Patches said
This book is not for beginners, and assumes you already know the basics of Photoshop CS3 for which it was written. It has not been updated. A person familiar with CS3 should have no problem with the information. Multiple examples and procedures for both MAC and PC are given. Because of this, there is an occasional slip in wording that is not accurate for one or the other, but does not negatively affect the material presented.
M. G. Seibel said
Well written, well illustrated. Information seems to be targeted toward the right audience based on the title. Exceeded expectations based on description. Thanks.
R. Roosa said
This book is chock full of great information. After a quick scan of the entire book I was excited to really delve into it in-depth in spite of the really lousy page design. On closer study, I was fairly appalled at the errors throughout this book. None of which are listed on the companion web site's errata page. When I'm following someone else's step by step work flow, I expect it to be correctly laid out for me. This book does not do that.
The largest problem with this book is that it seems to operate on the assumption that one is going to go through all of these processes only to have one's photographs appear better on the monitor's screen. The fact that to learn anything about printing one must read the "printing" chapter online is ludicrous.
All in all, a very good book information wise, graphically a disaster, and a true challenge to decode some of its step by step methodology. But seriously folks, we do all this work to our files so that we can print. This book falls flat.
FredM said
The author of the classic digital retouching and restoration handbook is back with an updated "digital darkroom" book for the latest version of your favorite image editor.
This one covers topics that really need explanations for the ambitious photographer/image editor. It covers RAW processing, workflow, image correction, and software options such as Lightroom and various plug-ins. You'll learn about color spaces, file preparation, and other essential topics. Although I expect that few readers of this book have ever actually worked in a chemical darkroom, they'll find the digital orientation of this book useful and informative.
William V. Courtright said
This review briefly covers two things: The book, The Creative Digital Darkroom, and the customer service experience I'm having with Amazon, O'Reilly and one of the book's authors, Katrin Eismann.
About me: I'm an amateur photographer and an engineer. I shot film with a Nikon FE2, then spent some time with a digital point & shoot. Now, I have a Nikon D90 and hope to do the things with a digital darkroom that I could not do in color film because I didn't have a chemical darkroom.
First, the book review. This is based upon a quick read. The book is 400 pages and has high information density. This is the sort of book that I read once to learn what is available to me, and then use it as a reference for deep dives. I spent a few weeks perusing books in local shops and the local library. Here's why I picked this one:
- It is a beautiful book that is well-illustrated. The photos are available online. The writing is clear and the examples are well thought out. The overall structure/organization makes good sense.
- The book does a good job of covering both technical (objective) and artistic (subjective) elements of "developing" a digital photo. To me, it felt like both subjects were covered well, and were not confused.
- On the objective side, you are taught what is technically good, and how you get there. The process can result in intermediate steps in which the picture looks worse than when the process began. The authors patiently explain the entire process for a series of varied examples. If you are looking for a book that informs at the level of, "slide the slider to adjust color", then this book is not for you. Personally, I found the level of depth to be at the appropriate level--a good bit of info I can put to immediate use, and a lot of info that will challenge me in a productive way to reach the next level of digital photography.
- On the subjective side, the amateur in me was introduced to a wide range of digital photographs that were developed in a way that was non-obvious (at least to me).
As for customer experience, I had a problem others here have recently posted about: the book arrived with a color jacket but low-quality b/w print inside. Because I had held several copies of this book in my hand prior to purchase, I was certain that something was clearly wrong. At the time of this writing, I can tell you:
- Amazon MAY be stocked with bad copies
- I contacted Amazon about a return and they were very accomodating--the process could not have been easier or more pleasant.
- I then contacted the book's publisher and one of the authors--they, too, were very helpful, offering to replace the book themselves.
- The Amazon replacement arrived, again in b/w. I am now returning the book to O'Reilly so that they can examine it. Katrin is sending me a replacement. They are going to great lengths to accomodate me in every manner. At this point, my principle emotion is that I feel bad for them having to sort out the apparent problem with Amazon's stock.
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