George DeWolfe's Digital Photography Fine Print Workshop [Paperback]

My grandmother was a great baker. But everything she did in creating a pie or cake came from memory or intuition. When my mother tried to create written recipes of my grandmother's procedures, she was frustrated by quantities like a handful of something or enough of something. My mother really lost it when my grandmother told her to roll out some dough until it looked right. If you can't deal with this kind of instruction, George DeWolfe may not be for you.

The book covers De Wolfe's recommendations for making a great digital print. I'd be overstating things if I said he never gives firm instructions but de Wolfe is more concerned with the feeling of a print than with specific rules. He says that there are six elements to control in making a print: cropping, contrast, brightness, color, defects and sharpness. He then proceeds to explain his workflow to deal with each of these issues, both globally and at a detail level.

This book is aimed at advanced users of Photoshop. Quite often the instructions that he gives to create a desired effect contain only the most significant steps in the process, leaving it for the reader to fill in the gaps. Occasionally he says that he is telling you all you need to know to use a particular Photoshop tool. For example he says that all you need to know to use the curves tool is that moving the curve upwards increases brightness and moving it downwards decreases brightness. That's hyperbole because there are other important functions of the curve tool that make it easier or more effective to apply.

DeWolfe sometimes favors some rather idiosyncratic tools to process images. Photoshop usually offers several approaches to accomplishing a task, but DeWolfe often selects the more unusual. For example DeWolfe prefers the use of the history brush to masks to effect adjustments to the image. He also suggests several procedures that other experts find problematic. For example, he says that, as a result of the nature of digital photography, detail sharpening is important early in the process as opposed to edge sharpening at the end of the process. Some other experts are less accepting of this approach.

I expected that a book called a workshop would require some participation by the reader beyond just reading. This might be tutorials or at least sample images to follow along with the text. Particularly when the author suggested some procedure that was counter-intuitive for me, it would have been nice if there had been an image to work from, either from a CD or downloaded from the internet.

DeWolfe regularly suggests that a Photoshop plug-in that he authored is the solution to a problem. I always wonder how impartial an author is when he suggests that you buy a product that he sells.

If you are just getting comfortable with Photoshop but want to move into more advanced techniques, I suggest starting with Rob Sheppard's "Outdoor Photographer Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2". Its lessons are applicable to as many genres as DeWolfe's. On the other hand, if you are an experienced user and able to fill in the blanks when DeWolfe is skipping along, and if you are comfortable enough with Photoshop to decide whether you want to accept DeWolfe's techniques, this book will help you to examine your notions, get a better handle on a logical workflow and perhaps even learn procedures that are more useful to you then those you presently know.

George DeWolfe is an internationally recognized photographer. He is well known for his workshop on the master print, and I believe this book is based in part on this course. (I have not taken the course.)

It's important to realize that this book was written by a photographer with decades of experience in darkroom work. Thus visual evaluation of prints is paramount to obtaining his desired result. So DeWolfe recommends leaving auto settings off, and your eyes and brain to 'see' the print. The workflow he presents uses an approach I have not seen elsewhere, and my initial trials are very pleasing. He suggests that in Adobe Camera Raw, saturation be reduced to -100 to view a B&W version of the image, and adjusting to achieve the best image based on luminance values. Saturation is restored afterward. This makes perfect sense photographically, and it works! With too many Photoshop books being written by Photoshop gurus with little talent in photography, this is a breath of fresh air!

What disappoints here is that there are so few examples in the book on evaluating images. This is clearly DeWolfe's strong point and more would have been better. Indeed, he shows a number of "images from hell" he uses in his workshops to show case what can be done with his technique, but these are not included with the book, or available on his web site. He also describes a process he calls outlining, but unfortunately there are no explicit details.

In general, I would say that the author has assembled a collection of Photoshop techniques he has learned to use very well, and, of course will work for the reader. Many go back several versions in Photoshop, but are no longer current or best practice. For example, he describes a workflow which creates a set of layers for global, local and defect correction, based on a layer copy of the original image. This should lead to non-destructive adjustments, and in fact he recommends saving this layered version in case future adjustments are necessary. However, in one example, he applies separate balancing corrections to the left and right sides of image copy layer directly then saves the file. Neither of these changes can be re-adjusted individually, other than by adding more corrections on top, or deleting the layer copy and start over. It is quite possible to make identical adjustments using the gradient / mode technique on real layers that can be individually changed later.

This book promotes the use of a few specific tools, especially Optipix 3.1, to achieve certain outcomes that would usually require tedious and repetitious effort to achieve. I have no problems with this since several additional tools, as well as comparable Photoshop features are also discussed. An Optipix Demo is available for download and evaluation. Such time saver tools are wonderful if they meet your expectations.

His discussion of interpolation to larger image sizes is based on comparisons of third part tools with the Photoshop "bicubic" interpolation method. But Photoshop CS2 has a new and much better tool for this called "bicubic smoother" that improves greatly on bicubic. Thus you might be mislead into using a tool that is less capable than Photoshop. Again, trial versions will be useful before purchase.

The author devotes some attention to correcting color casts and white balance in Photoshop, an important and frequently needed adjustment. He totally omits any discussion of the use of gray cards in the establishment of more exact settings. While final white balance and color are always the prerogative of the artist, this seems really strange for an Ansel Adams 'trainee'.

Overall, I find the book decidedly under-edited. There are several areas where the reader can become confused. Pages 142 and 143 describe adjustment of overall contrast and brightness for grayscale images. However the resulting image has a distinct color cast vs the original gray. Looks very much like a selenium toned B&W print! Perhaps this is the intent, but it is not described as such. Pages 144 to 147 show a similar adjustment for color (RGB) images, yet the image appearing in the channel clipping displays is not the image being adjusted. Go figure.

On page 59, the use of a Wrattan 90 to previsualize contrast is described. This technique is well known. (Ansel Adams has given similar tools to his workshop students.) But the original photograph shown, as we discover later on page 178, is not the original image, but one greatly modified though the suggested workflow. So what is the Wrattan 90 really doing?

So, two stars for the fine and unique content provided by DeWolfe on visualization and use of desaturation in the image work flow. Follow his Photoshop technique initially, but read elsewhere for finer control in Photoshop. Let's hope the second edition has more DeWolfe!

George DeWolfe sees the photographer as an artist, not a technician, yet his book provides the technical knowledge and shows how to use Photoshop to create consistently high quality fine art prints. Writing for the experienced photographer with a basic knowledge of Photoshop, DeWolfe begins by showing the photographer, with many examples, how to evaluate an image and decide what adjustments will bring out its special qualities. The experienced photographer has always used his or her understanding of how light, luminosity and color give life to an image, and has traditionally used various techniques in the darkroom to enhance them. DeWolfe begins by training the eye of the artist to see these elements and understand how they work. After showing the reader how to truly see the image and decide how to fine-tune it, DeWolfe then gives us a very detailed digital workflow which, once mastered, allows the photographer to produce excellent prints on a consistent basis. The workflow is clarified by many screen shots showing Photoshop techniques and before/after image adjustments. Those who think visually will find these particularly helpful.

DeWolfe's approach is to use the simplest techniques that can produce consistently fine results. (Some Photoshop users will be surprised by his use of the history brush instead of masking; as a photographer who uses this tool, I appreciate its simplicity and controlled results.) His focus is not on "tips-and-tricks in Photoshop", but on how to get the best possible prints in the simplest, most straightforward way. While a first reading gives valuable insights, the book's true value becomes evident when the photographer uses the workflow on his or her own images, and practices to become proficient. The proof, as they say, is in the print.

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