Excellent Reference Book

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 4:57 pm

I do a fair amount of photo restorations. I scan old familiy photos and restore them to a display quality. I've been a photo hobbiest since I was a teenager, however my skills tend to lean more towards editing rather than original capture. Professional photographers visualize the image in their heads before clicking the shutter and I find myself looking through the view finder and seeing how I can make an otherwise decent image....better with photoshop.

That being said, I want to give a little endorsement for a book my wife purchased for me for Christmas.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers. Written by Martin Evening (a professional photographer himself)

It's over 600 pages of tutorials and techniques on how to get the best of your photos. Whether you just need a little touchup, or full blown restoration, this book has it all. I highly recommend it. Not only does it show you how you can improve upon your digital images, but it also provides a plethora of tips on how you can lessen the need for editing by getting it right while taking the original shot.

Good stuff.

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:14 am

I have this book too. (Well, the CS version of it.) Highly detailed and lots of information in it.

I also have the Scott Kelby book, which is easier for beginners to digest, but I found myself wanting more specific information. I got that in the Martin Evening book. I agree with you, good stuff. :)

Premium Member Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 5758

I like Deke McLelland's book (Photoshop One-on-One) and Blatner and Fraser's book (Real World Photoshop). If you want to read something that will blow your mind get either of the books by Dan Margulis -- Professional Photoshop, or his book on the Lab color space (The Canyon Conundrum).

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:36 am

drpablo74 wrote:

get either of the books by Dan Margulis -- Professional Photoshop, or his book on the Lab color space (The Canyon Conundrum).

Thanks Paul, Was looking for this book last week and could not remember the authors name. The bookstore and camera shop were useless in helping me without that bit of information.

Premium Member Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 5758

I finally got Dan Margulis' Lab book today. I've been reading all the tutorials about it on dgrin.com (on their 'Photoshop shenanigans' forum) where they've created a little reading group. The book is amazing. I've been working with Lab color for the last few months, and this book gives techniques that are totally out of the intuition box. Very easy stuff and very worthwhile.

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:50 am

Maybe Paul can show us some tutorial later on about Lab color space ;-)

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:36 am

drpablo74 wrote:

I finally got Dan Margulis' Lab book today. I've been reading all the tutorials about it on dgrin.com (on their 'Photoshop shenanigans' forum) where they've created a little reading group. The book is amazing. I've been working with Lab color for the last few months, and this book gives techniques that are totally out of the intuition box. Very easy stuff and very worthwhile.

Thats the book a pro was reading, think he said he was 3/4 done with it, which he found very interesting on using the lab color space. I ordered it yesterday on Amazon for about 32.00 (vice picking it up at the local bookstore for 57.00) should have it in a week or two with the free shipping.
I started to use the Lab space more about a month ago or so, the few things I do use it for seem to work great.

Premium Member Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 5758

Ugh, I should have looked on Amazon before buying it at B+N. Oh well.

A tutorial may be beyond me at this stage, though I can give some great pointers. My sharpening workflow is an amalgamation of Dan Margulis' Lab space sharpening and another technique I've learned -- I wrote an article about it in the Articles section.

For color cast correction there is simply nothing better than Lab space. Just go to curves or levels in the A and B channels and you can instantly neutralize green, magenta, blue, or yellow color casts, and fairly simply vanquish any other type of color cast. Blue cast because you took the picture in shadow? Just go to the B channel of curves, take the top point on the curve and drag it left along the top until the blue cast is gone

Outside of the RAW editor the best way by far to increase saturation in your image is by steepening the curves in Lab. Open curves, go to each the A and B channels, and drag in the top and bottom points of the curve an equal amount towards the middle. As long as you've done it an equal amount and left the line going through the middle, you will not creat a color cast. What you're doing is steepening the transition along the green-neutral-magenta axis (A) and the blue-neutral-yellow axis (B) and making the colors really come out.

Chrominance noise from taking a pic in low light? Just go to the A channel and B channel and run a surface blur (radius 10, threshold ~5). It's gone.

Lots of other stuff. I'd go over to dgrin.com and look at their Photoshop Shenanigans forum -- there are pages of Lab tutorials there. I'll post some as it comes up here.

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:03 pm

Didn't think this thread would attract so much attention...while we're at it here...I have a couple other books that are a bit more reader-friendly.

Peter Cope's "Secrets of the Digital Darkroom"
and
Michael Freeman's "Complete Guide to Digital Photography"

Both chock full of fairly easy to understand "How to tips and tricks"

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:46 pm

I have the photoshop cs for photographers as well, should have mentioned that I liked it. It does provide some good information as well. Sorry Boogieman, did not mean to get your thread off topic.

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:01 pm

Received Michael Freeman's "Complete Guide to Digital Photography" as a present, Haven't had time to get to grips with it yet - now the Relies have departed I may get a chance to spend some time with it.

Have downloaded a lot of very useful stuff of the net, however unless you print it out it is never as user friendly as a book.

Max

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 11:37 pm

KurtSchneid wrote:

I have the photoshop cs for photographers as well, should have mentioned that I liked it. It does provide some good information as well. Sorry Boogieman, did not mean to get your thread off topic.

No particular topic here...in fact, having members list the books they have was kinda what I was hoping for. Just didn't expect it to get many replies.

I'll be in the back keeping quiet and reading posts.....talk amongst yourselves. :)

Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 42 Location: New Jersey

drpablo74 wrote:

I finally got Dan Margulis' Lab book today. I've been reading all the tutorials about it on dgrin.com (on their 'Photoshop shenanigans' forum) where they've created a little reading group. The book is amazing. I've been working with Lab color for the last few months, and this book gives techniques that are totally out of the intuition box. Very easy stuff and very worthwhile.

Ok Im' taking the plunge on this one.. Have read positive reviews on it.

Premium Member Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 5758

[quote="chj01"]

drpablo74 wrote:

Ok Im' taking the plunge on this one.. Have read positive reviews on it.

It's not for beginners, but it opens up a new world. If you want a glimpse of it go over to dgrin.com and click on their photoshop shenanigans forum -- they have about 10 threads about this book (they set up a formal LAB reading group).