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Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers is Martin Evening’s seminal work on Photoshop. Even though it can be of use to any photographer, this book on Photoshop is by a professional working photographer and written for professional photographers. Evening is a photographer who has been working with Photoshop for years as both an alpha and beta tester and to this end, the author has focused on the essential information that you need to know about Photoshop if you work in photography.
Adobe Photoshop CC For Photographers is really a reference book for both advanced amateur and professional photographers. It is a listing of every conceivable technique that a photographer may need to implement in the pursuit of creating digital photographic images using Adobe Photoshop. It contains 13 chapters and 816 pages. Because this book has grown over the years, certain segments have been removed from the hard copy of the book and been located online as PDF downloads. You can find out about the location of that information from the book.
Chapters One-Two are more of an introduction to the changes and new features that come with Adobe Photoshop CC as well as a guide to the physical layout of Photoshop interface. Since this is now part of the Creative Cloud, the method of installation as well as the frequency of updates has changed from prior editions. Here you will learn about how to navigate around Photoshop and Adobe Bridge You will also see how to configure Photoshop to optimize your computer system as well as what sorts of accessories are needed to help you in your work.
Chapter Three, “Camera Raw Image Processing,” has really grown especially in the past five to ten years. Since you now can process your JPEG and Tiff as well as your RAW images and do so much more with them, a significantly larger chapter is devoted to the subject. Chapter Four, “Sharpening and Noise Reduction,” takes a look at the practice of pre-sharpening your photos in Photoshop. Here the author takes a look at what type of images need pre-sharpening and the best methods, depending on if they are camera images as opposed to scanned images.
Chapter Five, “Image Editing Essentials,” now gets into specifics about editing a photograph outside of Camera Raw. Some of these techniques appear overlap with Camera Raw processing, but now you start to get into things like levels and curves that are important to know in Photoshop. Chapter Six, “Black and White,” takes you along the path from basic conversion from original color images into black and white and progresses on into more complex processes. It also goes into cross process looks as well as infrared effects, and other darkroom related techniques.
Chapter Seven, “Extending the Dynamic Range,” describes how range is really more important to image quality than the number of pixels that your image contains. This chapter examines how to get the greatest range of tones that your sensor can capture. Chapter Eight, “Image Retouching,” describes one of the things that Photoshop is really known for. In fact, when an image appears to be modified, the de facto term is “Photoshopped”, whether Photoshop was the tool used or not. Here you will learn some of the basic techniques which include working with the Clone Stamp tool, the Healing brush, the Patch tool, Liquefy tool, and many more.
Chapter Nine, “Layers, Selections, and Masking,” teaches you to easily composite images that use different image elements to create something totally new. This all begins with making selections, and working with channels. Chapter 10, “Blur, Optical and Lighting Effects Filter,” gets into one of the more powerful features of Photoshop; the plug-in filters. Instead of trying to look at all of the hundred or so filters that in Photoshop, you will focus on the main filters that are useful for photographic work. He also shows you how you can use the Smart Filters features to extend your filtering options.
Chapter 11, “Image Management” examines the use of Adobe Bridge to help you manage your images within Photoshop. This version of Bridge CC has some notable changes such as Synchronized windows and the Output module being removed. This chapter examines these changes and how you can still use prior versions at least for now. Chapter 12, “Print Output,” deals with the print output process. Here you will look at what it takes to get images to print so that they look like what you have on the screen. Other issues covered include how to use soft proofing. Chapter 13, “Automating Photoshop,” looks at how you can speed your work by using keyboard shortcuts, creating actions, and how to use scripts to automate Photoshop.
As with prior versions, you have to keep in mind that while some of the images that are available online, not all of the images are included for you to work with. This is because some of them, especially the ones with the models, are of restricted use, and cannot be given away. There are also tutorials, additional tips, and a keyboard reference guide available online as well.
To me Adobe Photoshop CC For Photographers is still just about the most important reference book I have. It covers every aspect of Photoshop in detail and presents them with an eye toward the photographer. It covers both the Mac and Windows in a clear and concise manner. For intermediate and advanced Photoshop users, it is the definitive word on Photoshop. For the beginner, along with other sources for additional foundation, it will make you that advanced user. For anyone who is serious about photography and Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers is a must have.
