Book Reviews

I began using Photoshop around version 5 and I think I know it pretty well. But Photoshop is wide and deep. To get the most out of it after you install Photoshop, it's wise to spend some time with the manual or a good book. The learning experience will take some time: days, weeks, months. Martin Evening's book will make the journey easier. He is a top notch photographer who has for years rubbed shoulders with Adobe's developers of Photoshop.

I recently won the book, Masters Collection: Volume 1, Digital Painting Techniques published by Focal Press at the Digital Media Arts Group monthly raffle.  I was really thrilled that I won this book because I wanted to learn more about digital painting and using my Wacom Tablet.  Focal Press has published an entire series of books devoted to the art of digital painting.  This volume is the first in a series.

Pulling from the realm of artists from all over the world, Focal Press has collected the best of the best to cover a wide variety of topics in art and digital painting.  Focal Press, as many other publishers do, has made a good group of resources available for download for you to use when following along in the book.

The book covers eight chapters:

After reading this book I am left with very mixed thoughts about it.

To start off, the book is very well made, printed and has some excellent examples of the author's method and photography. Unfortunately that may be its biggest fault. The author, George Barr - who based the book on his essays on the website Luminous Landscape - does indeed provide a path to developing your eye, creativity and perspective, but with a pinpoint focus on abstract industrial and landscape images to the exclusion of any other photographic dicipline.

Deke McClelland presents an entirely new way to approach masking in Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One.  The idea of using an image to select itself is a wonderful concept and can significantly reduce the amount of time put in to creating selections.  Deke starts out thoroughly explaining the existing selection tools, such as the magic wand and magnetic lasso, even giving special advice on when and how to use them properly.  The real meat of the book comes a few chapters in, starting with composting with blend modes and going on to selecting with channels and other more advanced techniques.  I had the privilege to sit through Deke's tutorial on making selections with the calculations command at Photoshop World 2010.  He explained in great detail how to properly use the technique, it is explained equally as well in this book. 

I've been managing projects for a number of years now, so I know how the process works in the real-world in comparison to theory. I read this book looking for flaws since I have seen so much out there that sounds great but adds more overhead and little or no value to a typical project.

This book has a couple of things that truly impressed me:

Anyone will tell you that Photoshop is a monster program. I would consider myself a long time and proficient PSD user and yet I still discover or rediscover features on a regular basis. Fortunately PSD CS4 The Missing Manual will help you tame the beast one tasty treat at a time! This was my first foray into the Missing Manual Series and I was not disappointed. It is a hefty companion at nearly 800 pages but nothing less could begin to tame the beast. However, any would-be dragon slayer need not fear! The Missing Manual is for beginners and seasoned veterans alike. The author starts with the very basics- the user interface and tools and builds mightily from there. No stone is left unturned. For those who are no stranger to PSD there is still plenty to be gleaned from this rich manual. The book is very well organized so you can jump to what interests you most. The author provides plenty of information on shortcuts and little known features to challenge your experience.

Last month at our monthly DMAG meeting, my name was selected to choose a book from an array of topics.  When I picked up the book titled: Zen and Magic of Photography by Wayne Rowe; I was immediately attracted to the titled then later the images inside. I selected the book because I was curious what the author might share about how the state of ZEN could be achieved in the creation of art in any form.

One might ask, exactly what is ZEN?  Well, even after reading Wayne Rowe's book, I am still not certain I know ... but I will attempt to translate.  However, for a better definition of ZEN click here: http://www.logoi.com/notes/whatis_zen.html

Good overview of Power Point design fundamentals, both from a design and content point-of-view, including real-world examples. The underlying philiosophy of the book could be stated as "A Power Point presentation should be simple and support the communication, not be the communication", i.e., your audience is likely only going to either listen to the speaker or read the PPT slides, not both. Less is more.

Part of my job involves developing PPT slide decks, and the most practical section of the book for me would be the pages full of sample diagram templates. It's easy to fall back on the same tired old Excel bar and pie charts. The book includes a lot of alternatives that I will definitely be looking at for future projects.  There is also a Chart Makeover section with good ideas on how to spruce up boring charts.

The amount of information contained within the pages of this book is astounding.  Real World Indesign CS4 is fourteen chapters of workspace, page layout, text, type, graphics, color, printing... the list goes on and on.  The knowledge I have gleaned from this text fully encompasses lessons learned from the classroom and online.  This book also covers scripting and XML, which I had very little knowledge in association with InDesign previously.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything, but I am learning.  Real World Adobe InDesign CS4 could be viewed in many ways, whether as a fully educational text, to a reference guide for techniques that may have slipped one's mind.  The fact of the matter remains this book is an, if not the, definitive text on Adobe InDesign CS4.  Buy this book, you will not regret it.

Digital Painting in Photoshop is a great book for anyone who is interested in turning their digital images into classical works of art. As a proficient Photoshop user, I thought this book was very well written and very easy to read. At 236 pages, it goes into significant detail without dragging things out. The author has included easy to follow instructions and plenty of screenshots to show readers the way.

The first chapters cover the brush and pattern tool in great detail and explain how to go about creating your own. It goes on to explain the different paper textures that are available by default and how to create new textures. The book covers a variety of wet and dry media techniques such as pastel, graphite, oil and watercolor. All of which can be achieved primarily though the use of Photoshop's textures and brushes.