Click to view movie

This movie extract is from  Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop.

One of the top requests for Camera Raw and Lightroom has been to include perspective corrections, so that users can apply perspective corrections to raw images. It so happens there is already a method in Camera Raw and Photoshop that will allow you to correct the perspective of a raw photograph while keeping the image in its original raw file state. This isn’t exactly a hidden feature in Camera Raw, but this movie does demonstrate a workaround for correcting perspective of raw files while keeping them fully editable in Camera Raw. Here’s how it can be done.

Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.

Click here to view movie

This movie extract is from  Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop.

You know how the camera always seems to add 10 lbs.? You can shave those extra pounds away using Photoshop. This demo shows two methods of making people look thinner. And, if you do it with subtlety, you’ll never know that is was Photoshop that took those extra pounds off–and your clients will think you are a genius!

Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.

Click here to view movie

This movie extract is from  Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop.

Here is an interesting challenge that I was presented with recently. I shot the model shown above for an advertising job and was asked by the client to make sure that the skin tone and nails looked flawless. After they had seen the initial retouch work they also asked if I could clean up the hair outline. At first it looked like this would be impossible to achieve. After all, how on earth can one use the clone stamp or healing brush to tidy up the fine hair strands against a background which consisted of a busy wallpaper pattern? As it turned out, the solution to this problem was staring me in the face!

Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.

Click to view movie

Yep, there are already a lot of ways to convert a color image to grayscale in Photoshop or Camera Raw. But all of them except this technique mean your image is converted as a global correction. Using color channels as grayscale layers means you can use layer masks to alter the grayscale conversion and allows you to optimize for the best possible result. The technique allows shows how to re-convert your grayscale image back to a color image for the purposes of color toning.

Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.

This is a story about how Jeff Schewe and Martin Evening got together in Chicago last year to shoot a set of pictures especially for our new joint book ‘Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop‘.

The title is kind of self-explanatory. This is a brand new book in the Photoshop for Photographers series (published by Focal Press) and forms a masterclass type experience with two leading Photoshop experts. It’s a book aimed at intermediate to advanced-level users and assumes that the reader is already pretty familiar with the Photoshop interface and basic tools and there is therefore no need to have to explain the basics all over again plus color management etc. You can already find all that information in the main Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers book. This new title contains 400 pages of Photoshop techniques shown in step-by-step tutorial form.

The second on my two book odyssey is completed…and the first book is now shipping! Whew, I wasn’t sure I would ever get to say that. 

The image above is one of the images from the new book Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop which is due to be released in March 2009.

Press Release: BERKELEY, CALIF. (Aug. 25, 2008)— Peachpit today announced the publication of Lessons in DSLR Workflow with Lightroom and Photoshop , by seasoned photographer Jerry Courvoisier. This detailed guide, loaded with tips and techniques, delivers a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera workflow that allows readers to spend less time at their computer and more time behind the camera capturing great images. 

On Scott’s blog, Photoshop Insider, Scott has announced that all the book sales of his new Lightroom 2 book for Digital Photographers from today will be donated to the Spring of Hope organization that runs is building a care center for orphans in Kenya.

Now Scott isn’t just donating a portion of the proceeds, he’s donating the entire purchase price of all Lightroom 2 books sold today. Here’s a link to the story and a link to purchase the book from Kelby Training.

IMPORTANT: This opportunity to help out is available only today, Monday August 25th, 2008. Scott’s book is scheduled for delivery in early September. Not available with any other discounts. As always, Shipping & Handing is extra.

John Paul Caponigro (JP to his friends) has self-published a new book, ANTARCTICA drawn from his two photographic expeditions to, well, Antarctica.

The book has been published via Blurb, and online print on demand service. The printing is said to be equal to that of a traditionally published book. The page count is 64 and the size is 8×10 inches. The book sells for 34.95 for softcover and 49.95 for hardcover. Additional information can be found on JP’s blog.

Scientific Imaging with Photoshop: Methods, Measurement, and Output by Jerry Sedgewick

With so many photographers using Macintosh computers, it was high time that someone should write a book that was specifically designed to help photographers understand better how the Macintosh OSX system works and how to troubleshoot some of the common problems photographers face.

Press Release: TAMPA, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–If you want to use Adobe Photoshop like a pro, then you have to master the Photoshop tool that the pros rely on most – Layers.

That’s the rationale behind Layers: The Complete Guide to Adobe Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature – the latest book by world-class Photoshop instructor and author, Matt Kloskowski. Written in casual, easy-to-understand language, Layers shows Photoshop users of all skill levels the tips and techniques they not only need to succeed, but to excel.

Described by the author as, “the Photoshop book I wish had been around when I was learning Photoshop,” Layers covers such topics as working with and managing multiple layers, building multi-layer images, blending layers together, and layer masking in a clear, concise, fully-illustrated style that makes learning easy and fun. Additionally, the book delves into layers-based photo retouching and design techniques that save valuable time and produce stunning results.

Press Release: Berkeley, CA—February 6, 2008—For the fourth consecutive year, Peachpit author Scott Kelby has been recognized as the top-selling computer book author in the U.S. according to Nielsen BookScan data.

Kelby’s Peachpit titles continue to lead the pack with the number one iPod® book, The iPod Book: Doing Cool Stuff with the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, Fourth Edition; the number one digital photography book, The Digital Photography Book; and the number one Photoshop Lightroom book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers.

The Creative Digital Darkroom
By Katrin Eismann, Sean Duggan

This book takes photographers beyond the quick tips and gimmicky effects of many digital photography books. Author Katrin Eismann — an internationally acclaimed artist, bestselling author, and gifted educator — offers high-profile work, including her own, as examples for teaching photographers how to use the digital medium to create, edit, and output images that reflect their true vision.

Co-authored by photographer and teacher Sean Duggan, The Creative Digital Darkroom translates skills, concepts, and nomenclature of the traditional darkroom into digital solutions for photographers who sense that, despite the newness of the technologies at hand, there remains a timeless method for learning and practicing photography the right way.

This is not a Photoshop book per se, but it does focus on the photographic aspects of Photoshop, something other books claim to do but rarely have the discipline to accomplish.

Press Release: SEBASTOPOL, Calif. — “Raw data is the holy grail of digital photography,” said award-winning photographer and best-selling author Mikkel Aaland, when his book Photoshop CS2 Raw was published two years ago.

The same is still true today.

“Anyone who is serious about digital photography and wants to produce the best possible picture needs to shoot and process Raw,” notes Aaland in the introduction of his new book, Photoshop CS3 Raw (O’Reilly, $34.99 U.S.).

Aaland’s up-to-the-minute edition focuses on the important features of Adobe Photoshop CS3, including Camera Raw’s new retouching tools, expanded controls and ramped up sharpening features.

From authors Katrin Eismann and Sean Duggen comes a new book dedicated to creative digital imaging titled The Creative Digital Darkroom.

Due to be released in January of 2008, the book is now available for pre-order from Amazon (we hope Amazon has gotten over it’s “difficulties” dealing with pre-orders).

Real World Camera Raw for Adobe Photoshop CS3 written by Bruce Fraser and myself just hit #1 on Amazon’s category of Adobe Photoshop books! Yeah! Must have been that glowing (but biased review) Michael Reichmann of the Luminous Landscape posted today. Read the review here.

Thanks Michael! But wait, there’s more…

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.

Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 by Scott Kelby, the Photoshop user’s guide to the seven most important and essential techniques.

Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 breaks the Photoshop process down to just seven simple, yet powerful, techniques.

Scott begins each lesson with an untouched, original photo just as it came out of the camera and then takes the reader through each of the seven steps so they can see and learn The System in context.

Scott’s 7-Point System gives Photoshop users a road map that they can easily apply to each and every photo they open, so they know exactly where to start, what to do next, and so on until they have a beautiful finished print.

Photoshop CS3 for Forensics Professionals: A Complete Digital Imaging Course for Investigators
Written by George Reis

Digital imaging technology has been used in forensics since at least 1992, yet until now there has been no practical instruction available to address the unique issues of image processing in an everyday forensic environment.

Martin Evening, author of Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers has published an update to working with Adobe Camera Raw 4.1. This feature story is being published exclusively on PhotoshopNews and is an adaptation of some of the Lightroom-News stories that were published earlier in the summer to coincide with the announcement of the Lightroom 1.1 update. You can also download a printable PDF version of the Camera Raw 4.1 update from this site

Ok, I’m done…(finally)

I won’t bore you with the stories of redone screenshots and re-editing what I re-wrote, over and over (and over), but the good news is, last Monday, August 27th, I turned in the last chapter of Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3. I think Bruce would be pleased. (I would point you to a book link at Peachpit, if Peachpit had one yet-I’m working on that).

So, that means I’m finally coming up for air–just in time to hurry off next week to Photoshop World. As a result, I’m going to “ease” back into the daily grind of posting to PhotoshopNews–and there are some stories to tell (well, some I really can’t) about how I spent my summer vacation.

So, if you are going to Photoshop World next week, stop by and say HI! And now that the book’s done, start looking for stuff to show up here.

First copies of Martin Evening’s new book: Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers have just come off the press and are about to go on sale soon.

In preparation for the launch of this latest edition to the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers series, Martin has updated the book website to provide some sample pages and chapter extracts that you can download for free.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers is published by Focal Press and will be available from most major bookstores and the usual online booksellers such as Amazon US, Amazon UK and Barnes & Noble.

The following sample page extracts are made available in PDF form and you can also click on the links to download some of the images that have been used so that you can try some of the tips and tricks out for yourself.

skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies Written by Lee Varis

Achieving accurate skin tones is one of the most challenging tasks in digital photography. Master this challenge with professional photographer Lee Varis as he covers a range of skin: women and men, young and old, various tones, in-studio and outdoors, tattoos, and more.

Lee’s step-by-step tutorials and before-and-after illustrations demonstrate various techniques for topics such as digital-specific lighting challenges and what can and cannot be done in post-process.

A free CD-ROM accompanies the book and contains sample image files to use while following the tutorials, plus equipment recommendations and technical reference materials that enhance and reinforce the instruction.

To coincide with the official announcement of Photoshop CS3, Martin Evening has released a sample chapter from his forthcoming book: Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers, published by Focal Press.

The new edition of this best selling book should be hitting the streets in Spring of 2007, shortly after the official release of Photoshop CS3.

As a special perk for PhotoshopNews readers, Martin has made his Chapter 1: What’s New in Photoshop CS3 available for free download.

The 24 page PDF, outlines all the new features of Photoshop CS3 and Bridge 2, written from a user’s perspective. It offers an honest appraisal of what will be on offer in this new version of the program, if you really want to know what’s NEW!