Save 31% Off: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Photographers Guide Review & Ratings

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Adobe Photoshop CS3 Photographers Guide Review

OK, you've purchased a DSLR and either Photoshop CS3 or Elements. Now you want to know how you can best use your new camera to capture the best images you can, so that when you get them into Photoshop you'll be able to process them to their fullest potential and really get some impressive images, much better than the point n shoot crowd. You can spend 3 years and read nearly 20 books like I did, but who really has time for that? Isn't there one book out there that gives someone a good taste of all of the components of photography and Photoshop? Yep, this is the one! I've read it through, and comparing it to several other all-in-one guides to both photography and Photoshop, this is one of the best choices. There are many good soup-to-nuts Photoshop books out there, but not many of them teach how to optimize your photography skills to ensure the best possible image BEFORE firing up Photoshop. How do you get a great image out of Photoshop? Start with a great image. This book tells you how, and it's not just for beginners.
Pick this one up, even if you own a different version of Photoshop. It's a winner.

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The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers (O'ReillyDigital Studio) Review & Ratings

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The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers (O'Reilly Digital Studio) Review

When I first became a serious photographer back in the days of film, I stored my negatives and pictures in a shoebox. As my collection grew, I switched to contact sheets and coded negative files. Afterwards I filled a closet with special filing boxes of negatives and prints. But it was hard for me to find an older picture. I tried cross-filing but it never really worked. Then came digital.
By word of mouth, postings in on-line forums and an occasional magazine article I figured out that I'd better back up my photo files to non-erasable media and that I could more easily find old files by cataloging them with cataloging software. But I can't say that I developed a comprehensive system.
The DAM Book does that. (I wish they had taken a different title; the pun soon becomes boring.) Krough presents a system for sorting, archiving and finding photographs using Adobe Bridge and cataloging software. After defining digital asset management (DAM) and metadata, he talks about creating the digital archive both as an information structure and as a hardware configuration. Because he presumes that serious photographers will be using Photoshop, he discusses the use of Adobe Bridge as an asset management tool and describes a DAM workflow. He then discusses cataloging software, what he calls derivative files (which are generally files derived from a master copy) and strategies for file migration, including computer upgrades, software changes and even film migration.
The author's own system seems beyond the needs of most photographers. (He claims to catalog 135,000 pictures a year.) But even though his own system includes rack-mounted servers, raid configuration and multiple back-ups, he also suggests simpler systems that include a single computer, an external drive and DVD backups. But what is most important is not the description of systems but the presentation of concepts that most digital photographers can apply. For example, even though I could see the difference between browsers and cataloging software, articulating the distinction between the two makes it easier to analyze my own requirements. And understanding that for a digital cataloging system, that uses keywords, the title of a picture is not essential to finding it makes it easier to use titles that are system related rather then content related.
Krough describes useful software that supplements Bridge that can be downloaded for free and will make DAM easier. (Unfortunately he hasn't found a way to make Bridge run any faster, but he does suggest time-saving procedures.) He also suggests procedures that some photographers will not need, like embedding a rating in every photograph, and other procedures that might be a little premature, like converting every file to Adobe's DNG format to better preserve metadata. On the other hand, before I even finished the book, I had made several changes in my own DAM system. For example, although he uses iView MediaPro as an example of cataloging software, he made me wonder if my cataloging software had the same capabilities that I had never used. A little time with my software manual and I now have a place to store external metadata that are not embedded in a picture file, but are associated with particular pictures.
There are other books that discuss DAM but this is the first I've encountered aimed at photographers. I consider it essential reading for serious digital photographers.

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Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure: Mastering Adobe's Next-Generation Toolfor Digital Photographers Review & Ratings

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Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure: Mastering Adobe's Next-Generation Tool for Digital Photographers Review

I bought Scott Kelby's Lightroom book and I wasn't very happy with it because I think it is not very thorough. Not satisfied with Kelby's book, I bought Lightroom2Adventure and this book is way more thorough and very well organized. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn LR.

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Save 34% Off: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Workflow: The DigitalPhotographer's Guide (Tim Grey Guides) Review & Ratings

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide (Tim Grey Guides) Review

Lightroom is here and the blizzard of Lightroom books is upon us.
Lightroom is Adobe's new software for digital photographers which offers a built-from-the ground-up approach to enable photographers to turn their images into prints, slide shows or web graphics. While the program itself is not without flaws, the interface is much more intuitive then Photoshop, and allows somewhat faster handling of files.
Grey's book takes the reader through all of the steps a photographer would use from importing his or her pictures from a camera into a computer to printing the pictures or creating a website using Lightroom.
He describes what each of the buttons and functions provided by the software does, in the order that the average photographer would use them. His writing is concise and what he describes is for the most part clear. A photographer who picks up this book and follows it while processing pictures will have little trouble creating satisfactory output. The book certainly makes using the software more clear than the rather thin instruction manual that comes with Lightroom.
On the other hand, nothing that Grey tells you will help you create a great photograph. The book is aimed purely at the technique that it is necessary to use to create output, and little about the art. One of the great things about image processing software is that it can allow you to create not just images but art; to convert zeros and ones into the photographer's vision. You won't find that here, but maybe that's asking too much of this work.
I can complain about some of the shortfalls of the description of technique. For example, one of the great advantages of Lightroom is that it is a powerful asset management tool (although not as good as some standalone products). It has a well designed scheme for creating keywords that allows for easy recovery of images that I hope Adobe will eventually incorporate into the Bridge portion of Photoshop. It includes so-called parent-child relationships. But this powerful tool is hardly described. Similarly, Grey points out that the software allows for the creation of either HTML or Flash web galleries. I would have liked to know the advantages and disadvantages of each.
The Lightroom interface uses a combination of light grey and dark grey on many of its menus. That works on a monitor but the printed screen captures of the interface are often almost impossible to distinguish. While I commend the publisher for getting this book to the public so quickly, in the rush several typos seem to have slipped in.
Many photographers have been hungry for more information on the use of Lightroom. Grey's book is one of the first detailed explanations. It's useful, but hopefully even better volumes will follow.

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Save 30% Off: The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers Review & Ratings

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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers Review

Adobe began shipping its new Lightroom 2.0 (LR2) software at the end of July. A week later this book was available. It made me think that Martin Evening is really a team of writers, each working on a chapter of this book, or even some smaller portion, and that the publisher, Peachpit, must have incurred huge overtime costs. (Actually, the software was available in beta form for a long time, and authors had final copies of the software before it was delivered to the public.) There are enough changes in version 2.0 that this early edition is welcome for people who want more details.
After an introduction to the software, Evening goes through each of the modules in LR2, explaining what the sliders, radio buttons and check boxes do, and occasionally discussing his preferences and techniques for using the software.
I suspect that with the large installed base of Lightroom, most of the people anxious for details will be using an upgrade, and might prefer a book equivalent to Ben Willmore's "Adobe Photoshop CS3: Up to Speed" which just dealt with the new elements in an image processing software upgrade. On the other hand, there are a lot of new features in LR2, and the software is so integrated that it may be useful for experienced users to review all of the capabilities.
Even though it's comprehensive, new users may be a bit overwhelmed by Evening's work, especially since it often is far more detailed than a beginner needs. The discussion of sharpening and noise reduction may seem like a foreign language to someone who has never used Unsharp Mask. While past performance is no indication of future performance, newbies might do better to wait for something that will probably be more accessible, like Scott Kelby's "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)" which is presently scheduled for a September release.
The book shows the pressure of early release with some typos and repetitions. On the other hand, Evening describes many of the features in more detail than the tutorials that are available on line.
I found it difficult to view the screen captures of the LR2 menus. This is no doubt due to the fact that LR2's menus are in shades of gray that are highly visible on a monitor, but less so on a printed page. I for one would have no objections if publishers would increase the contrast so that seeing the menus would be easier.
This book is about the technical use of Lightroom. It doesn't talk much about how the features can be used for more impressive pictures. For that, one should look at a few of Rob Sheppard's books like "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Digital Photographers Only (For Only)" or even better "Outdoor Photographer Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2 (Outdoor Photographers)" or (subject to the caveat about past performance) his upcoming "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 for Photographers Only", presently scheduled for October release.
If you want to get your hands on a LR2 book right now, this is the only game in town. It's dense, but comprehensive, and for the experienced user, will require some sorting out, but all the information one may need about LR2's new features are included.

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Save 40% Off: Get Your Photography on the Web: The Fastest, Easiest Wayto Show and Sell Your Work Review & Ratings

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Get Your Photography on the Web: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Show and Sell Your Work Review

I've been working at getting a class together on just the subject of putting a photo website up with WordPress for a couple of months. About the time I finished, I came across this book that had pretty much what I'd been working through. Isn't that the way it goes. Rafael Concepcion pointed out a couple of things I missed, so I am very happy to have gotten this. I think that he has done a good job of putting together a solid cookbook of steps that should get most people up and running in a reasonable amount of time.
Beyond the details of setting up the site itself, the book covers getting photos ready for web display. It's not difficult but paying attention to the instructions will give you the best quality/loading speed compromise.
Concepcion has done an admirable job of covering the bases when it comes to setting up a Wordpress photo site on Godaddy.com, which is not the simplest hosting service to navigate. One thing I should mention is that though Godaddy offers quality, low cost web hosting they will attempt to sell you a number of services that you probably don't need. Just say no to up-sells. Go with the account recommended in the book and ignore the rest.
The steps are thorough and well documented, including appropriate screen shots. The added website how-to videos are a good bonus. The recommended plugins for photo galleries are excellent as are the other recommended plugins. Coverage of WordPress photo themes and how to install them is good as is the free theme offered on the companion site to the book. No book of this size can cover every possible situation. And though WordPress is free, some themes aren't. You may choose to pay for a premium them and possibly some premium plugins. That's not a knock, many are excellent and include good support at reasonable prices. It's just a notice that not all is free in the WordPress universe. There is one real warning I should mention. Themes at some external (not wordpress.org) sites contain some nasty extra code that could spy on you or hijack your site. It's a growing problem in the WordPress world. None of the extras mentioned in the book should be problems.
That said, my experience is that people do have problems with WordPress that one can't predict. As a web designer I've gotten dozens of people into WordPress sites so they could update their own content. Most of them end up at one time or other needing a bit of help, even though they bought instruction books, have had private tutoring and watched videos. WordPress is probably the most user friendly content management system around that offers a wide degree of customization. However, that doesn't mean that it is actually drop-dead easy to use, just more so than the competition. Anyway, don't be surprised if as some point you may require some hand holding or outright help setting up or customizing WordPress. Then don't be surprised if you don't. The system is getting better and better.
All in all, this is a timely book. Many of my photographer friends are saying that they need a website and WordPress is a more flexible and search engine friendly solution than many of the Flash website builders around. Just go to a wedding photographer convention and see how many Flash based solutions are being sold. Concepcion does cover some Flash in a cursory way. You're better off not using it. iPads can't read Flash sites and lots of photo people are buying them. Even Android tablets don't yet have a good quality version of Flash yet. And for slide shows and galleries, Flash isn't necessary anyway.

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Save 31% Off: Digital Capture and Workflow for ProfessionalPhotographers Review & Ratings

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Digital Capture and Workflow for Professional Photographers Review

I give this book 3 stars, but that doesn't mean it's not worth buying. The author provides a straightforward process workflow for setting up your digital camera, exposing and capturing your shots, uploading and post processing your digital files, and preparing them for output to an album.
The problem with this book, however, is that it follows the guidelines of most Amerhest books. It's only 150 pages, and in many places the author could have added more information. I want to read more about how he sets up his filing system in Adobe Bridge (which is the file organizer he explains how to use.) I also wanted to know why he uses Bridge over say iView Media Pro? And it's interesting that he doesn't mention two of the big digital imaging applications on the market today: Adobe Lightroom and Apple's Aperature, both which handle RAW images faster and more efficiently than Adobe Bridge. If Bridge is all you have, then this might be a useful book.
The best chapters in this book are about setting up Photoshop actions for processing wedding photos. He explains about a dozen actions that should be a part of every wedding photographer's arsenal. He also explains how to use Adobe Camera Raw, mainly because he correctly encourages his readers that it's better to shoot in RAW mode than in JPEG.
I think Lee would have been better writing a three-part series about digital capture and workflow, simply because the process is so very important to how a photographer makes his or her money. If she lacks a good, solid workflow, she can start out making a $100-200/hour but end up making a lot less in the post-production process.
So yes, this book is worth reading if you're looking for answers to build your workflow, but it will leave you wanting to know more.

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Save 34% Off: The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers Review & Ratings

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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers Review

Like most of Scott's offerings he does a good job with his book "Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers". The problem is it just didn't work for me. I did learn a few things about Lightroom 2, but in the end I was disappointed with my purchase. I had been looking for something to speed my workflow through Lightroom by suggesting a logical path of steps, giving some good tips, and then getting out of my way.
I was still shopping around when I found Nathaniel Coalson's book Lightroom 2: Streamlining your Digital Photography Process. This was the book I was looking for. Nathaniel sets out to give you the tools to carry out your vision, streamline your workflow and then gets out of your way. Perfect.
Both these books provide the basics of using Lightroom 2 - there is no arguing that. What is different is how one book gives you recipes and formulas while the other gives you a strong foundation for building your workflow. Here are some key differences in the two books that I feel make Nathaniel's offering stronger than Scott's.
Nathaniel's book is laid out in classic form - text interspersed with graphic examples. Shortcuts, tips, warnings and reminders are all identified by small graphic symbols in the main body of text. Scott has put his graphic examples front and center. This forces his text to the margins of the page in smaller font which I found harder to read and, more importantly, harder to skim when looking for an answer.
Scott's book walks you through the basic Lightroom 2 commands in a step-by-step fashion. If you are fairly new to computers or have never used Lightroom you might prefer his book. On the other hand Nathaniel does a very good job explaining image capture basics, presents the logical steps you'll follow from importing your images to processing them and starts you thinking about the end goals you have for your images. If you've used computers before or have tinkered with the Lightroom 2 program Nathaniel will get you on task faster.
This brings me to one of the more important differences between the books. One of the most powerful aspects of Lightroom is its ability to help manage images, acting as both an image processor and DAM (Digital Asset Management) tool. Managing a large number of images requires a well thought out workflow - something simple yet consistent that we can shape to our particular needs. Nathaniel provides this in early on in his book and, even better, continues to refer back to it. This helps in showing you how all the pieces fit together.
Both books cover the basics of Lightroom 2 while giving you slightly different extras. Nathaniel shows how to change the default quick collection while Scott covers HDR a little more in-depth; Scott has 4 pages on split-tones while Nathaniel shows you different options for your crop screen. These books will become references for you as you discover all that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 has to offer. The difference, in my opinion, is that Scott shows you how to use Lightroom 2 while Nathaniel teaches you - a subtle difference but, in my book, worth every penny.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers Overview

Written in concert with Adobe's development of the Photoshop Lightroom 2 Beta, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers - by #1 bestselling computer and technology author, Scott Kelby - is the most complete and concise Lightroom "how-to" book for digital photographers of all skill levels.In The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers, Scott walks readers through the basics of Lightroom use, leading them to a brilliantly devised and super efficient digital photography workflow that dramatically improves productivity and allows photographers to spend less time processing photos and more time shooting them. Throughout the book Scott shares his personal camera and Lightroom settings, as well as the studio-tested techniques he's developed for his own photography workflow. The book is written in his trademark step-by-step, plain English style, and because he knows what really works and what doesn't, he isn't shy to tell you flat out which tools to use, which to avoid, and why. This allows digital photographers of any skill level to jump right in using Lightroom like a pro from the very start, sidestepping a lot of the frustrations that typically haunt those unfamiliar with new applications…especially those as powerful as Lightroom.What really sets The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers apart from other Lightroom books on the market are the last two bonus chapters where Scott answers the questions, "In exactly what order am I supposed to do things in Lightoom," and "Where does Photoshop fit in to the mix?" Both chapters start with an on-location photo shoot, including full details on the equipment, camera settings, and lighting techniques. Readers then witness as he takes the photos from each shoot through the entire workflow process, to the final output of the 16"x20" prints. And, because he incorporates Photoshop seamlessly right into this workflow, you'll learn some of the latest Photoshop techniques for portrait and landscape photography as well. If you're one of those people who learns best by actually doing the projects yourself; who learns best without all the complicated technical explanations and confusing jargon, and if you really want to start using Lightroom today to unlock the productivity secrets of "The new digital photography workflow,"---there is no faster, more "straight-to-the-point" or more fun way to learn than this groundbreaking new book, and you are absolutely going to love it!

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