rorsteven's Full Review: Harold Davis and Phyllis Davis - The Photoshop Dar...
I have just devoured "The Photoshop Darkroom: Creative Digital Post-Processing" by Harold and Phyllis Davis. It was a delightful meal - not too heavy, not too light. And thankfully it comes with a good table of contents, a glossary and an index so that I can go back and nibble at individual topics as desired.
The book starts with an eye catching image of a trail of stars over Yosemite's Half Dome on the cover and continues throughout with beautiful and well chosen images to illustrate a dozen powerful approaches for improving all manner of photographs. Whether you want to make a picture look more like it was when you saw it, enhance an image with more vibrancy or definition, or create a new work whole-cloth out of one or more exposures, this book has some fabulously useful inventions.
To the credit of the authors, they focused their energy on a limited set of Photoshop "tricks" - useful ones. And provide clear step by step instructions and illustrations on how to accomplish the goals. I have several other Photoshop books that pale in comparison with "The Photoshop Darkroom" because those other books attempt to cover far too much and are packed with useless information. By comparison my other Photoshop books skip steps or provide inscrutable illustrations.
As in all things "digital", there is more than one way to accomplish a goal. Not every way is as effective, however. For example, the authors cover ways to "Dodge" and "Burn" (lighten and darken) portions of an image which do NOT use the Photoshop dodge and burn tools. The method the Davis' describe is FAR more powerful and easier to control.
Need to sharpen and image? The book points out that selective sharpening is more effective than just "sharpening".
Want to invert the background (white to black or black to white)? A chapter is devoted to such manipulations.
Want to build a star trail image like the one on the cover? A section on night photography not only explains how to accomplish the task in Photoshop, but also provides some very useful help on how to go about taking the image(s) in the first place.
Want to create a more dramatic (Ansel Adams like) black and white image? The authors show why the "convert to gray scale" method is the least effective - and they provide step by step instructions and examples to make their point.
Wonder why some people shoot in RAW mode (native camera image format rather than JPEG)? The authors patiently and carefully explain the very significant advantages to using this mode and how to adjust the image capture process accordingly.
Want to make a natural looking picture which includes a wide latitude of light exposures (e.g. bright sunlight over a dark landscape)? The "Multi-RAW" process described is excellent and produces more natural looking results than any "HDR" (High Dynamic Range) software.
Did you know that the default "color space" for Photoshop is the "lowest common denominator" and why you should use Adobe-RGB"? I did not!
Want to correct or enhance the color in an image? Turn a blue sky gray or a gray sky blue? You'll find it in this book - and it is reasonably simple and straight forward - even if you're far from being a "photoshop whiz".
And there is more... All of the steps of layering, copying, "painting", masking and blending are clearly spelled out with examples and lucid instructions.
I'm trying not to gush too much about this marvelous book.
Does the book have any flaws?
Well, it is not a hefty tome, so I'm sure someone will notice that it doesn't cover "all things Photoshop". And, I'm glad it didn't!
The only annoyance I have noticed is that the pages with full sized images are usually un-numbered, including the pages that start sections. Sometimes there is a run of 5 or 7 unnumbered pages making finding a particular page a little more difficult. I also noticed that the wings (foldable portion) of the front and back covers are not folded in such a way that they can be used efectively as place marks in the book - simple solutions are to refold, cut the wings off, or use a separate book mark. These nitpicky issues are minor compared to the giant, lucid content.
In Summary All in all, the Davis's have produced a work of wit, warmth and talent. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who already has, or is thinking of purchasing Photoshop (excluding Photoshop Elements).
The Photoshop Darkroom offers limitless possibilities for photographers looking for jaw-dropping results, using powerful and innovative creative post-...More at Buy.com
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