Product Description

The commonsense, by-the-numbers approach of Professional Photoshop has shaped the workflows of a generation of Photoshop experts. This new edition, the first in nearly five years, is completely updated for the age of digital photography. It continues the book’s tradition of introducing astoundingly effective, previously unknown methods  of image enhancement. The original photographs found in the book come from a variety of professional sources, and all correction exercises are on the included CD. Professional Photoshop has changed radically from edition to edition, and this time is no exception—with almost 90 percent new content and completely overhauled coverage of curves, channel blending, and sharpening.Professional Photoshop offers a full explanation of:

• How curves bring out detail in the most important areas of the imagen 
  
• A comprehensive strategy for blending channels to create deeper, stronger images
  
• The strengths and weaknesses of CMYK, LAB, and RGB, and when to use each one
  
• The first detailed look at the Shadow/Highlight command—and even more sophis-ticated ways to enhance contrast in the lightest and darkest parts of the imagen
• Sharpening strategies, in three full chapters, including the innovative hiraloam method (High Radius, Low Amount). Plus, a fiendishly effective method of merging hiraloam and conventional unsharp masking
• The realities—and the politics—of preparing files for commercial offset printing and how to deal with colors that are out of the press’s gamut
• What Camera Raw and similar acquisition modules can offer
• Typical problems of digital captures that were not found in the age of film— and how to correct for them

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #148729 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
" a wealth of information on this crucial, complex subject Star Rating ∗∗∗∗ " (Mac World, December 2002)

From the Back Cover
The commonsense, by-the-numbers approach of Professional Photoshop has shaped the workflows of a generation of Photoshop experts. This new edition, the first in nearly five years, is completely updated for the age of digital photography. It continues the book’s tradition of introducing astoundingly effective, previously unknown methods  of image enhancement. The original photographs found in the book come from a variety of professional sources, and all correction exercises are on the included CD. Professional Photoshop has changed radically from edition to edition, and this time is no exception—with almost 90 percent new content and completely overhauled coverage of curves, channel blending, and sharpening.Professional Photoshop offers a full explanation of:

• How curves bring out detail in the most important areas of the imagen 
  
• A comprehensive strategy for blending channels to create deeper, stronger images
  
• The strengths and weaknesses of CMYK, LAB, and RGB, and when to use each one
  
• The first detailed look at the Shadow/Highlight command—and even more sophis-ticated ways to enhance contrast in the lightest and darkest parts of the imagen
• Sharpening strategies, in three full chapters, including the innovative hiraloam method (High Radius, Low Amount). Plus, a fiendishly effective method of merging hiraloam and conventional unsharp masking
• The realities—and the politics—of preparing files for commercial offset printing and how to deal with colors that are out of the press’s gamut
• What Camera Raw and similar acquisition modules can offer
• Typical problems of digital captures that were not found in the age of film— and how to correct for them

About the Author
Dan Margulis was one of the first three individuals—and the only writer—to be named as a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame. In announcing his election, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals said, “Dan’s ability to reduce complicated concepts to words that users can understand and his insistence on dealing with real-world relevance have made him today’s most influential voice in color reproduction.” Dan’s 2006 best-seller, Photoshop LAB Color, revolutionized workflows. Channels expert David Biedny called Photoshop LAB Color “probably the most important Photoshop book ever written.”

Customer Reviews

The single best photoshop book out there
Unless you're experience of photoshop extends to high-end retouching this book is going to open up a whole new world to you. If "Bible this" and "Quickstart that" are what you've been reading so far, then take it from me you've only glimpsed the tip of the iceberg. This book will show you what you've been missing and you've got no idea how deep it goes.

It doesn't deal with how to animate gif's, or what the levels command does - it's ruthless in it's pursuit of practical perfection and the author's view is that there's no point teaching anything else except the best tools to do the best job, backed up by an expert understanding of the theory.

Please don't think this makes this a dry read. On the contrary, this is the single most absorbing, fascinating, well-written and useful books I've read on computer imaging.

Creates understanding rather than workflows
I chose this over other books on image handling because it is, despite the name, not especially bound to one piece of software (or version of said software). Instead Dan works at creating a proper and profound understanding of the principles at work in the reproduction of colour.
It's based on a great deal of practical experience and much of the results can be achieved with any of the more competent image editors on the market - not just PS.
The writing is lively, engaging and openly biased. This is one man's earnest presentation of the challenges of getting the right colours in print, with all the pitfalls and misunderstandings exposed within the industry.
The book's printing is good enough to show Dan's examples and these examples focus on the educational rather than spectacular. A sound choice in my view.
The only weakness I've noticed so far is a rather limited view of the RAW format. The only software mentioned is Camera RAW (from the CS2 suite), which Dan rightly criticises. Already in late 2007 there are many more competent tools available which address the limitations with Camera RAW. Nevertheless even this weakness is a strength of sorts - by working from first principles throughout the book it becomes obvious what to look for in a RAW converter today.

If you want to understand colour correction ...
then this is the best book I have seen. Unlike most 'how to' books this tells you why as well. If the only thing you ever get out of it is using the CMYK correction by numbers then it is still worth it. Don't expect to read it only once and don't expect to suddenly become a colour master. This book is like having an expert friend who can show you things and help you understand how to do it but in the end most of the judgement calls are up to you.

This is the most dog-eared book on my shelves and that says it all.