It’s Shipping–Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3
Contrary to what you may have heard about a delay, Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3 is shipping–NOW! And, boy, am I happy.
RWCR CS3 (I kinda like to shorten the title a bit because I’ve gotten real tired of typing the whole phrase, over and over) was a labor of love that was done to honor the lasting memory of Bruce Fraser, my co-author, business partner and good friend. And while he isn’t around to see the end result, I have a pretty good idea that Bruce would be pleased.
I kept a lot of Bruce and did a good job (or so I’m told) of updating the book for Camera Raw 4.x, which as you know is arguably the largest and most impressive update yet to Thomas Knoll’s little raw processing plug-in. In fact, Thomas reviewed the new chapters and made sure I didn’t screw up hardly at all. I also owe special thanks to Zalman Stern, the “other” engineer on Camera Raw who answered a lot of my really stupid questions and actually admitted that several “inconsistencies” I found with Camera Raw while writing were actually bugs and not me going crazy.
And no, if you DID pre-order the book from Amazon and you received a message saying the book was delayed until December, well, Amazon is wrong. I don’t know what Amazon was thinking (apparently it was some accidental automated message) but I’m here to tell you that the book was always scheduled for “Fall 2007″ and I would say that a shipping date of November 8th, 2007 falls under the heading of “on time”.
Just to prove that the book is finished (and give an insight to the printing process), I’ve even written a little story about my adventures down to Courier Printing in Kendallville, Indiana. No, I didn’t ride my motorcycle as I had planned. The forecast was for rain and I’m not stupid. It was a very interesting trip and rather impressive to watch this huge, honking press churning out really well reproduced images from both Bruce and myself. See the story under the PhotoshopNews.com Featured Stories category: Printing RWCR CS3.
I’m also planning on writing a story about how I handled the color management for the book. I did all the separations after a couple rounds of color proofs and profile making.
So, I hope you get the chance to check the book out–or, better yet buy one or two! You can put them around the house for easier reading options.
Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3
By Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe
Paperback: 384 pages
Dimensions 7-1/2 X 9-1/8
Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (November 8, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0321518675
ISBN-13: 978-0321518675
List Price: $44.99
Street price: about $35.00
Additional information on www.RealWorldCameraRaw.com
The RWCR CS3 cover includes photos shot by Jeff on the most recent Antarctic Photo Expedition with Michael Reichmann of the Luminous Landscape in February, 2007. See the story about the 2007 trip and additional shots from 2005.
November 8th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Jeff,
A hearty congratulations. I bet you’re glad to see the back of it though!
November 9th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Congrats Jeff, I’m sure you made Bruce proud. Looking forward to getting my hands on it.
Greg
November 9th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Jeff, congratulations on the book! I’m certainly glad that you decided to carry on Bruce’s work. Looking forward to seeing more of your Antarctic photos – was almost this time in 2005 we left for the first round!
November 12th, 2007 at 7:48 am
I’ve been waiting patiently to read this one Jeff. I read Bruce’s book on CS2 and found it very very helpful! I’m sure you’ve done a very awesome job! Congrats to you.
Roland
http://www.rolandyoung.com
November 13th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Jeff, I pre-ordered from Amazon and received the notification about the delay. On reading your post I sent a query to Amazon asking for a revised shipping date.
This is part of their reply received on November 12:
Our latest information indicates that “Real World Camera Raw with
Adobe Photoshop CS3″ has not yet been released and the expected
release date is not known.
Paul
November 13th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I’ve passed along your comments (as well as a strongly worded comment of my own) to my publisher who informs me that the first Amazon US shipment is already on its way to their warehouses and should be received before the end of this week. From there, Amazon will then (supposedly) take care of informing people about their previous mistake (I’ll believe that when I see it)…
This has already happened to several authors-Amazon creating a ship date out of whole cloth and then informing pre-order buyers of a delay because THIER original mistaken ship date was wrong. It seems to be an automated system that nobody at Amazon can figure out how to fix.
See this post by Scott Kelby from Nancy Runzel A Note From The Book Publisher of my “Seven Point System”
So, hey, if Amazon screwed up Scott’s book, then I’m in good company (I guess).
November 14th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I received a similar notice from Amazon after pre-ordering the book, and cancelled the order. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any better luck when trying to order the book directly from Peachpit.
I logged in, added ‘Real World Camera Raw with CS3′ to the cart, went to checkout — and the Peachpit online store stalled repeatedly, at least four times yesterday and twice this morning. I sent an e-mail to Peachpit about this yesterday, and received no response.
I give up. When I can get the book, I’ll get it.
Mr. Schewe, I think you may have a legitimate beef with your publisher. Prospective customers shouldn’t have to suffer like this. You’ve done your part, it seems. They should do theirs.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Hi Rhaytna,
I’m Jeff’s publisher and I apologize for the inconveniences you’ve experienced. If you’re still experiencing problems ordering — and this goes for all PSN readers — please send me a personal email (nar@peachpit.com) with your complete contact info/mailing address and number of copies you’d like to order and I will ensure your order is expedited. Please put RWCR/PSN in the subject header, so I can spot them quicker. It pains me to no end to think that Jeff and my team here in Berkeley, CA have worked so very hard to to get the book finished, only to have customers experience such problems. The fundamental issue with Amazon, as I understand it today, is that even if some of their warehouses have it in stock, if all warehouses haven’t received it and flipped the switch to start shipping, an automated response with an algorithmic setting pushes the date of expected delivery out a number of weeks, and it is that communication that is misleading. There is no way to block that message except manually, which is what we’ve asked Ammazon to do asap for RWCR. But because this has been happening with a number of titles of late, we and Amazon are changing the process and I’ve been assured it will be fixed as soon as possible, and I’m checking in on this daily. I appreciate everyone’s patience with this process. –Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel, Publisher, Peachpit Press and New Riders
November 24th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
First, Ms. Aldrich-Ruenzel, thanks very much for taking the time to reply.
I made several more attempts to order the book through Peachpit after 11/14, and each time encountered the problem described in my post above. And I’m afraid that your staff didn’t respond to the 11-13 e-mail described above, either.
I found the book through another vendor and have placed my order.