Photoshop CS2 for Digital Photographers Only [Paperback]

Just so the reader knows, I am probably considered an intermediate user of Photoshop. I recently bought this CS2 book and found it to be extremely useful since it contains easily understood methods for solving many of the problems I often encounter when shooting digital. Description of photoshop methods and procedures are nicely detailed but do not overwhelm the user.

I think you will find this CS2 book contains many helpful tips and lots of photos illustrating the effectiveness of the procedures. I believe this book will appeal to a wide spectrum of photoshop users (beginners thru advanced).

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Snyder

This book is for a hobbyist Photographer wanting to learn more or someone that is looking to go Pro.

Chapter 1

One thing that caught my eye is the first chapter was the attention to the "cooler" features, such as: Camera Raw, Adobe Bridge and Actions which all contribute to your overall workflow enhancement.

Chapter 2 and 3

Explaining organization skills which are required to manage your photos from shoot to shoot. Some of these skills consist of Metadata which is for "tagging" your images. Obviously once you have loaded your RAW files you would want to edit/adjust them and after this chapter you will be able to. In the last part of this chapter you are introduced to the DNG format for archiving your Camera RAW files in an easy to transport format that removes all of the inconsistencies in the various RAW file formats. Of course once you have all of these wonderful photos you probably want to show them off and with all the different delivery methods PDF Slideshow, Email, Web etc it is very easy.

Chapter 4

Going back to editing your images you are walked through the process of Fine-Tuning your images with some tips/tricks that you won't find explained in greater detail anywhere else. You can copy settings and modifications with the Bridge to allow bulk updates with only a few clicks.

Chapter 5 and 6

Non-destructive editing is a new feature to Photoshop and harnesses quite a bit of power and prior to reading this book I never really found a good explanation of the various advancements. I know I could read the help file but I find that to be too technical in some cases and occasionally very hard to find the answer I am looking for. One of those "hard to find" features was the Color Range with an adequate description. You will also see ways to use the Pen Tool for selections, thats right it isn't only for paths. Another benefit to non-destructible editing is adjustment layers where you basically make all color, tone, curves and level modifications on a separate layer leaving the original untouched.

Chapter 7 and 8

The final step in your image editing workflow would be fixing camera/light deficiencies. Some of which would be sharpness, lens problems, and shadow issues just to name a few. Not much description needed for these 2 chapters but they are necessary to your final output.

Chapter 9

Building composite images is a powerful way to create a scene that never existed and after reading this chapter you will be able to create those popular images found in so many ads and websites. You will also see how to warp an image to apply it to an article of clothing and create a believable piece.

Chapter 10

No book would be complete without showing you cool ways to dress up your images or create powerful final results and this book is no exception. You will learn how to Blur, Color and apply filters to your images to create unique pieces. The level of detail in this section will not leave you asking questions.

Chapter 11 and 12

Outputting your images to the web and how to create physical prints to show off to your friends or colleagues. The web is a powerful tool and displaying your images online is one way to guarantee exposure. Although in order to truly use this technology to its full potential you need to understand the downsides and best case optimization methods. Another way to distribute your pieces is to print them out and in this chapter you will learn how to choose the specified output for each media, how to preview your work and finally what the ICC Profiles are and how to use them.

Chapter 13

If you go Pro you will want your images printed in larger format and in larger quantities, but to do this you must understand the offset printing process. Of course just like the previous topics this book clearly explains that process without leaving out a single detail, all the way down to the preferred format that should be sent to your service center.

Chapter 14 and 15

Once you have 3500 images from a single shoot you quickly realize how important automation is. You can use actions which work pretty well but take an action into a Batch processor and you will be sipping margaritas on the beach while Photoshop crunches away at your images. The problem is you won't be able to if you don't read these chapters, so you know what to do. Maybe scripting isn't your thing, no problem, you will get a firsthand look at Dr. Russell Brown's *-A-Matic plugins that offer captioning, merging and placing your files quickly and painlessly.

Final Thoughts

After reading through this book I found myself following a more defined workflow that benefitted me in a few ways. The first and most important being organization and the ability to "recover" that really important shoot from 4 months ago. The other was being able to rapidly turn around clients work. Like I said in the beginning this book really is for a hobbyist or a pro, no matter what everyone will learn something.

Photoshop is a program that can be used by both artists and photographers but for totally different purposes. Photoshop CS2 adds new features specifically for photographers and the title of this book tells you it's for "Digital Photographers Only."

The authors go into great detail about the new Photoshop Bridge and how to improve your workflow when using Camera Raw format. It is mainly geared to the professional photographer or advanced amateur who needs to manage a large number of shots. They also show you useful techniques for editing images without destroying the original image.

This book is by photographers and for photographers and I found it to be useful and practical in its presentation. I would recommend it for any photographer who is serious about using the power of Photoshop CS2.

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