Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures...

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 384 pages
• Published by: Peachpit Press; Pap/Cdr edition August 18, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0321356780
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0321356789
• Book Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 2.2 pounds

Book Description
With a mantra like “There are no terrible originals, only terrible Photoshop operators,” you know best-selling author Dan Margulis is serious about exposing people to the magic of Photoshop. Nowhere is that magic more apparent than in its LAB color processing capabilities, which can make even the subtle canyon colors of rock, sand, and dirt come to vivid life. However, you may be wary of taming the complex beast. Here’s your guide! In these pages, Dan shows that you can derive enormous benefits from just a few simple tools and techniques. He also demonstrates that you can take these techniques as far as you wish, employing the power-user features he describes in later chapters. Starting with canyons and progressing to faces, you will see just how quickly you can begin improving your images by following the “recipes” included here. Each chapter includes a sidebar with review questions and exercises as well as a “Closer Look” section that looks at some of the principles behind the techniques. A CD includes exercise files.


About The Author
Dan Margulis is known as "the experts' expert on the logical and effective ways to make any image look its best" (Design Tools Monthly) and "the father of digital prepress" (Scott Kelby). In 2001, he was one of the first three individuals—and the only writer—to be named as a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame. In announcing this election, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals said, "Dan's ability to reduce complicated concepts to words that users can understand and his insistence on dealing with real-world relevance have made him today's most influential voice in color reproduction."

Reader Reviews
"Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace" by Dan Margulis is definitely worth reading and is most entertaining. I don't agree that it is "the most revolutionary book on digital imaging ever written" and it is certainly not a comprehensive look at Photoshop CS2. If you want comprehensive, get the gold standard: "Real World Photoshop CS2. But there are some interesting gems buried in here that might improve your digital output. To me the biggest discovery was the idea of using curves in LAB color space to increase color variability. We are not just talking saturation here, but rather color separation. His explanation for why we want this is that cameras lack the sense of simultaneous contrast common to most human beings. When we see a lot of similar colors in close proximity, we break them apart.  He shows how we can do that in Photoshop. It makes a big difference on some images. His writing style is quirky, intelligent and often funny. That helps for such complex ideas. I think this book should only by used by advanced readers. He relishes taking positions that are against the mainstream. For example, he argues that for photographic images high-bit editing is worthless.  Likewise, he does not illustrate the use of Adjustment Layers or Layer Masks which are part of the standard workflow for most advanced users. What is so wonderful about all his ideas, which go against the current accepted wisdom, is that he makes you question what you are doing. He presents his arguments using concise logic. It made me frequently pause and question my workflow. Bottom line: This book should be at the top of the reading stack for Advanced Photoshop users. Learning how to increase color variability alone makes it worthwhile. Henry Domke. Comment | | (Report this)