and rendering motion effects with Photoshop, all with helpful guidance for both digital and film formats. Great for beginners and serious amateurs, Understanding Shutter Speed is the definitive handy guide to mastering shutter speed for superb results.

Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series)

Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series) Review

For more than 100 years, National Geographic has set the standard for nature, culture, and wildlife photography. In Through the Lens, 250 spectacular images—some famous, others rarely seen—are gathered in one lavish, newly formatted volume.

Through the Lens is divided into geographical regions with a special section devoted to space exploration. Each geographical section features an outstanding array of photographs that exemplifies the area’s unique people, wildlife, archaeology, culture, architecture, and environment, accompanied by brief but informative captions. From Barry Bishop’s heroic Mount Everest climb in the 1950s to the glorious wildlife of Asia and Africa, from ancient Maya culture to the Afghan woman found 17 years after her piercing green eyes captivated the world, these are some of the finest and most important photographs ever taken.

Featuring master photographers from the late 1800s to today, including Frans Lanting, David Doubilet, David Alan Harvey, Jodi Cobb, William Albert Allard, Nick Nichols, and Annie Griffiths Belt, Through the Lens is an extraordinary photographic celebration of some of the greatest the world has to offer.

Understanding RAW Photography

Understanding RAW Photography Review

A RAW file allows far more flexibility than a JPEG will, and enthusiastic amateur photographers everywhere are discovering their vast potential. RAW files open up a whole new world of image processing where photos can go from ordinary to perfect simply and quickly. In Understanding RAW Photography, renowned photographer Andy Rouse follows the entire procedure from start to finish: the volume takes the form of an easy-to-follow workflow overview, covering all the essentials right from the beginning of a shoot. Rouse explains how to make software choices; work in the field; edit, correct, and process the picture; and ultimately display it in print or on screen. A wide range of images and screen grabs illustrate techniques both basic and advanced, as well as creative possibilities.

 

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 Digital Field Guide

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 Digital Field Guide Review

Digital SLRs can be both exciting and intimidating. Focus on the fun with this portable guide! Clear explanations show you how to use every setting on your Sony DSLR-A200 and make the most of the 10.2 megapixel CCD image sensor, Super SteadyShot image stabilization, dynamic range optimization, and other top-of-the-line features. Refresh your knowledge of photography basics like composition, shutter speed, aperture, and lighting; explore creative suggestions and advice for photographing kids, concerts, wildlife, even online auction items; and learn the best ways to download, view, and print your photos.