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by David Blatner
and Bruce Fraser
Some books on Adobe Photoshop attempt to be judged on
weight alone. These books usually attempt to be cover every
aspect of Photoshop in a single volume, bulging more biceps
(while holding the book) than brains (while reading the book)
because the relevant material is not covered in any significant
depth. Unfortunately, much of the time these books wind up
feeling like tepid rehashes of the Photoshop user manual.
Luckily, David Blatner and Bruce Fraser
have co-authored Real World Photoshop 5, one of the few aftermarket
Photoshop books that attempts to cover every aspect of Photoshop
in fair depth...and ultimately succeeds. Blatner and Fraser
have had a long relationship with Photoshop (and other DTP
and pre-press programs), and their experience shows in the
book's content. The authors clearly have a pre-press background
and focus, making their book most useful to those with similar
interests. But most of the core issues and concepts of Photoshop
are covered in a decent amount of detail, making Real World
Photoshop 5 a great value for anyone needing a comprehensive
guide.
Real World Photoshop 5 is a detailed overview
of Photoshop's many functions and capabilities, with a focus
on using Photoshop in the world of print (although it does
include a decent Web graphics section). The authors' combination
of feature explanations and obscure time-saving tips is well-balanced,
covering everything from fun easter eggs to image compositing.
The reader is spared the indignity of slogging through the
lightweight, "gee-whiz" techniques and failed comedic writing
that plagues many books in this genre. The tone is professional,
yet accessible, and the knowledge imparted within is practical
and useful. A working Photoshop professional would do well
to add this to their library.
Arguably the best chapter in the book
is the one covering color settings. Over 10% of the book is
devoted specifically to the proper configuration of Photoshop
5's new color management and setup engine. Some novices will
still scratch their heads at the discussions of color theory,
but this is a topic one can easily "grow into" as one becomes
a more experienced Photoshop user, and more experienced Photoshopper
will enjoy the detailed information and clean, accurate diagrams.
Blatner and Fraser are firm believers
in extensive use of color management systems. Advanced Photoshop
users with such resources as closed-loop production workflows,
hardware calibration equipment or "smart" monitors that pass
data with the host computer, will gain the most benefit from
the pair's considerable color management knowledge. However,
they do offer advice on simpler color management tasks, like
getting accurate monitor profiles from the Adobe Gamma control
panel/wizard.
Their approach to the sticky topic of
RGB color settings is to adopt a color model which they dub
"BruceRGB," as a compromise between the too-wide ColorMatch
RGB and the too-narrow Adobe RGB color spaces. While BruceRGB
is a decent and scientifically sound color space for editing
RGB images (and extremely relevant for anyone setting up a
Photoshop production environment from scratch), the authors
do not spend much time discussing preserving legacy settings
and color files from previous versions of Photoshop (a problem
common to many long-time Photoshop users).
Neither Blatner nor Fraser are fans of
using the Lab color in conjunction with RGB color while doing
production work, something many Photoshop artists do on a
daily basis. They base their argument on quantization errors
in which some adjacent RGB colors will scale improperly to
Lab's color gamut, losing color distinction. While objectively
true, whether or not this is, to borrow a phrase, a "real
world" problem when dealing with photographic imagery (which
rarely has subtle gradations of color without stochastic film
grain) is a qualitative argument that has to be based on the
user's needs and the particular image on which they are working.
Ironically, in all of their informed discussions
of color in Real World Photoshop 5, it's too bad that
there aren't more color illustrations in their book. Whether
or not this has to do with the size, and cost, of the book,
this is a minor quibble, and does not detract from the coverage
of these topics. Real World Photoshop 5 will be of
the greatest use to those doing print and pre-press production
work, although any Photoshop user can and will learn from
this hefty tome.
Peachpit Press, US$44.99. ISBN 020135375X.
Real
World Photoshop 5
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