Adobe Photoshop Cs4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers is a grab-bag of tips, tricks, and techniques for image manipulation, especially compositing. Some chapters that aren't really about Photoshop at all made it in as well, including some surprisingly basic tips on how to shoot sharp photos to good common-sense advice on how to run a photography business, and some slightly bad advice about running a backup system. (No, making copies on DVD's really isn't worth the trouble; a properly-run backup system on magnetic media is more secure, cheaper, and much, much less work.)

This is, in fact, the book's greatest weakness -- it often loses sight of its intended readership. The meat of the book is about compositing techniques, which are of primary interest to professional photographers doing catalog or advertising work, but they will not be very interested in the basic or non-Photoshop related chapters.

The techniques run the gamut from the simple, brilliant, and immediately useful (such as very clever ways of using Extended Photoshop's Stack editing for a variety of image manipulation tasks, or creative uses of Content Aware Scaling), to the incredibly complex (such as creating convincing drop shadows on a textured background in a multiple composite product photo). Advanced masking techniques, hair retouching, and other often difficult compositing-related techniques are also covered.

The upshot is that any individual reader will very likely find about one third of the book useful. The rest will be either not applicable to what s/he does, something s/he already knows, requires proficiences s/he does not (yet) have, or requires Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, which s/he has not bought.

This book should really have been called "Compositing in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended." That way, it would have been possible to drop the few chapters that had nothing much to do with compositing, replace some of the rather inane non-Photoshop chapters with an overview of what compositing is, and isn't, good for, with perhaps a note on the ethics of photo manipulation and a short historical overview thrown in, and rearrange the material to form a more coherent and focused whole. As it is, it's not a bad book by any means, and any "green-belt" Photoshop user will likely find something useful in it. With a more coherent vision of its readership and better focus on its core message it could have been much better.

When Martin Evening published his comprehensive "Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC" he told us that he had to tell so much about Photoshop CS4 that he would come out with another book dealing with applications and here it is, written together with Photoshop guru Jeff Schewe.

The chapters include advice on what to do before you shoot; methods of improving image quality; mending and blending; masking and composting; a chapter called "cooking with Photoshop" which includes information on merging, black and white and color effects; printing; and minding your business.

I'm not always certain where the boundary is between intermediate and advanced Photoshop users, but I suspect that if you feel comfortable using the Pen tool, you will be the kind of user this book aims at. For the rest of us, some of this book will be helpful while other material will be over our heads. The chapter on compositing included a lengthy discussion describing the preparation of an image in a many-stepped process that seemed way beyond anything I would ever assay. I think of this kind of work as being in the space between photography and graphic design. Yet, for a commercial photographer, learning the skills described can certainly provide additional clients and sources of income.

On the other hand the chapter on cooking with Photoshop contained information on using photomerge that I instantly put to use and the discussion of content aware scaling seemed like old hat. Rather than describe the basic process of using an inkjet printer, the chapter on printing discussed the best way to prepare for custom profiling and the preparation of images for CMYK work. The business chapter visited archiving and setting rates, and seemed more designed to remind photographers that that these were important subjects that had better be given serious consideration.

Occasionally I was reminded that the book was more like a cook book, in that it didn't always present an integrated process but sometimes, unrelated techniques. But unlike most cook books, this book didn't lead you through a step-by-step process with settings without explanation, but rather tried to explain what the various steps were trying to accomplish. One can follow along with the images provided on the accompanying disk. (The DVD also provides movies which are substantially the same as some of written text, except that they move along pretty quickly, but some people might favor this method of learning. Also on the DVD are a few PDF's that include short sections of Evening's earlier Photoshop CS4 book, and demo versions of Photokit software which I was unable to install on my computer.)

This is not a book for beginners. To benefit you will have to know and have experience with most of the tools and panels of Photoshop. Moreover, even if you are experienced, the techniques that the authors provide may not prove of use to you. But that's the way it is with more advanced Photoshop techniques. I think it will be worth while for more advanced users to see if there is anything of value for them in this book.

Martin Evening's two books on CS4, the second with Jeff Schewe, are excellent.

As a programmer with a strong technical background, but new to photography, the two books have been very helpful. Their clear explanations, both written with examples and videos to cement those concepts, excellent graphics, along with their photographer's perspective allow the reader to come into their studio and see how an accomplished professional photographer brings pictures to life.

The key, for me, was at the end of the workshop, I understood what I needed to do, why I needed to do it and how to bring it to fruition. Their sections on sharpening and printing alone are worth the price of admission. I understand much more of how (and where, when and why) to use CS4, especially Camera Raw. They give insight on how best to manage workflow, understand sharpening, handle "exceptions" in your photos and how to bring my photos out of the printer.

Having trouble getting your landscape shots out of the fog? Read page 47 of the "Raising your IQ" chapter. Having trouble understanding when and how much to sharpen your images? Watch the movie tutorials and follow their clear explanations. Try it on your own photos - don't use their examples! Having trouble matching the output color even though you've calibrated your monitor, downloaded all the profiles, bought that excellent Epson photo printer, etc., etc., read their output chapters. The proof of the pudding is in the eating - or in seeing your own pictures pop out of the print you hold in your hand.

Didn't make it to Photoshop World in Las Vagas? Want to get the scoop from "world-famous UK fashion photographer, author and digital 'imaging pioneer Martin Evening" (from the Photoshop World literature PW sent me)? Get these books.

I have a healthy book budget and I have purchased multiple photoshop books, browsed others on O'Reilly's Safari and taken online tutorials. Imho, these are by far the best of the lot.